Bought a nice Tikka Hunter .243, beautiful wood. It got marked up a bit on its first hunt and that drove me nuts. So now I use a Savage Axis and I feel much more comfortable about banging it around. Keep the pretty guns for the range, and use the beaters in the field.
I shoot an 18" Wilson Combat .204 barreled AR out to 400 yards pretty good with a Leupold 6-18 VX2. Geisselle SSE trigger is a huge help. No recoil, Dogtown ammo is relatively cheap if you don't reload. Mags can be picky, so test them out ahead of time. I've had the best luck with 20 rd PMAGs...
Breakfast tacos individually wrapped in foil, just throw them on some coals to heat up in the morning
Sausage or hot dogs prepared the same way (they also heat up nicely on a propane cabin heater)
Dinty Moore canned stew
Steak, venison, or hog served with white bread
Chili
Fried Spam and egg...