I’m buying a kid in the family his first deer/antelope/elk rifle as well. He has a 223 for plinking, so this is just a hunting rifle.
There’s nothing wrong with a 308 - for anything to 500 yards the elk wouldn’t know the difference between it and most rounds.
Every week at the used gun rack at Cabelas there’s one of these blued Howa 1500 with the Hogue over molded stock in very good condition for $300 to $350. I don’t like plastic stocks, but the rubber over molding and the shape feel good in the hand. Hogue grips have a great reputation for being long lasting, so this shouldn’t be any different. Howa has a solid reputation since they first came out in the 1980s. This is just a good basic rifle. In 270 this will be a fine rifle to 500 yards if the shooter is up to it. Leupold steel dual dovetail mounts are rock solid simple and will never fail, so they are a good match to the rifle.
That brings the cost to $450ish.
For a scope, the $350 SWFA 2.5x10 is a basic scope that isn’t perfect in low light, but for 95% of hunting situations will work just fine. 2.5x is ideal for still hunting timber where shots will be close and 10x will work well for banging steel plates out as far as your range is long. I’ll electrical tape it at 6x while he’s learning, and that will easily take game and ring plates to 500 yards. A neoprene scope protector is $20.
This brings the whole thing including tax to under $900. I’ll pick up a $200 Sig 2500 rangefinder and good quality soft case to go with the rifle and a few hundred rounds of practice ammo. Still, that’s only $1,600ish - buy a good meat hauling pack with the rest. I’d bet a steak dinner in a fancy place with those strange warm wet towels, that on day one the young shooter with this setup will be ringing at least the 400 yard plate.
