I'm not sure what a 204 ruger costs to shoot, but it's been seemingly very good at fairly long range while being adequate for varmints. There is a video on YouTube of a guy with one doing some pretty amazing shooting. Otherwise, a variant of 308 like a 7mm-08 or 6.5 creedmoor would be ideal. You can get 308 components cheap and neck brass down to 7mm.


I'm gonna tell you this much though, DON'T get a round just because it has the cheapest possible round selection. If anything, choose based on availability because you will very quickly start buying premium components and cost savings over other rounds go out the door. The accuracy/precision bug is expensive. If you don't want it, dont buy a gun that allows you to do it. :-)