Your frugal fixed-income friend could buy a $250 Marlin XS7 from CDNN and Hornady American Whitetail ammo for about $22 per box. That would get him a good shooting rifle and good shooting ammo, then all he would need is a Leupold VX-1 3-9x40 and a set of 1" Weaver-style rings with which to mount it on the base that comes with the rifle.
