Of the current crop of econo rifles on the market, I favor the Marlin X7 / XS7 rifles. My real preference though is for used commercial mauser variants. There are plenty of sub $400 Zastava variants (Interarms MK X, Parker Hale, Charles Daly, etc) as well as FNs ( JC Higgins, Westernfield) and Husqvarna ( Check Simpsons Ltd).