A CZ American, either 452 or 455. Or an old Winchester 69A, 72, etc. As suggested a used Anschutz. With that budget there are loads of options.

He won’t outgrow any of those. The only difficulty will be convincing him to stick with it when he is 15 and wants something “better”.

Anybody who seriously concerns themselves with the adequacy of a Big 7mm for anything we hunt here short of brown bear, is a dufus. They are mostly making shidt up. Crunch! Nite-nite!

Stolen from an erudite CF member.