Take a look at the Ruger M77 Hawkeye Guide rifle. 20 inch barrel, heavy sporter contour, threaded barrel, muzzle brake, chambered in 30-06 or 300 WinMag, and it has adjustable open sights, so if you do drop it on the scope from the stand, your hunt's not over. Its more than accurate enough for shots to 600 yards and it has a laminated stock with stainless steel action and barrel. Cost is suggested retail of $1275.00. You'll have enough left over for a pretty good scope. Most of the time, it'll cost $150 to $200 less. You might also want to look at the Remington 700 in any of several calibers. I have four of them, two in .300WM, one(my favorite) in .35 Whelen, and one varmint model in 308. They will shoot quite well, and are good 800 yard rifles out of the box. Both the Rugers and the Remingtons are really hard to break, too. I'd suggest the BDL as a tree stand rifle because it has back-up open sights. Remington's been around a long time, and both Remington and Ruger know how to make good, strong, accurate rifles. Two of my Remingtons are just ADLs with blind magazines. They're both 300 WinMags. The stocks are synthetic, but stiff. The rifles are accurate and shoot less than an inch at 100 yards. The only thing I had to do to them was lighten the trigger and insure it was at a safe pull. They're meat and potatoes, but they work and they're accurate. Also, if you get an ADL or a SPS in Remington, you have money to put in a Timney trigger and a $1000.00 scope on it and still be under your budget.
