Wild one has said some good stuff. Don’t worry about loading up on the top shelf gear just yet. You could drop $1000 on the best stuff only to find that you just can’t get into hunting. I started off 6 years ago with a $300 rifle, $100 set of binos and some $20 wool pants. I’ve been slowly upgrading since then but the point is you don’t need all the fancy gear right away.

As for rifle, savages are accurate but sloppy. But might work well for you if your budget doesn’t allow for anything else. That $300 rifle I mentioned earlier was a savage in .30-06 and I dropped a bear and a moose with it. .308 is a fine calibre but I personally would go with .30-06 or .270. I don’t know why but it seems like the .308 has fallen out of popularity the last couple years.