I've never hear ANYONE say a 30-30 was too much gun for a white tail. In fact, More game has fallen to the 30-30 than any other cartridge, with 30-06 slowly cathing up. In fact a good lever action 303-30 is the gun MOST of us started with , however its doesn't really fit you "flat shooting" criteria.
The "package gun" I described is usually a savage model 110c, available at wal-mart or k-mart. You rarely will spend more than $400 on a rifle, scope, mount, rings, and triggerlock.
You know Rigby I've never seriously fired "iron sites" at those ranges on a paper target. I've shot bowling pins, tin cans, milk jugs, etc etc at that range with open sights. Just out of curiousity, do you use military "peep" sights, buckhorn sights or?? I've always preferred "buckhorn" sights because you can "look over" the front sight for a snap shot and I seem to be able to "hold" better than with military apeture sights.
10 rounds at 100 yards, slow fire at a 25 yard pistol target huh? (Sounds like a job for a marlin lever gun.) Lets set our "comparison date" for Dec. 1 (third season opens nov 1 and the ranges are Jam packed, but after season it will open up again) ... maybe we can get someone to host jpegs of our targets and post them dec 1 in the "competitive shooting" forum??
sound like a good idea guys??
Dr.Rob