What distances are you going to be shooting?

If you are really dying to get a bolt gun, I would get something inexpsensive like the mosin and then learn about the various aspects of longer range shooting. Like what caliber you are going to settle on, how to hold the rifle properly while prone, how to use your iron sights at distance, breathing control, learn about elevation and windage adjustments and the impact this has on a shot at a given distance etc. If you are still interested in the hobby, then save your duckets for something like a Savage 10FP-LE model rifle with a Super Sniper scope or similar, quality bases and rings at the entry level (~$1200) or for a bit more a Rem 700 with a lupy vari-xIII + or similar quality scope (~$1700). If you get a Rem 700 or Savage used, try to have someone go with you (or perhaps you know) who knows how to inspect a barrel. In my experience, these 2 setups are accurate and the scopes go back to zero. Then you can go nuts from there and spend billions of dollars.

Read, research and make sure you understand what you are getting in to with scopes. You can really go nuts on a 14x plus power scope just to find out you don't need that much magnification. If you can take a precision rifle class or even a hunting class, you should get some valuable insight before spending a wad of cash. If you can find a local hunter or someone who has been shooting at longer distances for a while, they might have some good info and insight.

Edited to add this link http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/23-10/ and although it's targeted at military folk there is some good info in here especially chapter 2 & chapter 3. I probably have some student handouts from various precision rifle classes I could mail you as well. I just have to find them.