depending on what your wanting it for..... if you wanna learn to shoot then the 10/22 if you want a good defence gun .... rugar if thats the choice... the cz i think are in that price range and are a rather good gun, i believe the cz75 has a 22 scout kit you could get in the future... to save money on training ammo. personaly i would pick up a savage in 308/30.06 as a scout rifle set up... if your in cali there are legal variants of the sks that should be in your price range as well.... your dropping the cash go look around a few place and figure out what your need is then get the best you can for what you can aford... even if that means saving up.... but i just dropped the same amount of cash on a knife i picked up a buck mark for...

so short answer the loaded gun is the right choice....