As you guys know I'm pretty new to firearms and haven't handled to many so that's a hard question for me to answer, but right now I'd have to say my first choice would be a Springfield M1A.

With that in mind, a mini-14 would be the ideal rifle for me because I wanted a more compact M1A, but I'm learning about different calibers and haven't completely settled on .223 yet. I've been reading with the mini-30 (7.62x39), it hard to get good magazines and it doesn't shoot the real cheap wolf/surplus stuff as well as the saiga.

Everything keeps pointing back to the Saiga for me, affordable and reliable. The 7.62x39 and .223 are both under $350, whereas the .308 is $510. I do plan to pick up M1A eventually so with the .308 saiga I'll have ammo ready to go, but can't really afford .308 after shipping + ammo right now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />