I've been impressed with my Thompson CenterCompass and Savage rifles.

I know a couple of 11 and 12 year olds who have thousands; from working, not handouts.

Tikka III, it is a tack driver right out of the box. Get whatever caliber you prefer, they are a light weight rifle, so depending on your body build and your reaction to recoil you might want one of the lighter calibers. however, I have the rifle in 300 Win Mag and the recoil is not bad at all.

Regarding scopes and your budget; buy the rifle first and worry about the scope later. If you want an affordable scope that will give you good service look at Swift scopes, they are a Japanese scope (they were when I bought mine) they are durable, and a very good buy for the money. I bought one nearly 20 years ago and put it on a 375H&H magnum, it's on my "loaner rifle" but it still works just like the day I bought it. Upgrade to a Leupold or some high end scope later.

3yrs ago I bought my son a Browning A Bolt III chambered in 243win. It’s accurate and he shoots it well. I think they are going for the neighborhood of 699 from the bass pro shops thanksgiving flyer I threw away on Wednesday.

Bearcat - never said I was selling anything for $700.

An 11 year old asking unknown adults for advice on buying a firearm is a bit absurd.
Use? Supervision? Training? Skills?
And SAFETY!
If he is going to dream, dream big!

Not many rifles out there that wont shoot 250 to 300 yards with enough accuracy to kill deer So take your pick

As for budget rifles, I prefer the Mossberg Patriot over the others like the Savages because they have a nice wood stock. I have one in 25-06 I've been using the last couple years without any hiccups.

Its really just personal choice when it comes to rifles, they all work.

As far as my "favorite", it is and has been a Remington 700.

I bought a Tikka a year ago. Good gun but not a tack driver. T3x stainless in 270. Tried 4 different commercial loads. It's right around that one inch group at at a 100yds with premium ammo. Which will do the job but nothing to brag about by today's standards. If I get another on I'm leaning towards trying a weatherby vanguard.

You could probably find a good quality used rifle and scope on a buy and sell forum. Especially after deer season or just after Christmas. Some of my favourite rifles were bought used

Well I got my first bear at 2 1/2 years old...With a Big Medicine.405

And changed my own diaper too !

Did I read that right? OP is 11 years old? If so, nothing is going to happen without approval of at least one parent. They would have some say in this and opinion too.

Past that, in most parts of MO, I suspect there are upwards of 100 suitable idle guns resting in gun safes and behind bedroom and closet doors within 10 miles of just about anywhere. A good kid would have no trouble obtaining the loan of one of those from family, friends or neighbors until such time as he had enough experience to make an informed decision.

Kid would also need to know that each time he pulls the trigger, each shot is going to cost him somewhere between $1 and $2 per BANG. Takes a lot of practice to ethically anchor deer at 200 yards, so not a trivial thing.

Sort of a related story, up at the farm, a neighbor's grandson took an interest in trapping, and was getting pretty good and nabbing coons with DP's. Have moved up to those from cages. His reputation was spreading. Neighbor dropped by in Aug and I asked about the kid, as I was set to give him a small selection of 1.5's, 110's, etc to expand his repertoire. He said he had quit trapping. Not because of money......there was none. He couldn't stomach trapping and killing animals for no good reason. Self taught ethics. Pretty impressive for a kid that age. These kids are out there and worthy of our help.

I would look on the used racks. FEW rifles get very many round shot through them and you may find something nice with a decent scope. Especially after season goes out and it's time to buy Xmas presents for the kids. And when the after Christmas bills start rolling in and the economy getting bad things like guns get sold when people need money.

Take your time there is no hurry there is a year tell next deer season.

My favorite rifles are Rem 700s. My most accurate is a plain 270 ADL.

You can easily build your own AR-15 or AR-10 platform rifle for that these days

When I was 11 I was teaching my self how to trap and hunt,, no one in my family was an outdoors person. Just because you weren't capable of doing something at a young age doesn't mean that others aren't capable.
Perhaps this guys folks aren't outdoors folks, makes perfect sense that he would be asking for advice on this forum. It's not like the kid is going to go out and buy a rifle without his parents involvement.

.243 is a sweet caliber and easy on a young man. I like the Rem 700 and Ruger 77

Young man look at a 308 gread caliber plenty of ammo available everywhere light recoil and it kills deer. And guy use it to shoot steel out to 1000 yards

Stop throwing crazy calibers out there that the kid can't find ammo for !! Get you a savage axis with a vortex scope in 270 caliber. Kill anything you want to hunt. Buy them all day long on sale for 379 bucks. Take therest and buy more traps or another rifle.

I am kinda. My brothers are all "warm-weather hunters". lol