1. Simply hitting a deer don't cut it ... not even close! Despite the size of a deer, your intended target is its vitals ... about an 8in circle. I've never seen anyone with a bench and a pile of sandbags out at their deer-stand. Use them at the range to be sure your scope is dialed correctly, then ignore them. The idea you might be able to hold nearly as steady by bracing your arm against a tree is ridiculous. Practice shooting off-hand ... get good at that ... then take advantage of whatever help you can in the field.
2. A deer is not a wild boar ... it is not an elk ... and it is not a moose. .30-30 is a particularly weak cartridge. Yet, the .30-30 has a proven track record ... and is effective on deer out to 200yd. There is much many could learn by studying the choice of .30-30. It's recoil could not possibly be considered violent ... making flinch almost non-existent ... making accuracy among the best ... despite the .30-30's lack of inherent accuracy. This is not to say that one can't be successful with anything but a .30-30. But, rather, that with almost no practice (which pertains to a great many would-be deer hunters), one might be most successful with a .30-30.
3. Buying a new rifle with the intent to practice with it is one thing ... actually practicing with it, in an effective manner, is quite another. Buying a new rifle whose typical field-grade ammo costs twice as much as another comparable choice will go a long way to keeping that rifle away from the range. Simply put, if field-grade ammo for your rifle costs much over $0.50/rd ($1.00/rd being way too much), it's a poor choice.
4. Handloading will go a long way to saving money ... particularly on otherwise expensive factory ammo. However, like practicing, intending to handload, and actually handloading are two very different things. Also, completely regardless of caliber (even pistol vs. rifle), an initial investment into handloading (no bullets, no brass, no primers, and no powder) will cost $200 - $500 (that kinda money buys a lot of factory ammo).5. Keeping a 4in group, at 200yd, off-hand, at the range, with any rifle is quite a feat. With your heart pounding, and a deer in your sights, keeping an 8in group, off-hand, in the field, with any rifle takes skill ... period. Seven major factors will prevent you from obtaining this skill anytime soon ... 1. expensive field-grade ammo ... 2. excessive recoil ... 3. excessive report ... 4. cheap optics ... 5. poor stance ... 6. poor trigger-control ... 7. insufficient trigger-time (not visiting the range enough, or shooting while at it)
Good trigger-control is keeping your sights on your target while pulling the trigger and not letting the trigger break until your sights are as close to on-target as you can achieve. This is not difficult at all to accomplish ... with a .22lr ... because it has almost no recoil ... and very little report. As recoil, and report increase, your instincts cause you to flinch (to jerk your finger, as well as your entire hold on the rifle, thru the moment you let the trigger break). A great part of developing good trigger-control is learning to de-sensitize yourself to the recoil and report of your chosen rifle. The more recoil and report your chosen rifle has, the more trigger-time will be required of you to overcome them and develop good trigger-control.
A high-power scope does extremely little to help with accuracy. All it does is help you better see that which is particularly far away ... and what if that happens to be another hunter? That's a task best left to a good pair of binoculars. If it were possible to pass a law requiring a hunter to verify every target with a pair of binoculars ... and successfully enforce that law, you may never hear of another hunter being shot in the woods ever again. If you truly have a problem with the open-sights on your rifle, you would be far better served by trying to improve them ... than to simply mount a scope. If your rifle did not come with open-sights, choose a scope with no more than 5x and a 20mm objective ... a fixed 2x or 4x would be perfect ... and such a scope should cost you $100 - $150 ... no more, no less. If at all possible, mount a handgun scope ahead of the action (scout) ... this will prevent your breath from fogging it up ... and should you ever have a loose grip on your rifle, it won't cut your eyebrow open. Otherwise, mount a scope as far forward as possible ... a high quality scope at 2x or even 4x should have plenty of eye-relief for this. 
If you know a good gunsmith, having him mount open-sights may be an option ... albeit, not a cheap one. There's a consideration ... take the $150 - $200 (including base and rings) you might otherwise spend on a scope and apply it to a premium rifle that comes with open-sights (i.e. BLR or BAR).When you consider all of this together, the field narrows quite a bit. With the absense of a Winchester factory in CT, the Marlin 336 .30-30 seems to be an extremely cost-effective choice. The new Hornady LeverEvolution polymer-tipped ammo suggests 300yd effectiveness. I suggest you not concern yourself with such things 'til you've killed a few deer at 200yd. If anything, fancy ammo comes with a fancy price.
I can't imagine why a special rifle might be necessary ... but, again, I wouldn't concern yourself with such things. BLR or BAR in 7mm-08 or .308 comes in at a strong 2nd. If you don't care so much about open-sights, then just about any bolt-action in 260rem, 7mm-08, or .308 would likely serve you well. A bolt-action is particularly nice as any deer rifle should be cleaned as often as possible ... and I can't think of a gun easier to clean than a bolt-action rifle (the bolt usually comes right out with the push of a button ... no other disassembly necessary). Unfortunatley, very few bolt-action rifles come with open-sights..243win is simply too light. Yes, you can kill a deer with it ... as you can with .22lr ... with a precise shot. .243 limits your range, not necessarily by any kind of inherent accuracy ... but rather your own inability to hold a particularly tight group (required to kill the deer with such an anemic bullet) at a particularly long range. Put another way, the kill-zone for a 7mm-08 may be 8in, while the same for a .243 might only be 4in ... or half. Yes, it has particularly less recoil and report ... but if that's your desire, you would be much better served with a .30-30. As it is, .308 is typically far more power than needed to drop a whitetail at most achievable distances. But, while it may take significantly longer than with .30-30, it's not particularly impossible for most adults to learn to overcome the recoil and report of such a rifle. Considering a 140gr bullet may be ideal for whitetail, a 7mm-08 will have a much higher ballistic-coefficient than .308. .30-06 is very popular for deer ... however, it offers no significant increase in effectiveness over .308 ... yet dictates a significantly longer, heavier rifle. .270wsm and 7wsm are excellent cartridges, and do not have a lot of recoil despite the energy they produce, but to whatever extent they may have more recoil or report than a 7mm-08 or .308, their superior energy is simply wasted on 99% of your opportunities. On top of that, WSM ammo typically costs 50% more than 7mm-08 or .308 ... thereby, seriously detracting from your practice.
If your odds of being required to use a shotgun are good, that's too bad. Shotguns are extremely ineffective on whitetail ... beyond 100yd ... if for no other reason, than because any slugs which might be effective past 100yd, have so much recoil, you could shoot hundreds of practice rounds and still have too much of a flinch to deliver at that distance with the accuracy required. Beyond that, there are two types of slugs ... rifled (used in smoothbore guns) and sabot (used in rifled-bbl or rifled-choke guns). The sabot slugs are typically far more accurate ... and also typically $15 - $20 for only five rounds (that's $3 - $4 per shot). And even then, you'd be lucky to score a kill past 100yd. Because of the limited range, a scope on such a shotgun is wholly unnecessary. Ideally, you can find a rifle-sighted (only meaning it has open-sights) "turkey" bbl ... which will be a smoothbo
re ... and then you can use rifled-slugs to develop your skill and confidence with the gun. At some later date, you'd have the option of easily installing a rifled-choke for use with sabot-slugs ... 'til your wallet screams ... and you go running like a little girl back to rifled-slugs. Should you choose a cantilever rifled-bbl, you must then get a scope, and you may only use sabot-slugs from then on. If ya gotta shoot slugs, the single best favor ya can do yourself is to get an automatic ... it'll soak up some of the recoil. There are few prettier slug shotguns than a Remington 11-87 Premier. If you're on a budget, I expect you could get a brand new Mossberg 930 (do not get a 935) for little more than $400. Be warned, both of these have rifled-bbl's. Again, despite the looks, you'd be best served with a Turkey smoothbore model. Another possibility is to get their Field model and purchase an open-sighted bbl separately.
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