Alright, so I sort of managed to find a gun that works, still working out the details.
Working on a trade with someone on Wednesday, realized that I had a low value shotgun the they wanted and they had a scoped Mosin 91/30 that would work for my rifle shooting attempts. Mosin was not what I wanted, but if I want to be economically, trading a shotgun that I didn't use for it seemed like a good way to start. 7.62x54r ammo is cheap, seemed like I had my solution.
Took it out shooting on thursday, it kicks like crazy and I am having a bear of a time sighting the scope, but I had a rifle and a way to learn.
THEN i went to the swap meet at the gun range I am a member of on Saturday and what do I see....
H&R Model 157 in 30-30 for a very good price. Scoped and I LOVE the look of this gun. I also remembered tubeshooter's advice that a 30-30 was a great place to start, so of course I bought it.
Now I have two rifles, got to shoot them both today, definitely prefer the 30-30, just wish the ammo was cheaper. Blasting $1 down range every time I pull the trigger means the wallet will not support lots and lots of shooting.
Now I have to decide if I want to keep the mosin for cheaper shooting or just focus on the 30-30.
But, all that to say, while it seems like the .357 idea would have worked, I think what I got is much better.