I would also suggest looking at some of the Savage rifles. I hear the Accu-Trigger is very nice.

I might hear a bunch of crud for this but take a look at the Howa brand of rifles. They are built well, have super nice looking stocks and shoot well also. My buddy has one with the heavy barrel and vamint stock in .223 and it shoots great. You could easily get one and mount a Leupold on it for under $800.