My choice would be the Remington 700 XCR. That is one badass rifle! And I would get it chambered for .30-06. For a number of reasons.... It doesn't kick as hard as a 300 but still has enough power to take down pretty much anything in North America. There's also a very wide variety of bullets for that caliber. You could shoot a 150 grain round for deer and then shoot a 220 grain round for Elk. Very versatile. Plus, the ammo is relatively cheap.

As for optics... I like Nikon and so do a lot of other people. Their stuff is top-shelf and it's nowhere near as expensive as some of the others. As for power, I wouldn't limit yourself with a 3-9 power. A lot of people go with a 3-9 power scope because they're hunting in places where they'll never make a shot over 200 yards. That fine and all, but what if they need to take a further shot? Or they get a chance to go hunt somewhere like Colorado? That's why I went with a 4.5-14 power. Yes, it's still not that big, but I have just a little more zoom over a 3-9. And if you've ever looked through a scope when it's on 3 and another scope when it's on 4 or 4.5, it looks identical. There's no reason to have a scope that starts at 3 when 4.5 is exactly the same. And then you'll have that much more zoom. Even a scope with 5 being the lowest setting wouldn't be a bad close range scope. If you want to get a really nice scope, I suggest Nikon Monarch in either 4-16X42 or 5-20X44. That's a top-of-the-line scope and either one has plenty of power for almost every situation you'll encounter. And it'll still be fine to make close shots.