I'd look at either the Weathery Vanguard, Howa 1500, same rifle without Weatherby's name on it. Then the Marlin seems to be a good rifle. I have only shot one and it was a nice rifle. As long as we're mentioning rifles with plastic stocks, I hear a lot of good things about the Stevens 200, I think that's what it is called, someone will correct me if that wrong.
Scope. Redfield/Leupold in 3-9x, or Nikon Buckmaster in 3-9x. There's a lot of other good scope avaliable but I mention these two because they are what I use. The Nikon is a bit over $200 and the Redfield/Leupold is around $170. A good set of bases and rings should be well under $100.