Picking a rifle all depends on what you are doing. If strictly whittail, a .270 is a good choice, if hunting larger game (like bear and elk) you may want to get something in the 30 caliber range. For about the best all purpose rifle, I'd have to go with the 30-06. Arguably, it can effectivelly kill anyhting on the north american continent and then some. In terms of a brand, any of the big companies produce a quality rifle. You may want to check out remington, winchester, ruger, browning, cz, tikka, sako, and a number of others. In terms of optics, it is pointless to spend a ton of money on optics for hunting. You can spend over 1,000 on a zeiss or a swarovski that serves the same purpose as a leupold, simmons, bushnell, tasco, etc. On the flip side of the coin, an extremely cheap scope is exactly what i just said, an extremely cheap scope. If i was in your situation, i would have go with a remington 700 bdl ss in 30-06 and top if with a leupold vari-xII 3-9x40 silver. A rig like that would run in the neighborhood of 1,000 and with work will shot about 1" groups at 100 yards consistently.