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I would go with a Remington 700 in .308 with a Leupold Scope. All together, it will run you from $1000 to $1500, depending on the quality of the scope.

If you want something less pricey, a lot of folks seem to be quite satisfied with the Savage bolt action rifles. I think they cost around $400.

I'm late to the dance here, but my favorite all-round hunting rifle is my Ruger M-77 in .308. It's tack-driving accurate, light, handy, well-made, and the caliber is easy to load (plus you can buy cheap surplus ammo). My husband has the heavy barrel M-77 in the same caliber, but I think that's too heavy to haul through the woods.

I have my mom's old Savage bolt action in .30-30 - I hate it. Underpowered, and not very accurate. I know lots of folks swear by the .30-30, but it's an old cartridge design and there are lots better ones out there now. We also have an FN, a Garand, a gaggle of various .303 British military rifles (which are great shooters - especially my Long Branch sniper rifle - but tetchy and complicated to reload properly for), a Ruger 10/22 stainless (and that IS a good practice rifle, with a nice scope mounted on it you can blast away at paper targets, tin cans, and chipmunks all day long), and my dad's Big Bear Medicine lever action Winchester Model 71 in .348 Winchester (I would NOT recommend the latter for a first rifle, but it is dandy for stuff that bites back.)