Marianne, a lady's presence and point of view is appreciated here. Women often bring up things that we wouldn't think of, please keep hanging around. I'll look forward to talking with you about reloading the 338 Win .
As far as scopes go I would highly recommend two. If you can manage to afford one it's hard to find a better hunting scope than a Swarovski 3-12x50 PH. At 3 power it has plenty of field of view and superb low light performance. It weighs less than you would think i.e. less than a Burris Signature select 3-10x40 etc.. One of my favorite hunting scopes in the world is a Swaro 4-12x50 AV. Again it's a lot lighter than you might think and it can also be mounted lower than you would expect. I have one on a Kimber 8400 in Kimber's bases and low rings. Optically it's as good as anything except the very highest end 30mm tube scopes (like the 3-12 PH). I also think a lot of the 3-10x42 AV but after hunting with all of the above I'm starting to use the 4-12 the most. All of them are available with the TDS reticle which I think is currently the best reticle available for hunting.
For years everyone thought the ideal all around scope was a 4x. Why wouldn't a 4-12 be even better if you just hunt with it at 4x until you want more magnification? Yes you can certainly hunt everything in the world with the lower powered scopes but with the excellent variables we now have why not exploit their capabilities. I invariably hunt with a variable set at the lowest power, on longer shots I haven't yet had a situation where I wanted to turn up to a higher power and didn't have time to.........DJ

Continue to appreciate all your responses. I dont want to sound like a total rookie here, but this is the first rifle I, as in me, is building from the ground up with no (OK, little) input from my 'other half'. I have several other rifles, and my husband had the .270 built for me, everything else is off the rack.

In this case, I think I want to have my cake and eat it too, so I am looking for a scope that I can use hunting, as well as one I can use at the range at the 300 meter line. I realize that 300 meters does not require a 12 power scope, a 6 power setting works just fine. Even though 200 and 300 meters are my most used distances at the range I frequent (300 is the max), I am considering a trip to near Albany where there is a range with a distance of 600 meters. That will probably be at the extreme outer limit of my target-shooting ability, providing I will even hit a target at that distance. So therefore I thought that perhaps a 12 power scope would be nice. After all, it is adjustable from 4 up.

In all reality, I only need a scope that is decent in low(er) light conditions for hunting, where the maximum range will probably be less than 150 yards for deer and less than 100 yards for bear. At that distance a straight 4x40 would do just fine, all the way up to 300 meters, though the .270 has a 3x9x40, which is also nice.

As this will be a special rifle, I want something different, so should I get another 3x9 or a 2x7, since consensus is not to buy a 4x12 scope???

PS I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving. You will not quite get rid of me yet, I will be bugging you all when it become time for reloading as well....

Many thanks...

I guess, being Mrs. Practicality, so they say, I should not