Yukon Girl,
My suggestion is that you select a cartridge that has moderate recoil. This is important so that you shoot the rifle well and in fact enjoy shooting and practicing with it.
The 7mm-08 should be good for all your game when used with premium bullets such as the Nosler Partition. Such bullets will penetrate large animals and take them if your aim is good.
You can handload less expensive bullets for practice and smaller game.
Another thing is that I much prefer the new soft recoil pads such as the Decelerator. They make a big difference in felt recoil. Another thing is to use good ear protection.
I prefer rifles with three position safeties such as found on the M70, Ruger 77 and Kimber 84M's.
Such safeties allow the chamber to be unloaded while still on safe yet lock the bolt handle down when all the way back. Most versions of these rifles also have controlled round feeding which adds another level of reliability to the rifles function.
Get the length of pull cut to fit you. This is important. Another thing is to avoid heavy and long rifles. There are smaller versions of each that I mentioned and my favorite is the Kimber 84M.
Good luck and stay with us.
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