What caliber would best suit my needs?

[Dom]

Boy, so many good options and a lot of good info here. Kinda gonna boil down to a personal thing, but I'll give .02 cents worth:

1. If it's only ever going to be used for an average, excellent deer rifle, .270 gets my vote.

2. But, if it's going to be used for anything more stout, like black bear or big mulies or elk, I'd lean towards the venerable 30-06.

Take a 7Mag or 300 WinMag, more ooomph if it was more of an elk hunter, but at the cost of burning quite a bit more powder and recoil and not needed in a deer rifle. Waidmannsheil, Dom.