Yup it is a caliber post.
I need or maybe want to get my wife a new rifle for hunting from everything from pronghorn to elk. I want to get her a rifle that will last her lifetime. I want something light weight and accurate, and choices abound from the mesa rifle to a tikka from a cooper to a remington. Picking the rifle is the easy part picking the caliber on the other had is a lot harder so I am putting the decision in the hands of a bunch of fantastic hunting lunatics on this forum. She is not recoil shy up to an 30-06 and my 700 mountain in 280. Her deer rifle right now is a 243 which she says she doesn't notice the recoil at all. I would like to keep to rifle to short actions just to save some ounces. All shots will be 300 yards or less.
Aside from elk and similar sized game your options appear to be more alike than they are different. I'd just put the choices into a hat and have her draw one.
Here is a post I am borrowing from a poster on another website. Item 3 seems to be appropriate.
"
What I have learned on TS, since 2001:
1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken.
2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps.
3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges.
4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down.
5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine.
6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle.
7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions.
8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA.
9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not.
10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact.
11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores.
12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence."
