You are better off going with a caliber that is smaller and kicks less so they don't get gun shy. I would say look at the .260 it is an excellent medium sized game gun with very little recoil. My friend has one in a Ruger 77 Mk II. That gun is a tack driver. I would even shoot an elk with it. If you reload Barnes has a 130gr Tripple shock X bullet that would be awesome. I loaded up some 129gr Hornady SSTs for my friend this winter so this fall we will see how they do. They are at about 2900 fps which is only a tiny bit slower than the .270 with less recoil.