Virginia7

I'd recommend a pass on any of the 25cals. (25-06 & 257Wthby.). They're good long range cartridges, BUT you did say deer "on up". For deer only these 25's are excellent long range cartridges, but would be on the light side for "on up" (elk & moose?). The heaviest bullet weights generally loaded are only 120gr., and no matter how you cut it, they're small (.257").

The 7mm-08 is a good deer cartridge, and has been used successfully on larger game also. However, here again the heaviest bullet weight normally loaded is 150gr. Anything heavier (160gr., etc.), and the velocity starts to suffer, and so goes the long range capability.

Again, good long range cartridges, and not having too much recoil, would be the 270Win., 280Remington, 7mmRem.Mag., and the old 30-06. Probably the best of the lot would be the 7mmRemington Mag. More power than needed for deer only, of course, but certainly capable of handling the larger game. And, in most rifles, recoil is on about the same level as the '06.

For primarily just deer at long range I'd go with the 270Win.

Another advantage of the 270Win., or the 7mm Rem.Mag. is that either are available in good selection of rifles, and ammo is easy to come by in a wide variety of loadings (as is also true of the 30-06).