It depends entirely on what brand and stock configuration you plan to go with. Wood is generally heavier and therefore reduces felt recoil more. I currently shoot a stainless/synthetic [fairly light] Ruger M77 MkII in .300 WM and I love putting rounds through it. A great feature of any .308 caliber rifle is the huge variety of bullets available. I can load 110 grain Hornady V-max for predators, or top of with 220 grain Nosler Partitions for interior grizzly bears. There's an absolute myriad of bullet choices in between those as well. .257 and .277 are much more limited in the variety of bullets available. The last elk I shot with a rifle took three rounds from a .270 Win without going down. My partner handed me his .300 Win Mag (my magazine was empty) and one round from it put the bull down hard. I haven't taken the .270 hunting since. That and I live in Alaska now and I'm slightly further down the food chain motivated me to stick to my .300.

AK Jeff