I am trying to decide what caliber rifle to purchase. I am not totally ignorant to shooting. I shoot shotguns, muzzleloaders and mostly small caliber rifles. I have shot but do not own .270, 30-30 and 30-06.

I know for certain that I want to buy a Ruger MKII as this is a family thing.

Brother has a .270
Dad has a .30-06

I need to get a different caliber. This may seem a bit silly but I dont expect this to be my last rifle so why not do something fun.

I hear all the talk about SA ultra mag's 7mm vs .300's.

I hopefully will be using the rifle for long range shooting open fields. I live in the Norhteast hunting whitetail. I would imagine the .270 is a flat shooting rifle perfect for this task but like I said I want a different caliber.

I would like to get a different caliber that would do this and maybe offer a little more "punch". However I dont want something that is totally unpleasant shoot. I dont want the gun to recoil with enough force that I dont enjoy shooting it.

This is the following calibers that Ruger lists for that model.

.223
.22-250
.220 Swift
6mm
Rem .243
Win 6.5 x 55
Swedish .257
Roberts .25-06
7x57 mm
.260Rem
.280Rem
7mm Rem Mag
7mm Rem. SA UltraMag
.308
.300 Rem. SA Ultra Mag
.300 WSM
.300 WinMag
.338 WinMag

I understand that some of this is personal preference but some advice would be great.