Acutally with lots of different recoil reduction methods out there its crazy how big of a gun you can shoot. This guy i hunt with has a .300 WIN MAG and he has 2 mercury recoil reducers in the stock of his gun and a limbsaver and the thing has little to no kick, its just unreal. And they dont cost that much, but i would suggest a .243 or a 25-06 cause they still have fairly good range and they dont kick that much.