I second Swampcollie's recommendation of something in the .260 Remington class. In addition to the .260, a 6.5X55 or 6.5X57mm would be about the same performance-wise. For some reason, the6.5/.260 bore size has never been very popular here. That's strange, because it is a very capable caliber. By all means have your wife use very good ear protection. When I first started shooting centerfre rifles, I discovered that it was the noise & muzzle blast that was intimidating, NOT the recoil per se......