Three pages so far, and, basically, the guy had a pretty good idea from the get go... The Marlin XL-7 and the Marlin XS-7 are an excellent choice. According to every review I've seen, it packs great performance for the price. The XL, long action, is chambered for lengthier cartridges, i.e. .25-06, .270, and .30-06. The XS, short action, is chambered for shorter cartridges, i.e. .243, 7mm-08, and .308. If you're worried about recoil, the smaller the caliber the less the kick. The short action cartridges all kick less than their long action counterparts. If I were the original poster, I'd be looking at the XS-7 in .243 or 7mm-08...

You can get a pretty good idea of the relative recoil of the various cartridges here:

http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm