Just my 2 cents but in MY opinion, the 7mm08 is arguably THE best designed cartridge for all round whitetails ever! I've had 3 300 win mags, and the last, after I shot the elk with it, I gave it to my son who had fell in love with it & wanted 1 go to rifle for everything. It's overkill on whitetails and above a lot of people's recoil tolerance threshold. In fact, he scope eyed himself pretty bad shooting a buck from prone last season. It has at LEAST twice the felt recoil of a 7mm08.