I figured that might raise an eyebrow for someone. I'll admit, it's a fairly subjective choice, not a purely objective one. I rebuilt an ADL in 7x57 as one of my first projects apprenticing under a smith in high school. I built it as a low recoil, long range "practice" rifle, but one capable of hunting any game I might pursue in the lower 48. I haven't shot that particular rifle in over a decade now. I've generally considered it to have been basically the same pursuit as the 6.5 Creedmoor/6.5x47L rifles popular today.

Objectively, I thought about 7-08, 284win, 280, 6.5-06, 6.5 swede - heck, my knee jerk first thought when I saw this thread was 7mm Rem... But the 7 Mauser has held a place in my heart a long time, and it'd do all of these species quite well.