Bobby,
Sorry I ruffled your feathers, but my comment was really not about caliber, as much as it was about allowing your girlfriend to have some input into selection of her new rifle.

You make a good case for the selecting a.30-06. Actually, over the years, I have used .30-06's more than any other caliber. For a while, I was enamoured with the magnums, but eventually went back to the good old .270 and .30-06. My first two wives shot all manner of beasts with their .30-06's.

Which brings me to another story. I think it was in 1968 that I took my first wife on her first Wyoming hunt for deer and elk. Women were a rarity in hunting camps at that time. The guides dubbed us "Hansel and Gretel" (we didn't find this out until later), probably because we were both blonde and looked very young. I suspect that they wondered if she knew how to shoot her .30-06, and how much time they were going to have to spend tracking wounded animals. She shot a 5 point bull and a 4 point mulie with one shot each, and neither went more than 30 yards. My shooting , which was pretty good also, was totally ignored while the guides made a fuss over "Gretel".