RE: recoil
Alot of recoil is due to stock fit also,if you have 308 kicken ya realy hard look at the stock desing.I have a Savage .270 that kicks the heck out of me,but a freinds daughter all ways uses it for deer and she loves it,takes over my Ruger #1 25-06.
I shoot some pretty stout guns 300 RUM,300 WSM,.338 WM and a .416 Rem. these are guns on the upper class of recoil and they don't hurt me as bad as that .270
They say a persons comfort range is around 15-18 ft/ bs of recoil,that is about the upper end of a 180gr. 30-06 or 150 gr. 270.
A 300 WSM is about 23 ft/lbs
A .338 Win Mag is right around 30-35 ft/lbs and .300 RUM is at 42 ft/lbs of recoil OUCH!!
Chuck Hawks used to have recoil tabel you could look at but now you have to be a member of the web page.