I'm about to purchase my first hunting rifle and I'm a bit green to all this. My Father in law has expressed that he feels a .270 would be a fitting gun. He uses a .270 Savage himself. I know a .243 is probably the lowest I would want for Deer in the southeast (GA). I don't want to go with the lowest caliber. I also don't want overkill, but I would like the option to hunt bigger game should the opportunity arise (such as elk or bear).
At my local store I found a Mauser 7X57 with a nice scope (don't have specifics but was magnified nicely when I looked through it) for around 300 dollars.
There were several other rifles there, a Savage .243, a couple of 30x06's and some higher more expensive calibers. Right now the 7x57 (which I understand to be a .283 if you use that to measure) and a nice 30x06 are my main two contenders.
I was looking for some input.
/Xav