hello i like my 30-30 sav, my poppy uses the good all 6.5 55 mauser and he has lots of funn with that too kdown lots of deer and handles pretty good my advice is that whatever gun you feel the comfortablest with if you don't like lots of kick or recoil the the .243 or .270 are good choices now if your one of those advid hunters then you would use a big meat stick