My wife's birthday is coming up soon and we have talked about her getting her own hunting rifle. I have looked around and I'm not sure what to get her. I am thinking of .270 or .243. She has shot my 30-06 but she is not sure about the 30-06 she has shot my 7mm but say's hell no to that. I want to get some thing with a little less recoil but still the distance and punch for that whitetail. Can i get some opinions on this matter or what does some of your wife's shoot. Thanks flipmo

7x57[7-08] ,.308 or 6.5X55[.260] All will handle deer ,moose ,elk + black bear also shooting flat enough for open country long shots without kicking the snot out of one.Harold

My wife has a 243 and last year my 7 year old daughter took her first buck with it. If you are hunting anything bigger than whitetail I would recommend the 270. I agree with ridge runner about it needing to fit.

7mm08 depends on how tall etc she is but I would probably go with a howa in a youth model.

I'm thinking .308 for your gal.
My wife shoots a .308 and she's just a smidge over 5 feet tall.
Store bought ammo has never been a problem for her with it, so I don't have to handload a light load.
But, she is an Alaskan girl. Weaned on a 30-06.

.30-06 Browning Bar, it's gas operated and kicks far less then my .270, plus you won't have to buy all kinds of different caliber bullets.

Take a look at the ballistics of the 7-08. It's fast, shoots flat and has very little recoil.

25-06......

I used to love the 25-06, but the .243 has almost identical balistics whith the same weight bullet! (100gr)
Ethical/quick kills being at the top of my caliber choice criteria list, I believe the bigger the animal, bigger the gun.
But the shooter needs to not be scared of the kick either.
The .270 and .308 both puching a 150gr bullet have almost identical recoil (17ft lbs / 17.5ft lbs respectively) (According to the Chuck Hawkes recoil table: http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm )
But the 7mm-08 pushing a 140 gr bullet only has a recoil of 12.6ft lbs. My choice.
I got my son one when he was about 14 or 15 and we took Antelope, mulies, and I even took a cow elk because I was wondering if the gun was big enough to do the job. It did, she went maybe 80 - 100 yards.
Best advice, the more you and she go out and shoot, the more accustomed to the gun (recoil, noise) she gets. That can't be ignored! Shoot more . . . shoot more often.

Get her a .243, I have had mine since 1980, killed over 150 deer with it, it's all you need...If you get her something bigger and she starts flinching then she won't enjoy shooting and you've lost her...