Little Wattsy

The wood one is a Remimgton youth model (several years old now).. The other is a Ruger. Both are very afordable. Both are .270 caliber. I use the 130 grain slug for deer. Those elk were taken with 150 grain slugs.

Palladin8

I own a .243Win, .25-06, and a .280AI. None of them really have that much recoil in my opinion. The .280Rem will have the most when using heavy bullets but it is still not bad.
I have killed large western Mule deer and an Elk with both the .243Win and .25-06 and none of them required second shots. The 7mm-08 is another great cartridge that would do well on deer or larger game.
As far as the Rifle's are concerned Tikka makes a nice rifle but the only bad thing about them in a .243 is they use a 1:10" twist so the 100gr bullets might not work as well. All the other calibers the twist rates are about right for caliber. Ruger makes a nice rifle as well as others. The TC Venture just had a recall notice so that might be a concern for me. CZ makes a very nice rifle as well. Try and hold as many rifles as you can and make sure they fit you both well before you purchase one. A properly fitted rifle will certainly help with recoil. And if you do find recoil to be a problem then you can always install a limbsaver recoil reducer buttpad that will help reduce any felt recoil.

WV Hunter

I'd opt for either .243 or 7mm-08. Both great guns, low recoil. Should fit the bill nicely. If you go up, look at the .280 rem.

brad_26

If you ever plan on going after any bigger game id seriously look at a .280 works great on elk. For your wife a .243 is plenty plus you learn to take better shots with the smaller calibers. If u never plan on going after bigger game a 25-06 is a great caliber also ammo can be a bit harder to find and more expensive around here at least.