I would stick with a 7mm Rem Mag if you aren't going to reload and want a .284 bullet...

7wsm more balls.

The 7-08 is everything you need for 400 meter/yards hunting and 800 target shooting. Factory ammo is available for the 7-08 and next impossible to find for the 7 WSM, also cost of ammo and rifle selection favor the 7-08.

I want to get into reloads, but I need a few things first and 90+% of that is knowledge and wisdom. Can't make a wise choice for a rifle without a rifle to shoot, can't shoot a rifle with no rounds to feed it. I understand what I want is going to be costly. I am coming to the conclusion that that long range precision marksmanship is chasing the rabbit, but getting close to it is worth it.

The rabbit isn't hard to catch, have caught many of them, but your correct, to do it efficiently you need to spend some money, time, and you need to study ballistics.
RR

Drop you can calculate & dial that, wind drift is the question ??

That's where practice/experience is irreplaceable !!!

I saw a chart on that that. the 7mm WSM showed the least amount of wind drift if I read it correctly. The 7mm-08 was the second worst, but still extremely superior to the .308 in terms of wind drift. Here is the mentioned chart attached.

Edit: here is a link to the larger picture. http://accurateshooter.net/pix/windchartx580.png

Charts can be manipulated to make any cartridge look better. I could make the 6.5x284 look better then any of the others just by changing the BC on each of the other bullets.

Unless the bullets used for the comparison are comparable then it doesn't mean much. A heavy for caliber high BC VLD type bullet will always have less wind drift then your standard cup and core hunting bullet.

Rarely will the wind blow from the same direction when taking "long" shots, unless you are hunting flat open prairies.

Where ever there are mountains, hills, valleys, wooded areas, even heavy brush the wind direction can change from shooter to "target" - no chart can account for that.

That "ability" only come from practice/experience !!!

I am going to go off track and suggest that you buy a reloading manual. They are not expensive ($25 or so) and will educate you on the basics of ballistics and give good descriptions of most of the available cartridges. Hornady, Nosler, Speer, etc. publish excellent manuals.