huge fan of the 7mm-08 for youth. I bought my son a remington 700 youth model some years ago. The recoil is pretty minimal but I added a mercury recoil reducer to the stock and now the gun is like shooting a 223. The thing I like about the 7mm-08 compared to the 6.5cm or 243 is that you can the best premium bullet selection for bonded, monolithic and well constructed bullets in a wide variety of weights. We shoot 139 hornady interlock and 120 barnes ttsx. both have performed very well for us on deer and elk. Right now a large concern would be what ammo is available for any rifle I buy or what components if you are a hand loader.