“What would you suggest for the poster......experience DOES matter.....and it would be great if you share some wisdom.”
There is a wide choice of calibers for specialized work.
But for just one cartridge, one will never go wrong with a 30-06.
For close range woods, 150 grain bullet or heavier. For dangerous game penetration, 220 grain RN. (round nose)
For open western prairie and mountains, 165 grain SPBT (soft point boat tail) bullet would be my top all around choice. Little much for goat, (antelope) but a sure killer for elk and heavy body muleys.
For many years now my use of muzzleloaders as personal choices for hunting would be of little or no interest to a neophyte. I tired of cartridge rifles and later handguns for hunting long ago.
All my cartridge reloading for many years has been restricted to cast boolits (bullets) with smokeless powder which offers a real challenge. To achieve accurate velocities with paper patched boolits that are near the same for jacketed bullets in given calibers gives me much satisfaction. For general shooting up to 2,000 fps, water dropped hard cast gas checked boolits are great.
If one may have an interest in boolit casting for being freed up from buying commercial ammo and jacketed bullets for reloading, cannot go wrong by going here for info: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php
Thank you, I have just recently tried casting my own.....thank you for the link....
I have a load for my model 700 that features a 165 Partition. It will do an inch from the sporter for three shots if I do my part. Factory 165 works acceptably sighted in for my load.
If I could have only one rifle, it would be that one with that load. Anywhere in North America.