Caliber? I'll suggest to you what I told my brother, who was leaning toward .308, a few months ago, go to your local Walmart, see what caliber ammo is available, and which there is the most of. Then go to a couple of other places that sell ammo, and do the same survey.
He came home with a 30.06 based on what caliber ammo was the most available.
A few years a go my cousin bought a new rifle to hunt Elk, I have no idea what caliber it was, when he went to zero the scope, no ammo available anywhere in the area. after several phone calls he found two boxes 600 miles away, not enough time to have it shipped, fortunately that was only about 100 miles from where he was going to hunt. He didn't tell me about it, my friend who he went hunting with told me.
That is defiantly something to consider given all the choices out there.
I’m leaning towards what should have the best knock down power at range, but easily available.
Without ammo it’s a very expensive club.
“A few years a go my cousin bought a new rifle to hunt Elk, I have no idea what caliber it was, when he went to zero the scope, no ammo available anywhere in the area. after several phone calls he found two boxes 600 miles away, not enough time to have it shipped, fortunately that was only about 100 miles from where he was going to hunt. He didn’t tell me about it, my friend who he went hunting with told me.”
This is why learning to reload is a good idea. Even a simple single stage set-up would prevent this sort of situation.