Taking meat wastage into consideration, yet still wanting a good blood trail, for me the .358 is the best I've used for my close-range blacktail killing.
In more open terrain I'm enamoured with the 7 WSM. Very capable cartridge to say the least, and in a short action as a tangible bonus.
But as the OP says......... pick one, lace up the boots, and go hunting. I could've killed every animal I've killed with the first hunting rifle I ever bought, a 30-06. And my wallet would be bursting with all the money I didn't spend since then, screwing around with rifles <g>.
