Cartridge selection and recoil tolerance are not necessarily correlated. I can shoot a 300 WM without any issues, and have for many years, but I eventually expanded my rifle collection and wanted to try some new things. None of the cartridges I'm working with these days (.260, 6.5 Swede, .308, .270 etc) are more effective than my tried and true .300 WM, but they aren't necessarily lacking, either. I'm going to run the smaller cartridges this year to see how they perform and take it from there. Whitetails and antelope are the targeted game species, for what it's worth.
