spuscg,
I went through this same thing a couple years ago. Long range target shooting caught my attention. It just seems like there would be something extremely satisfying about accurately putting holes in paper at long ranges. I got bit hard... reloading, bolt actions, calibers, and accurizing. What I didn't want to do is put all this money into something that couldn't have dual purpose. I have no desire to shoot any animal past 200-300 yards, but I wanted target performance out to 600-800 yards without going crazy on wildcats. After all my searching and reading up on everything I could get my hands on, I got the caliber narrowed down after a few months. Here's what I came up with, and how I came up with them.
30-06, a classic, It can be loaded to just about any specification to perform at a wide level of scenarios. ammo is everywhere and cheap.
.270, great trajectory, low cost, great energy retention and good velocity
300WSM, awesome long range energy, awesome velocity, terrible price, recoil would be too much at a range all day.
25-06, flat shooting, low recoil, good velocity and energy, not so good on price and selection of ammo.
.308 This is the one for me. It is used in 1000 yard competition matches. I know several people who slay deer with it, ammo is everywhere, brass is everywhere, military surplus is everywhere, low recoil, great performance. It just makes sense.
Go here
http://www.remington.com/products/ammunition/ballistics/
Look up the calibers you're interested in, pick the same type of bullet for each, go middle of the road on bullet weight, and pay attention where the zero is on trajectory.
As far as rifles go (this was stage two of the frenzy), I found for the price and out-of-the-box accuracy you can't beat a Savage. I think I finally settled on a 12FVSS.
http://www.savagearms.com/12fvss.htm It comes out of the box with a 26" heavy barrel, and an accutrigger. You can find them for around $500-$600. Everybody has their own brand, but everything I read pointed to a Savage
