hagar
member
If it's just for deer, a 243 will work great. Use it with decent 100 grain bullets, and it will kill any size deer with little meat damage. Probably the lowest recoil of any acceptable deer cartridge.
iven 8 pound guns, a 140 @ 2800 with 45 grains of powder returns 14.5 ft-lbs of recoil energy and a 150 @ 2800 with 50 grains returns 17.0 ft-lbs. Finding a a 5ft-lb difference here is not comparing apples to apples in some way.
You might consider .260, also, the 7s little brother, if you find one. For deer, it'd be a fine round with a bit less recoil