I haven't posted for a while, but this is one of my very favorite gunweb sites.
Welcome to the confusion!
If you're into reading, read on!
First thing...don't OVERTHINK this.
It took me over 3 years to finally buy my first centerfire 'hunting' rifle.
Guns & Weapons For Law Enforcement was the instigator when I first discovered the world of 'rifles'. I wanted the exact same rifle I read about.
I think it was the Savage 110FP with a Weaver 3-9x40 scope in Weaver base/rings w/Harris bipod in .308.
Great rating in the magazine and nothing for $hit among my compadres at work!
EVERYTHING was wrong about it according to the 'experts' at work.
So, 3 years wasted reading articles, getting catalogs, learning terminology and ballistics and by then, well, I was wasted. Wasted, I tell you!
THEN, one day, I walked into a BIG5 Sporting Goods Store on a layover...( I'm a Bus Driver, Jim, not a Rocket Scientist! ).
I looked up on the wall and there was a Remington 700 BDL-AS ( 1989 vintage ) in 7mm Remington Magnum.
I'd handled a few rifles in different stores and was familiar with the Remington 700, so I asked to see it.
Upon being handed the rifle, I found the bolt-release button in the triggerguard and pulled it out.
I shouldered the rifle at a distant corner of the the store and just loved the way the rifle felt in my hands.
I said, "the guys at work said anything over a .30-06 would knock my glasses off and shake my fillings loose..."
The guncounter guy smiled and said, "that's up to you!"
I placed the bolt back in the gun, pulled the trigger back and slid it in so it didn't go 'click', then set the safety back on and handed the gun back to the guy behind the counter.
"I'll take it."
Speed forward to the moment I pulled the trigger on that rifle for the first time.
Expecting some kind of EarthShakingMoment I pleasantly enjoyed a very nice pushback and plume-making (according to the bushes in the near vicinity ) explosion of noise and shoulder-motion! resulting in a boom-SMACK on the rock above that I was aiming at.
Yeah.
NICE!
From a 7mm REMINGTON MAGNUM!!!
The .30-06's I'd just previously shot were more 'brutal' in felt recoil, to me.
MY GUN...felt like a nice, friendly and powerful 'weapon' that did not scare me or drive me to tears.
So, all this hoopla over caliber and such is largely up to what you want to experience.
I got a lot of $hit for picking that gun in that cartridge/caliber.
I still have it and it's my favorite.
Had I decided to get the Savage? I'd've been shooting 3 years earlier and who knows where that would've led me...? Right?
Your adventure starts where you want it to.
Advice?
Like I said, don't wait 3 years!
Get to shooting.
Pick one.
I'd at this point, possibly advise...nothing.
Get a rifle.
Shoot it.
Decide what you like in a while.
Get a good used Remington.
Get a rifle.
Get to shooting!
I do NOT regret my choice in that 7mm Rem.Mag. 700/BDL ever.