[aigel]

My advice always is to stay away from uncommon or "fad" calibers. Will be more expensive, less bullet choices and not readily available, i.e. when you forgot your ammo on a trip. When I bought my first magnum rifle, the short magnums were all the rage and I almost bought into it, but then I read that ammo availability argument in someone's column and it clicked. You know what happened to the short magnums ...

.308 will be fine and if you have to go long range, you can do so with the right scope and a range finder.

That said, it isn't just the rifle. The scope is also challenging if you need to cover a wide range of distances. Long range scopes should be >9x but then you can't get a 3x at the lower end of the magnification. For me it ended up being a 3.5-10 and it still is a compromise. Don't like it past 250 yards and close in, I can struggle locating my target through it quickly enough.