As far as recoil is concerned how recoil sensitive are you? The 45-70 is a good starting round for several reasons! It will take on any north American game and win!! Reloading supplies are plentyful and reasonable. Recoil is manageble. Plus if you decide to match shoot, it will handle 1000 yards fairly good! Anytime you start burning 80 grains or more of powder recoil will become an issue! Anything over a 45-90 and you will start to get bumped around!! The 38-55 is a great starter round also, low recoil, accurate. Although it runs out of steam after 600 yards.
I would advise you to stay away from the paper patched bullets if your just starting out! These take a while to master! And are a pain to reload! The patch tears easily and fouling is very hard to over come! I would start with the lube groove bullets, then once you have a handle on them work your way into the paper patches if you desire!
Good luck and enjoy! Keep it simple!
A man and his rifle become one!
