I have done some mild research on the 7mm-08. shooting 162gr hornaday a-max ( b.c. of .625) or berger 168 VLDs ( b.c. of .617) would make an efficient rig. 7mm hunting bullets seem to have higher bc than 6.5 hunting bullets. seems like lapua is the only company that offers a 6.5 bullet with a bc over .600. However there could be others I dont know about. Just food for thought. 7-08 probably would be easy on the shoulder. You could also use same bolt face same brass, primers..... the only manditory changes would be bullets, barrell. If I were to build a long range pack gun for myself I would use the 7mm-08 seems to be an efficient cartridge that is not fancy or flashy but just gets the job done.