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Pretty much anything from a .300WM down you can learn to shoot well unbraked. Especially if it its a heavy barreled gun with a good recoil pad. Blast is more intimidating than kick. 26" or longer barrel helps a bunch here. Put a brake on any of these, and the kick is gone, and it is much easier to spot your hits. Still have to get used to the blast, unless you get a can.
I have 2 rifles set up for long range. 1 is a 300 win mag and the other is a 7 mm rem mag. They have the similar ballistics shooting the same bullets but of different weights. The 300 shoots a 210 g Berger vld. The 7mm shoots the 162 g Berger vld. I run validated turrets on each scope. They are so close. No let's talk recoil. 300 with the 210 bullet kicks like a mule! So I added a muzzle brake and put rifle in a chassis. It shoots sub moa but weighs 12-15 lbs and is loud. You have to have hearing protection. Or you he shell shockedfrom the decibels. Not a good thing 7 miles in the wilderness. The 7mm 9 lbs with strap and no muzzle brake no problems. And I can shoot it 1 kill shot and my ears don't ring. Very seldom do I carry the 300.
Try the 7mm Remington magnum.
Best candidate in a long action. .270WSM in a short action.
Advice I have to give you is find a good 30-06 Springfield and put on a good scope. Definition of good is up to the one doing the choosing but I figure you could be in the ball park of $2500 for a lifetime setup. Cartridges are ubiquitous and are very accurate in most rifles. Recoil is half that of most mags and is very easy to shoot. 30-06's have killed everything in earth and still are. With 2000 ft./lbs. at 200 yards this will knock anything down on the Americas and out to 600 it is a good deer gun. I know a lot of natives in Alaska and most shoot the Springfield because it never fails. A friend of mine, an Aleut, calls it Grandpas round, I asked him one night to try my 300 he just laughed and declined, asked why he didn't try one of the new calibers he said he would if they ever came out with new game to shoot at he would. After I thought about the response I understood the wisdom in it. Shoot what you know at targets you know, he will never be dissatisfied from a new caliber that has failed or will get him killed. Happy shooting.
If semi-automatic rifles are permitted where you plan on hunting, I highly recommend a Browning Mark 3 in 7mm Rem mag. I have one and cannot believe the mild recoil this rifle has.
