You guys can have your 7 x 57 rifles, I'd rather have a .275 Rigby, original of course!

Quite honestly, I think the 6.5 x 55 loaded with the the 140gr spitzer is seriously under-rated and would be the best compromise all-round small-bore for that application, as vapodog suggests. Personally though I am a self-confessed victim of nostalgia, and would willingly handicap myself with the 6.5 x 54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer! I'm just a sucker for those lovely little carbines which chamber that round!

In my own personal hunting and shooting ethos, there are far more important things than ballistics!