I was fortunate to hunt Coues a couple of times. Took one buck, a 6 point. Anyway I used a Ruger #1 RSI in 7x57. I liked it and it was about all I could hope for in a rifle. I went with another guy and he used a .257 Roberts built on a Mexican Mauser. He had to shoot his buck as second time. though to be fair the first shot was a little far back.

Now we used guns we already had in or safe's. If I were to specially look for a rifle I'd look real hard at nice slim single shot in a round that gave ballistics similar to the 25-06. Perhaps the 6.5x65R? What's wrong with the .270?

Bill