My wife had the 270 tag. We spent quite a bit of time hunting during both archery and rifle seasons. Archery was quite frustrating; saw a few nice bucks but the deer numbers in whole were very underwhelming. Rifle season was fun; more deer overall and again we saw a few nice bucks. Seemed to be...
My son drew a youth tag in 2014. The hunt was an absolute blast! We didn't see another hunter in the woods and the weather was fantastic. The bulls were still screaming, and he ended up taking a beautiful 6x6. Hope you can draw in the 5 year time frame!
Heck yes, with the premium bullets that are available to today's hunter the 25-06 is plenty of gun! You're on the right track by starting them with a low recoil rifle.