Holy Cr@p, that's 15 minutes I'll never get back. Someone mentioned a train wreck I believe a few posts back, I concur. Tried to stop reading, but just couldn't.
To the OP, buy whatever makes you happy. Reload or factory, no matter. 7mm-08 is available in lots of factory offerings now, so unless you run out of ammo up in Bumrun, AB and need to, for some reason, buy a box from Bumrun Joe at the corner store, you'll find plenty of factory fodder for the chambering, and lots of premium bullet offerings. You MAY only have 2 shelves of ammo to choose from, rather than the 4 shelves of 30-06. Someone way back when mentioned the .280 Rem, it makes a nice compromise. You get the BC of the .284, but in a .30-06 wrapper
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Most importantly to me, is to buy a rifle that fits properly. I made the mistake of buying a Browning A-Bolt .300 Win Mag as my first hunting rifle. Got a good deal on it, it was a gorgeous rifle, and I was off to the races. The only issue was it didn't fit me well, and after sighting in the scope at the range, and every range session after that where I shot more that 8 or 10 rounds, my shoulder went all purple and eventually yellow for a good week following. Not to mention, the muscle felt a bit tenderized on the drive home, sort of like that jittery muscle feeling you get after a heavy work out session where you overdid it, but localized to just one shoulder and pec, lol. Not fun, and I unfortunately developed a flinch that to this day I still battle. Sorry, a bit of a tangent there, you did say recoil wasn't an issue for you. For those that it is a factor for, which have seemed to pop up in the thread, it was a real eye opener for me to get a bit informed on recoil, namely recoil velocity vs. recoil energy. Think 7mm Rem Mag vs .45-70.
For knock down power, I have a hard time thinking of anything in a .277, .284 or 30 cal that won't kill anything in AB.