If you're seeing that many deer and you think its a good lease it really might be worth trying to work with the rancher, because good leases are very hard to find. - especially one you can afford.

I've also seen 'rules' all over the place.  at some ranches all the rules are 8 pts and beyond the ears.  Others are you can't shoot a buck before you take a doe.  They vary from landowner to landowner and sometimes from year to year. 

I suspect a lot of these statements you're hearing are more about a buck's age being related to his peak antler growth.  Deer usually reach peak antler development anywhere from 5.5-7.5 years, depending on where you hunt and to some degree who you ask.  And really, unless a landowner has enough acreage to really control a deer population's age structure, finding deer in that old in fair chase conditions is not all that common. So, shooting a 4.5 year old deer may be fine depending on hunting pressure and several other factors.   

I can understand about the difficulty in aging deer.  Back where I grew up if it had horns you shot first and asked questions later.  We're still relatively new to it too.  One of the best books we've seen on aging bucks is "Observing and Evaluating Whitetails" by Dave Richards and Al Brothers.  The Quality Deer Management Association has also recently come out with another publication from these same authors, "A Field Guide for Aging Whitetail Bucks on the Hoof".

No doubt I'd go with a Remington.  Great gun, especially for the price.  My Sendero is the most accurate out-of-the-box gun I've ever owned at well under 1" groups with factory ammunition.  Don't skimp here or on the optics - you get what you pay for.  A good rifle-scope combination, if taken care of, will last you for decades.

You're also going to find that there are a wide number of opinions here on caliber selections.  I'll try to be as unbiased as I can:

The .270 definitely has its merits: its realtively flat shooting up to 130 grains, ammunition is easy to find, and it doesn't kick nearly as hard as a .30-06.  The .30-06 is a great round too, not anywhere as flat as the .270, but you can take just about any game animal in the U.S. with it (except big bears).   It has a wide bullet weight range of 150 to 180 grain (some load a round nose 200 grain too).  The .30-06 I owned was a tack driver but it also had a pretty good kick to it. 

Frankly, if you're going to think in the .270 or .30-06 range I'd recommend a 7mm Remington Mag.  It shoots flatter than a .270, is a great whitetail round with 140 grain bullets (available from several manufacturers) or even 150 grain if your rifle won't shoot a 140 grain well (different rifles like different bullet weights).  It doesn't kick like the .30-06 either in my opinion.  Ammunition is as easy to find as a .270 too.

A lot of folks will say the 7mm Mag is too big for whitetail...hogwash.  We're talking about the difference in bullet diameter of 0.277" for a .270 versus 0.284" for a 7mm.  That's 0.007".  To compare, most .270 hunters I know of use a 130 grain for whitetails so that's 10 grains difference in bullet weight.  The key to the 7mm is that it'll sling an equivalent bullet about 10% faster than a .270 due to the case construction.  Also, with the 7mm you have a pretty wide available bullet weight range of 140 grain to 165 grain (175 grain for handloads) so the round will handle all the way from pronhorn to elk.

Fact of the matter is that the best cartridge depends on your hunting conditions.  Since you don't know exactly what that will be for the next 20 or so years you want to get a round that'll handle about anything.  To me the .270, .30-06, .308, 7mm-08, .264 Win Mag, and several others will handle your situation well.  But, if you're looking for a combination of flat trajectory, ease of purchasing, less kick (as compared to a .30-06), and versatility the 7mm Mag is the way to go.

I recommend a .308/.30-06 unless you have a well made bullet for that .243 (i.e. something that will penetrate like partition, bonded spitzer, triple shock, etc.).  If you go for heart/lung shots hogs, especially big ones, have a sheath of cartilage around their vitals that can be hard to penetrate, and I've seen bullets fragment on that cartilage unless the bullet can stay together. 

If you shoot them in the ear hole that'll sure do the job, but you also have to be confident in your shooting skills.

BTW, if you can't tell already not everyone is going to have the same opinion!

Brandon,

I've never really used a grunt tube as a means of calling a deer in, but mostly as a means to convince a deer that I was another deer, or like you said earlier trying to get a deer to associate my movement with a non-threatening one.  We also use grunts to try to get a deer to stop so we could shoot it.