http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm

this might help.

Range and accuracy? Either should do equally well.

Recoil is subjective to the shooter, some people are more sensitive than others, hard to say one way or another. There are a handful of calibers that are intermediate between the 223 and 308 that can be ethically used to hunt big game, although that is dependant on the species of big game and shot distance. The 243, 6.5 creedmoor are pretty popular choices