Well said Portage. I often wonder why, when I was young, the first rifle was always a 30-30. For the cartridge, it has lots of recoil. If you can shoot a 30-30, you can sure shoot a .243 or a 257. If the recoil from either one of those is too stiff, maybe we should be waiting alittle longer to start hunting. Just my $.02, no offense intended to anyone.