No insult intended
Normally I edit my posts quite carefully, I originally had more clarifying language added on but it sure isn't there now. I just palin missed it.

I'll try to clarify....

22 years 8 deer per year = 176 deer. That is a lot of deer, even if it wasn't 8 every year. They appear to be taken on a prettyregular basis.

** After 22 years (and xxx deer) are you getting any itching to tackle something bigger/further away and was that perhapsthe reason you bought your 300WSM? (Question #1).
--OR--
** Were you merely guiled (as seems to be the current complaint within the thread) by peer pressure and marketing hype and those manipulative gun writers? (Question #2)
--OR--
** Something else? (Question #3)

When I see something which strikes me as "different" or unanswered in my mind; it is not beyond me to inquireso I might better appreciate thedifferent viewpoint. I am curious about your reversion to your childhood gun and what it is driven by....
**Whim?
**Nostalgia?
**Boredom?
**The quest for more challenge? (e.g. Lots of folks have given up rifles for archery --- one could always go to a lower performing rifle in a quest for more challenge.)

I've got my childhood 30-30 in the safe, but the odds of it ever working its way into the "pole position" on one of my Big Game hunts is slim and none (not even for a back up rifle). You seem to have a nice rack of well spaced rifles. Just curious.