Fats the lil "two fitty seven" is one of my favs. I haven't had one but have carried several afield on many occasions, been around them all my life and sold TONS of em. I am in the process of puttin together a Mark V of my own that is a combination of a synthetic MarkV and a Lazermark with rubbed wood. Weatherby called a similar rifle the "Euromark" I'm gonna call this one a "Redneckmark" . I'm not sure I would call the 257 a "soft recoiler" its the same case as the 270 and 7mm Wby (and essentially the same as your 300Win and the 7mmRem) so it's quite a bit of powder to "torch off". One thing about it, few guns are as flat a shooter as this round. Only the 257 Scramjet from Lazzeroni is a hotter 25 in commerical terms.

Roy Weatherby used it for everything, it was his favorite. He killed many elk. While it wouldn't be my first pick for elk, with a 100+gran TSX Barnes it will certainly put em in the dirt. For your deer and lope it will SMOKE EM like few others. I think you will like the big quarter, it's a neat gun and takes small calibers too the next level. I know I will cause an arguement here, but I had a 25/06 (a Vanguard no less) several years ago and that caliber did NOT kill as fast as the 257s that I have experience with! But again that's just my opinion and experiences.

Good luck,
RA