On paper and in the books, there is no denying that the 7 Mag shoots flat, hits pretty hard,is now popular and evryone has ammo for them but in the field I just never was impressed with anything about them except the recoil. I have owned five of them including two Rugers a Savage, a Remington and the first one was made for Wards many years ago when they first came out. I have had a couple 280's that would come so close velocity wise with less powder and quite a bit less recoil. Three 280's, two Remingtons and an NEF with a 246 inch barrel. I started out wanting to like the 243 and 7 Mag and really in the end, I was disappointed greatly by both. Maybe I expected to much, maybe its just a personel hangup. The same goes for the 300 Win Mag. In my opinion, all things considered for price, availability, versitility and performance in the field, I consider it to be probably the best choice for an all around NA big game rifle. However after owning three, I am very happy with the 308 these days. I seldom shoot beyond 300 yards and the 308, 7mm-08, 7x57, 6.5x55 and a few other in that class will get the job doe with less blast and recoil and are, to me, just a lot more fun to shoot.