In 1980 I walked into a sporting goods store in Petersburg, VA with the intentions of buying a Remington Model 700 in .270 and a 2x7 Redfield Widefield scope...I ended up buying a Ruger M-77 in .243 with a Bushnell Scopechief with BDC 3x9x40...The gun was $249 and scope $127...After talking with one of the owners, he suggested a .243 mainly because I travelled alot with John Deere and planned to also hunt groundhogs in the mountains of VA and also use it for their fall turkey season...I have never bought another centerfire....

I do have a couple of guns that are "different"...a .40 caliber flintlock that I bought from Bob Watts in Stone Mountain, GA in 1977 and a .54 caliber flintlock that I finished in 1990...