"Too big" does seem to be my problem.

When I lived in Nigeria, however, my wife's father had a .30-06 that we used to hunt everything from birds to elephant. It was just that we had to use the correct load for the game we were going after: light loads for birds and heavy loads for big game.

I want to have one gun here in the States to use for the entire spectrum of game: from birds to bear. I thought caliber .308 was a good choice and I thought I had good company: Col. Jeff Cooper made his Steyr Scout Rifle in .308.

Buying another rifle would be expensive: in caliber .223, a DPMS Panther Bull A-15 is $915.00, an Bushmaster Varminter Rifle is $1,025.00 on Auction Arms. In my current economic situation, that would not be possible.

So, I feel rather stuck and want to what I could with what I had.

How about loads for caliber .222?

Sigh,

Leslie Nordman