God Bless you NoMercy! I thought maybe I was all alone regarding big bores! Seems to be fine to hunt geese with 12gauge 3.5 inch magnums or 10 gauge automatics but inconceivable to most folks to move up rifle caliber along with the body weight of the animal being hunted! I currently shoot a 375HH although I like 338Mags a lot. I've been looking at the 416 Rigby vs 416 Rem Mag and go after something bigger than elk or something dangerous. Any thoughts on the Rigby vs Remington trade off? Also, even though I'm partial to Winchester Model 70's the Czech made CZ-550's are tempting me at $599 new, are you familiar with them - any thoughts?

It is a mystery to me, it only takes two, maybe three (depending on your taste) rifles to cover the North American continent. People will make those lexus payments, buy all sorts of other stuff, and then spend thousands and thousands on a hunting trip and just take grand daddy's old deer gun instead of spending a few bucks to gear up. In answer to your question as to "shunning" I think the answer falls to one of the following: "hunting on the cheap" (as above), "fear of caliber" (real or imagined) or "herd mentality" (wouldn't be good to be different).

Good judgment comes from bad experience! Half of elk hunting is knowing what NOT to do!

EKM

Edited by - ELKampMaster on 12/27/2002 12:24:38