bearhuntr, otis, and ELKampMaster, thanks for the advise. The answer to your question is yes, they are highenergy nosliers. That is what the gun shop recommended. And yes the rifle is fairly light, but that is the one that felt right. I wish I was hand loading but im not, however I am going to try my hand at it for my 06 to see how well I do.Do not worry that rifle is HOME, it is not going anywhere. I just cant get over the power that thing has[WOW] I have never shot anything that big before. I may have found a new way to remove stumps from the pasture. HA HA HA! ELKampMaster, you are right, this is definately a huge jump up to the big boys. Today at work I was telling everyone about this cannon, but I dont think they believe me so this weekend some of them are wanting to try their hand at it. You see, we have never needed anything like the 338 here so its like seeing the grand canyon for the first time. I really do want to thank everyone for their help. DAKOTA NUT 5.