RE: Are bigger cartridges really better?
When I was a kid, I wanted to be the first on my block to have a .338 magnum, just because the biggest, coolest gun any of my friends owned up to that point was a 7mm magnum. There really wasn't any need for it otherwise, except for "show-off" value.
Early 20s I moved to AK. DM - your post is spot on. Just had to get a .375 H&H and .44 Mag pistol for those forays up to the Deshka or the Susitnas, or backpacking the Kenai. "For bears", I told myself.But I rarely ran into bears, and even those i did encounter seemed relatively uninterested in me - and I doubt it was because they had the clarity to recognize a M700 Safari Grade when they saw one.
Somewhere along the line I also decided I didn't need to impress the girls anymore, either. Found myself driving a 6-cylinder, full-size pickup with vinyl seats and no A/C or power windows. Yet, it would haul me and my stuff all over the place and I could focus on hunting and fishing, instead of what other people thought.
My Safari Grade's a fine example and owns a permanent spot in the safe. I have a synthetic-stocked Weatherby Vanguard that I beat the crap out of hunting elk sometimes (it's like a Timex) - which just HAPPENS to be chambered for .300 Wby Mag, though I'd much prefer it have been a .30-06. Wal-Mart had sold out of those (?)and all they had left was this one. Oh well.
I hunt coyotes, prairie dogs, turkey, pheasants, pronghorn, deer, and elk these days. There are only so many slots in my safe that I'd call "convenientily up front" and they're occupied by: a 12 ga O/U, a .22-250 Varmint rifle, my .30-06, and my .243. Behind them are .22s, some .223s, more 12 gauges. my wife's and daughter's shotguns and rifles, and my military/LE stuff. On the back wall are ..... the twomagnums. It takes a couple minutes to uncover them because I RARELY use them anymore. Why?
Now that I'm notworried about how big everyone else's Johnson is - likeI was back in high school -I find that it's how well you shoot and not what you shoot that matters the most. Make my go-to deer/elk rifle a .30-06.