EKM,

I'll deferyour "stud" comment regarding Alaska to those who actuallylive up there permanently.

As to "degraded", I think I'll let you think about that one.

I'm not sure I understand what you're attempting toachieve byintroducing the ".22LR" argument? I'm sure you can think of manyspecies where a smaller caliber is in fact, better. And, I'm sure I can think of many species where a larger caliber is in fact, better.

But I think I'll borrow a line from your signature: "Learn from the mistakes of others". How about one regarding THIS topic (I certainly have more and am more than happy to share if it might save someone else the trouble):

If you want to buy a magnum, make certain it's for the right reason. I can't honestly say that I NEEDED that .375 for bears. I'd easily have gotten by with my .30-06 for as many chargingbears as I needed to stop (like, none). The money and timeI spent reading up on big bears and talking to experienced locals was WAY better spent. But hey, thatIS one long beast of a cartridge, isn't it? And that's probably the biggest reason I just HAD to have it.

Now, if your experience has been different, by all means post it. After all, it's just an opinion and the reader is left to decide which argument(s) is/are the most credible. And in the end, their choice is of no consequence to either of us - we'll continue whatever it was we were doing before.