Well folks, yet another update....
If you read my last post about ordering my rifle from Hill Country, you may have noticed that I mentioned that I was going back and forth between the 7mm. Rem. Mag. and the .300 Win. Mag. and had decided on the 7mm.

Well....I left Hill Country and as my wife and I had dinner and did some shopping, the "caliber quandry" STILL bothered me.

Since we stayed in 20 min. from Hill Country for the night, I called Matt back this morning and told him I was still second guessing myself about the caliber. I only thing really holding me back from the .300 Winny was all the posts I've read about how it was a considerable step up from the 7mm. in recoil.
I headed back to Hill Country to talk to him a little more about it.

Not only did he discuss the differences in calibers more with me, he took me to their accuracy range. It's a 100 yard underground shooting range. Pretty cool!

They had a "test rifle" in .300 Win. Mag. that was similar to what I was ordering, and he let me shoot it a few times so I could see what the .300 BEAST was really like.....it was NOTHING.

If I had been blindfolded and told I was shooting a 7mm. Rem. Mag., I never would have known the difference.
I was shocked at how little difference there was between the .30-06 and 7 mag. recoil that I was used to!!!

So....I changed my order from a 7mag to the .300 Win. Mag. and did away with the fluting of the barrel.
The rifle I shot was about 9lbs. scoped, and the one I'm ordering will be around 8lbs. scope, so I know that will give me a little difference, but I don't forsee any problems.

I was VERY worried about the scope coming back and catching me over the eye, so I had my wife video me shooting with her cell phone. I wasn't even close to making contact.

This was also a right handed rifle, so the cant and cast off were opposite of what they should be for me, and my stock will have a monte carlo cheekpiece to help with my cheek weld and (I've heard) soak up a LITTLE more felt recoil than a straight stock.

I'm excited all over again!!!

Now....for the scope. We talked and looked a good deal at the Swarovski Z3 model.

Hmmm.....decisions decisions.......