So is this guy getting all the hardware just to hunt out here?lol. Skip all the gunfighting stuff as homers brother said. You have two villains out here that you lack out east. The weather, and the terrain. The weather out here flips in minutes, not hours or days. It can be 70* and snow in the same day. It could be 50* one day and hours later the temps can plummet leaving an eastern hunter frozen, to death. The terrain can mess with your mind. What you think is a mile away is 10 miles away. That mountain ridge that looks just a ways away is 30 miles off. The air is dry here, real dry. You can dehydrate in hours. You need to know how to use a compass, map, navigate, and preferably know how to use a gps. Cellphones are useless in large amounts of the state. I never ran into another hunter when I was hunting out here. If you get out and walk off the trail, you wont see another person, and they may not find your corpse till spring. Instead of worrying about an expensive AR10 platform, get a bolt action or lever gun. Spend the money you saved on glass if you go with a bolt gun. That is the best advice I can give you. If you want to spend a bunch on a rifle, knock yourself out. We'll see you next season on here asking about a good rifle to use, because the one you got proved less than worthwhile for your needs.