I grew up in Colorado and have lived almost all of my life in either Colorado or Montana. I was 19 when I started big game hunting and my first centerfire rifle was a "standard" .30-06. For about 10 years I shot my Mule deer and Elk every year with that .30-06. I then had it re-chambered to .30 Gibbs which gave me almost .300 Win mag ballistics.


I was 54 when I bought my first Magnum rifle, a "standard" Remington 700 in 7 mm Rem mag. Five years later I bought a .375 Rem Ultra Mag for an African Cape buffalo hunt. It was also a "standard" rifle with a 26" barrel. That rifle was the hardest kicking rifle that I had ever shot, and on its first trip to the range I quit shooting it after 6 shots.


There are things you can do to a rifle to reduce the "felt recoil". The first thing that I did to that .375 RUM was to put into a custom stock that fit me. I then had a KDF muzzle brake installed on it and I put a "recoil reducer" in its stock.


After those alterations, I was able to work up a sub moa load for it with .300 grain bullets and later another sub moa load with 270 grain bullets. I took that rifle on two African hunts and I comfortably shot several animals with it from prone positions.


Seven years ago I bought a .300 Weatherby. Before I ever shot it I made the same alterations to it that I had done to my .375 RUM - a stock that fits me, a KDF muzzle brake, and an in-stock recoil reducer. Its felt recoil now is less than the recoil of my .308 Win in the same weight rifle.


This .300 Weatherby has quickly become my favorite rifle, and I have shot at least 6 big game animals with it from prone positions. For the past few years I shoot a half dozen or so shells almost every week at the range from the prone position with my .300 Weatherby.


So far this year I shot a Dagestan Tur in Azerbaijan with my .300 Weatherby from a prone position, and Caribou in Quebec with my 7 mm Rem mag from a prone position.


My magnum rifles do not uncomfortably kick me and they are not safe queens!