I went with the 300 so that I could hunt brown bears. I talked to a guide out of Alaska, he said the 300 magnum is the smallest gun he would recommend. It will take down any animal in North America, and for some game it's way too much power, but hey, at least I won't have to do much tracking. My first choice was the Browning A-bolt, couldn't afford it so I went with the Savage because of the floating barrel and the price tag was nice. I didn't go Winchester because I hate the look and feel of their synthetic stocks. The Savage is not in the least bit an attractive gun, but it gets the job done. I reload, and worked up a charge the will put five shots all touching each other at 100 yards. Since then I put on a Simmons 24 power scope and a bipod. For fun we shoot aluminum cans at 500 yards. Two things I don't like about the gun is one, the recoil, it's the only gun I fired that has given my shoulder bruises, a nice reciol pad will probably take care of that. The second frown is on the magazine, or lack of, the rifle holds two plus one, I would like to carry more rounds, small things that would make the rifle better in my opinion. Overall I like the gun, however if I wasn't going to hunt bears I would probably go with the 7 mm for its flatter trajectory.