Thank you Homers Bro.
You are more articulate than I, not to mention more polite, but you and I are singing from the same page of music.

Homer,

I posted:

"To TheFiganator,

To be frank you need to find out more about guns and hunting.

Six hundred yards is very far to shoot at anything and then to want the rifle not to make a big hole in a deer labels you as a neophyte.

Your choice of a 700 means that you don't know much about hunting rifles yet.

How old are you?"

I view the 'OP' as a beginner who needs to learn more.

just let me say this, shoot a high intensity cartridge that will handle an elk at 600, and shoot a good controlled expansion bullet in it, stay off the shoulder the first 200 yards and it will not vaporize a deer, any premieum bullet will penetrate at long range, even a cup and core bullet will penetrate farther as it slows down. I have never shot an elk (hope to someday, but not imperative) but I have shot through 5 ft of whitetail after hitting the hip socket at extended distances, and have fully penetrated them at well beyond 1000 yards with good bullets.
BTW my 7mm Allen Magnum retains 2268 ft/lbs of energy at 600 yards with a 160 gr. nosler accubond.
not asking anyone to agree with what I do, but I have been there and done it more than most, just freely offering my experiences.
RR

Are you talking about some new chambering none of us are familiar with yet? Or are you editorializing about a rifle you must not care for?

I can see where you might assume that someone's a "neophyte" by the questions he asks, but laying into him about his choice of rifle certainly doesn't reflect that you're much beyond being one more critic with an opinion at this point.

To the OP: We were all "new" to this lifestyle at some point. Don't worry about your gear or what people might say about it. Just learn to use it well.

I think we should take up a collection and get RR a .50 Barrett.
Then he can entertain us with tales of his deer (not elk) kills at 1500 yards and over.

For the record, I'm not disagreeing with what YOU do, or questioning YOUR experiences. I'm sure you'd agree that one doesn't put on some Google-fu, buy a rifle and scope, and become an accomplished long-range hunter overnight? Oh, but if it were that easy.....?

If I've learned anything from shooting precision rifle, it's been to listen to the guys who've been doing it longer than me. You're never old enough or good enough that you can't learn something you didn't know and become even better.

But those of us who do know even a little about long-range marksmanship also need to be careful that we don't over-encourage the new guys to write checks with their gear that their skills can't yet cash. I've had links forwarded to me of guys like Carlock and Hodnett by less-experienced guys who think what they do is cool - but who don't exactly see it as the product of patience, discipline, and dedication to the craft that we know it to be. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I'm guessing that might be close to what BullCamp's been saying all along, too?

Our OP needs to get himself a rifle before he's able to do much of anything. It probably doesn't do any of us much good to fan the flames of expectation much until he gets that box checked?

+1

That's some good advise !!!

"Be careful of the guy who only owns one gun, he usually knows how to use it."

Only if he's going to share it with us!

We'll let him buy the ammo, if he can find it. I think we might even come out ahead on that deal?

And right back at ya!

That's probably why the pronghorn, deer, and elk let me get so close to them. They know I have more than one rifle and can get powerful confused about which one I'm shooting at the moment.

But, for the longest time, I did own just one (centerfire) rifle. It got me onto a good path.

I own several rifles but there is one that I carry about 95 percent of the time when hunting. The rest are fine rifles but never get taken out much. I guess theres a lot of the one gun philosophy in me. It was my grandpa's way because one rifle was all he could afford. The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.