Yeah, I'm sending mixed signals--partly because I often HAVE to hunt with non-standard rounds, as part of my job. Many readers aren't very interested in hearing what the .270 or .30-06 or .375 H&H will do, because they're rifle loonies and to them the rifle is as much a part of the story as the hunt.
But also as part of my job, I don't often pay full price for hunts, and sometimes nothing at all, though quite often there's still quite a bit of money sunk into travel, licenses, tips and other incidentals such as motels/hotels while going and coming from the hunts. For many years I averaged spending at least $10,000 a year, and sometimes considerably more, while flying somewhere just about every month. (I don't travel nearly as much as back then, by choice, both because I did just about everything I'd wanted to, and because I wanted to stay closer to home to hunt with family and friends.)
But because of traveling so much, and got to know so many other people who did it frequently, that I also learned pretty quickly how prevent problems, or have a solution ready if something did go wrong. I also know damn well I've been lucky not to have my ammo go astray on any big trip, because I've seen it happen to so many people, often through no fault of their own.
But knowing what I know now, if I was somebody who didn't work as a hunting writer, and instead saved a bunch of money from their regular job to go on a few dream trips in a lifetime, I probably wouldn't take a .280, or whatever cartridge some rifle loony has persuaded themselves is superior to so many world-wide standards that do the same things. In fact, I probably wouldn't dick around with nearly so many cartridges, instead sticking to a very few standards and thus saving money to spend on more hunting, whether near home or far away.
Now, if I owned some heirloom rifle that would add real meaning to a special hunt, but was chambered in some hard-to-find cartridge, I'd do it--but I'd also take along a second rifle in a standard chambering, just in case. In fact, as mentioned earlier that's what I often do when "field-testing" some oddball round. This can be a PITA, because I much prefer to travel with one rifle inside a take-down case, with a spare scope (though have also done some iron-sight-only hunts in both North America and Africa, which tend to be far more relaxing, because there's no worry about whether the scope might go bad and need to be switched, or rifle might get rolled on by a horse.)
Part of my job is to entertain, but part is also to provide readers with the benefit of my experience, whether with cartridges, rifles, game, travel or whatever. That's why I try lots of stuff, including taking oddball cartridges to strange places. But that doesn't mean it's not risky for somebody who saved for years to go on that that ONE dream to take a rifle in an oddball chambering. That's their right, of course, but it's also part of my job to say it's risky, and why.
