I've read Jack's article and books since the 50's. It was his writings that got me to buy one of the first 7X57's that Ruger made, hollow bolt knob and all. After using a borrowed 30'06 for my first deer, a cheap Marlin .35 Remington for my second and having gone through two 7 mm Remington Magnums for my next bucks, the 7X57 Ruger was quite a surprise. I found I could shoot that rifle better. Not just off the bench or on a "good day." I could consistantly shoot it better than any of the others. Some of it was a better trigger. Some of it was less recoil. Some of it was simply a nicely balanced rifle with a simple 4X scope. I cuckled a good deal when Jack wrote of his observations during an african hunt. There were three 7mm rifles in their party. A 7X57, with Nolser Partition handloads. A .280 and a 7mm Remington Magnum were the other two. Again with good ammo. He wrote that he couldn't see any difference in how well any of them killed various african antelope. He and his pals seem to think that the critters shot with the 7X57 may have taken one or two more steps than the 7X57 vs. the other two. He concluded that his comments may have caused a magnum fiend to have a stroke, but that he said is what observed. I no longer own that 7X57. The action from that rifle is the basis for my custom .280. Since experience has taught me that it is not necessary to get more velocity than the 7X57 to get the job done, I don't worry about getting the last 100 fps from that round. And, sure enough, that rifle does the job. It's a little heavy, 8.5 lbs., but, unlike my other two custom/customized rifles, it doesn't need any modifications done to it to make me happy. E
