Jamesd1187;
Good morning to you sir, I hope this calm November morning finds you well.
While I can't say they are by any stretch a 'Fire favorite, I've come close to picking up a 96 Swede in 9.3x57 either from tradexcanada or from a chap I know who seems to always have one for sale from there at his table at the Penticton gun show.
The ones I've handled seemed like veritable magic wands to me and the cartridge just has to work,
They are reportedly very sedate arms to shoot too - much less so than say their bigger cousin in 9.3x62.
I suppose it depends on where you're at in your shooting journey James, but as I left my forties behind me somehow the fun of heavy recoiling rifles vanished along with my close range vision......
Oh, at one time I did shoot a .338 and with it we killed something like 3 medium/small black bears and at least 2 meat mulie bucks too.
Somehow James, while all the animals died, they didn't die any quicker than with my '06, my wife's ..308 or my late father's 6.5x55 for that matter.
A very good friend had an late '80's Sako in .375 H&H and did some guiding up north with it for black bears, grizzly, moose and goats. As I recall he said there wasn't much difference that he'd noticed between the .338 loaded with 250gr Partitions or X's and his .375 loaded with either type of bullet in the corresponding weights for the .375 - 270gr maybe?
That said, we both thought his Sako .375 was easier to shoot well off the bench than my Ruger 77 .338, but that could be stock design/fit coming into play too.
Anyway, I guess if you want to shoot it a lot I'd recommend a more sedate round, but if you want a boomer to take to the range when you feel like loosening your dental work and relieving some neck tension, then by all means go for at least a .375H&H.
Actually I hear the .378 Weatherby in a stock that doesn't fit the shooter can be a memorable shooting experience, and I vividly recall a now gone shooting friend's Browning HiPower in .458 being quite something to touch off.
Good luck on your rifle quest whichever way you decide James.
Dwayne
