I'm mostly a hunter, so I try to get closer to my target any time I can. Therefore, I think the magnums of 6mm-.300 calibers are much over-rated. Yes, they DO flatten trajectory a bit, but very long shots are very deliberate affairs, so a small bit of extra holdover isn't much of a big deal. Recoil, however, usually is for very many hunters. I've known way too many guys who've hit a deer poorly with a std. cal. rifle, and not knowing how to track, the deer got away (or you could say they just left them in the woods?). They then went out to get a "bigger gun," always a magnum of some stripe, and proceeded to NOT shoot it enough to get very well acquainted with it, and consequently, missed most of the deer they got shots at even more widely than before going to the magnums. This just isn't rocket science, but ... so many just don't THINK and REASON these days, that it's becoming commonplace. And when you try to politely point out the facts, they don't seem to want to hear it. Ain't it funny how that works? Evidently, having the "prestige" of owning a magnum seems to outweigh the utility of being able to shoot whatever rifle one has. I don't understand this kind of "logic," but I see it all the time. There's a reason we lod farts get crotchety. We just get really tired of listening to excuses and outright silliness when we want to talk hunting and shooting. And we get kinda' tired of being told how wrong we are when we kill every deer we shoot at while so many of the stylish tyros miss most of them. Yes, it's hard for the urban crew to find a place to shoot, and expensive when they get there, but .... how expensive is the entirety of the hunt??? Economics alone seems to indicate that knowing how to shoot is the main ingredient, so if a fellow wants to shoot a .243/6mm, or a 378 Weatherby, I say more power to him AS LONG AS HE CAN SHOOT IT. Unfortunately, most of us can't shoot the big, loud magnums very much, and that inhibits accuracy and shot placement on game, so .... it's a no-brainer for me, but I seem to have a little different perspective than most these days. Logic just doesn't seem to be of much interest now.
