jwall, I got my old .300 in about 1970.. Great caliber.. BUT as you mentioned necking the 7mm R. up to .30.. Brought to mind a couple guys I met in Casper.. They told me that had developed a round that would beat the 300WM by a huge margin.. The necked the 7mm R up to .30 cal.. a real super winner.. They were young 25 or so.. When you are old, life is really interesting!!!
, to an 18 mile sheep mountain, backpacking. Met two guys about my age coming back out after failing to navigate a mountain some 5 miles farther in. Scruffy, bearded, looked dirty personally, but newly Safari clad, with brand new Weatherby's.. I took them for drug dealers. Our short encounter ended when they asked me what I was carrying.
".243."
"I never heard of that caliber"
"Well, i gotta get going now!"
The mountain that defeated them has a name, but we just call it "Big Ugly". Looks bad, but really a piece of cake, as long as you go (nearly) over it (there is a bench about 90 feet lower than the peak) and not try to side-hill at elevation as they did. That could kill you! Just stay on the caribou trail that goes right up the crest of the spur. If there's no game rail around the side of the mountain, it's likely not a good idea..... and if you are too stupid not to follow game trails... well!
!
I killed a full curl in there that year and the next, with that .243, which I still have but have never warmed to..My wife took another full curl on our honeymoon the third year, with a .270 (now an '06 - both were/are bug hole shooters until my brother left the 270 in a damp basement over-winter, and I had to re-barrel..). He r ram was bigger , of course.....
. I took my rams at about 30 and 100 yards, respectively, and hers was at about 35.
Even a gun you don't like can work! I still have that .243, and still don't like it, tho i've got it shooting MOA, instead of the 2 pls it has for the last 40 years, and literally tons of game. Just cuz it works, doesn't mean I have to like it....
