Semper fi, beretz. Those are some nice rifles and a heck of a elk. If I had already had either a .338 Win or a .300 Wby, I doubt I ever would have bought the .340 Wby, when I first went to AK.

Lee, and others who think the .340 Wby recoil would be too much, have you tried wearing a good recoil pad on your shoulder when at the range? This is a sincere question. It makes a huge difference. And I'm not suggesting anyone needs to get a .340, as any of the other rifles mentioned above work great I'm sure. I was just making the point that the .340 has as flat of a trajectory as any other mass-produced cartridge that can produce 2,600 ft-lbs of energy at 500 yards.

On the recoil pad thing, my father, when he was getting ready to go to Alaska with me, is recoil sensitive with rifles. He was considering taking my Rem 700 BDL 300 Win Mag, but thought the recoil would be far above what he could tolerate. I sent it to him with some Federal 180gr TSX loads to try---along with the recoil pad. He was shocked at how little the recoil bothered him. He had shot it when he was 22 years younger, and didn’t like it at all, but it didn’t bother him at all with the pad on his shoulder, and he was getting 1/2" groups with it.

Similarly, my 11-yr-old son doesn’t like to shoot his (inherited from his older brother) .243 Youth model a ton, but with the Past pad, pictured, below, he likes it, and on Saturday, most of his 100-yd groups were right around an inch.

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Here are my best two groups with the .340 on Monday (shot while wearing a similar pad, like this one: https://www.cabelas.com/product/sho...-s-rifle-recoil-pad/2370690.uts?slotId=2):

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The padding really does make a difference at the range, but you’ll never need it for one or a few shots in the field, especially if you have something exciting in the crosshairs.