When did moose hunting rifle have to be lightweight? My moose rifles all weigh empty around 7 1/2 lbs.. Anyhow I take either one but if something goes sideways ie forget 338-06 ammo at home you are screwed unless you find a forum member up here that could square up on using there press. So I would opt for the 300 WSM..
That's true about ammo that's not locally found.
My newest Ruger Hawkeye weights over 8 pounds empty. I asked MacMillan to make sure I didn't get a lightweight stock, and the response was, "the stock I am making for your .338WM is designed to be as heavy as possible to help with recoil." The same can be said about a .375H&H, as out of the box is not lightweight. But that extra weight helps with recoil.
So you build an extra cumbersome rifle to handle the recoil you would not need to worry about with a more modest and equally deadly cartridge... got it...
Perhaps you, as usual in this forum, are imagining something that isn't? The rifle I am referring to is already heavy, even with its 22" barrel. It is a Ruger Hawkeye African model that has a beautiful walnut stock. I replaced the stock with a McMillan fiberglass one, that with a decelerator recoil pad installed, fits my LOP. This rifle is not cumbersome at all, and in fact its heftiness does help with recoil. I am certain that you are old enough to have at least heard of the great number of published articles that relate to taming rifle recoil, and that rifle weight is one of the methods used...
Okay, change the word "build" to "select"... I initially chose build because you modified it and used recoil taming as a reason for your selection. There is no way a Hawkeye African is as light and handy as an ordinary commercial rifle with a 22" barrel. It simply is not. I am more than a little familiar with the concept of taming recoil. When building stocks for rifles with potentially sharp or heavy recoil I start with cast to mitigate recoil. If it needs weight I can add it, but it still comes back to selecting a rifle with potential recoil issues for questionable gains at that increased "cost" of compromises.
Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
