I am glad I stopped at the Weatherby. "A man has got to know his limitations" to quote Clint Eastwood. Now my wonderfully accurate SAKO 300 WM mostly is a safe queen but I plan to fix that by using 130 & 150 grain bullets on deer. A bigger cartridge would not increase my range as it is the shooting that limits things. Like: no rest, winded, shaky, windy you name it.

Elk have been taken cleanly at close to 1000 yards with a 243. Marine snipers use the 300 WM to 1,800 yards. But neither gets me much past 400 or maybe 500 if conditions are perfect which they never are. Letting one walk will bug me for a while, wounding and loosing one would bug me for the rest of my life.

"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred." Niccolo Machiavelli