Andy, quigley answered it for me.
I've been a long-standing non-magnum advocate. I'm not quite anti-magnum, but I'm definitely a non-magnum kind of guy.
There simply are very, very few instances where a magnum anything is absolutely necessary - and also very few people who can take advantage of those few opportunities. Paper ballistics simply do not equate to real-world field results. A cartridge that has a couple of inches less drop and a hundred feet per second more speed at a given range means absolutely nothing when the shooter has to contend with unknown range, unknown wind, moving game and mirage - not to mention a hammering heart, wheezing lungs and a flood of adrenalin.
Add all that into a compact, lightweight rifle that really whacks the shooter with blast plus recoil, inspires at least a dollop of subconscious fear AND is expensive to feed with factory ammo; you have a package that seldom gets shot in practice (at ANY range) . It's a combination that I frankly cannot recommend to a stranger. So I don't.
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