Thanks fellas for all of the advice.
I've pretty well settled myself back to a 458WM for the extra bullet weight, but I know ~10-15yrs ago it didn't have a good following. I've also gotten a little "spooked" by these posts on here - by fellas that have more experience on African Game than I'll ever have - that the 416's aren't suitable for super-weight game, which was contrary to what I'd heard/read/experienced in the last 20yrs. The 458WM also has the advantage of availability and I think has more staying power than the 416 Ruger, at least a better bet.
My only concern with jumping on the 458WM is that I'm trying to flesh out whether the Ruger standard length will handle that much recoil - both are 5,000ft.lbs, but energy doesn't mean as much to me as momentum - which the 458WM has in spades. I've been talking to Ruger a bit, apparently the M77 Magnum was the same dia bolt and same thickness/size receiver, just longer than the Long Action. Once I can confirm that, then I'll have no problem dropping the 458 into a long action Hawkeye.
And C'mon Jaco, gotta cut me some slack, hunts are PLANNED on paper
![Wink ;) ;)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/twitter/twemoji@14.0.2/assets/72x72/1f609.png)
I spend a lot more time building and shooting firearms than hunting with them, so that's part of the fun for me. I'm really just trying to clean house in my safes. I've owned over 300 firearms in the last 20yrs, more than 100 of them in safes right now, with a great number of which I just don't care about, but have needed/used/wanted at one point or another. I'm building two rifles for my wife and I right now based on the premise of "beware the man with one rifle" so we can use the same rifles for everything we hunt, no matter what country. I've had 5 "big bore" rifles suitable to this task in the last 15yrs, none of which I loved (all were great, though) - ideally I'll never own another one after this one gets finished. Everything I want, everything I need, nothing I don't.
Thanks again fellas!