Thanks for the welcome and I'm glad to see that there is still so much conversation and exchange of ideas on this page! So a little background on myself: I just graduated college and am currently sitting at what I like to consider my quarter-life crisis. I've been absolutely obsessed with the idea of hunting Africa (and read all I can about India and Asia as a whole...so that Gaur picture was REALLY appreciated and a treat to see) since I got into collecting hunting books at around 14 or 15. I love the idea of having guns in these "classic" African cartridges and high up on my list have been old East German metric calibers (namely the 10.75x68 and the 9.3x64 Brenneke). I don't know what stood out to me about about this caliber, but its been a toss-up between that and the .404 in my mind and it came down to the 10.75 strictly because people don't hunt with it anymore. Horrible reasoning I know but I blame the books for that one. Realistically speaking, this gun wouldn't necessarily be a buffalo gun until down the line and even then I'd prefer something bigger.
For the tl/dr: It's a caliber I've read about and wanted to shoot since I was a teenager, and I figured it would be a fun gun to start off a collection!
For the (seemingly large amount) of .404 advocates out there: any big differences on actions that would be required to hold it? I know it's a longer cartridge so at that point you'd be looking at something magnum length?
And as I type this I see that someone was kind enough to post the exact book that started me on this question! there's a permanent bookmark on page 96 of my copy of African Rifles and Cartridges since I've wanted this gun for so long.