Velo Dog I agree with you whole heatedly. That being said the 300wm is having to stay at home this summer. We are only bringing 2 rifles, the 416 for my DG and a tricked out Ruger 270 for plains game. My kids will be hunting the plains game and the 300 is just too much for them to handle. My ph said the 270 will work fine. Plus, it's extremely accurate and the kids really shoot it well.
Hi again Gizmo,
First off, I salute you for being a proper Father.
If more men were willing to nurture their children like you obviously are, this crazy sad world would not be so crazy and sad.
Regarding your calibers, one of my friends here in the frozen north (Bob Barnes - no relation to the bullet company) has hunted multiple countries in Africa, during multiple safaris with no less than the .270 Winchester and the .416 Remington cartridges, from the tiny ones, on up through buffalo, hippo on land and one bull elephant so far.
I'm not saying he never borrowed a PH's rifle here and there in some other caliber because, he may have but, I do not know.
However, according to himself, the .270 and the .416 Remington are his magic recipe' for success and so will be your Ruger version with the .270, no doubt.
My only brush with the Remington version .416 was with the original synthetic stock Model 700 new release in the late 1980s, as I recall.
With Remington factory live 400 grainers, it was too much recoil for me personally but the guy who bought it was a very smallish built little guy and he claimed the recoil did not put him off much at all.
Right here, I must also admit that I own the Rigby version and I load it down by about 150 fps for the same reason (and mine weighs 11 pounds !)
As for the .270 Winchester, I have had more than one of those, including a dreaded Pre-64 Model 70 in excellent condition, among other brands and models.
Yours truly has shot a good number of caribou and black tail deer with the .270 and cannot complain about it however, I don't happen to own one at the moment.
These days, if I was to go for a cartridge in this category, I would prefer the 7x64 Brenneke but admittedly it is mostly just to try something different, as much as it is that it will handle 160 to 175 gr bullets very well (lately I am told that 160 gr and even heavier bullets are available in .277 diameter as well so, that is really not a huge point to argue).
At the end of the day, I am confident that yourself and your young'uns will count coupe and bring back many happy memories of success after success, combined with high adventure.
Happy New Year,
Velo Dog.