Bill wrote:Hey Honda does Vtec better than anybody, Yamaha does a better version of 2 wheeled soul.
Anyway atleast you like Rugers. but hey maybe one day you'll come to like Howa's and stick one in your safe
Yeah, and VTec is so worth having
Suzuki lets you feel every tiny dent in the road intimately so you can do some amazing things with your bike.
I like Howa, a lot, they just have stupid chamberings that have zero appeal to me, Howa for me is akin to Honda, great rifles but with no soul, both feel like they have been assembled by robots to do the best job they can, and little else. When I heft one of my Rugers I very often think of the people working in the factories that built these rifles for me to get out and enjoy the bush as it should be enjoyed. I'm not sure Howa workers know what bush is
My two primary hunting cartridges I shoot more than any other high-velocity centrefires are the .204 and 7mm-08. If Howa had offered me those in the same platform seven years ago I might well have gone that way (although I had great Ruger experience already, and had never seen a Howa back then). These two mean my .223 and .243 rarely get used in anger, though both are still great fun to shoot. The .204 does everything I would ask of the WMR/HMR, the Hornets, and everything I used to use the .222Rem for, and it does most of the .223's donkey work (all the 40-50gn work). It also gives me a little more subsonic accuracy and less wind drift than the .22LR past 100m due to the jacketed 32gn bullets. It does have a little versatility due to the large case capacity, but its niche is still very narrow, you can only ask so much of bullets in the 24gn to 45gn realm (I do have some 55gn Bergers for when it's time to rebarrel). Without handloading though, it's has virtually no versatility, it just slings tiny little bullets at extreme velocities, like the .17's did forty years ago.
The 7mm-08 does most of what I would've used the .243 and 6.5x55mm for in the past, and everything I might want to do with most cartridges up to and including .30-06. The 7mm-08 is what the .308/7.62x51mm should have been. I can't bring myself to take the .243 out for deer when the 7mm-08 does everything so much better in exactly the same platform. The .243 gets about 3500fps out of 80gn bullets, the 7mm-08 makes about 3700fps, at 108gn the velocities are very similar, but there the .243 stops and the 7mm-08 just keeps going (mine shoots to around 175gn, but a rebarrel lets you use 7mm bullets up to 212gn or more, and at .30-06 velocities). I have no idea about factory ammo in 7mm08, but I would guess it's mostly in the 120gn to 162gn realm.
If I ever decide I do need something with more punch I figured it'd be the .300WinMag (got dies and brass years ago in anticipation), but it only adds a few hundred velocities (Who-Tee-Who lingo) over the 7mm-08. If I stalk 200m closer I can get the same energy out of the 7mm-08, and a better shot.
A very quick look at Hornady's heaviest factory ammo has the .300WinMag 180gn CX (their new copper bullet) making 2960fps and 3503lb-ft at the muzzle, and the 7mm-08 150gn ELDX 2770fps and 2555lb-ft. At 270m, the 7mm-08 is making 2315fps and 1784lb-ft, virtually the same as the .300WinMag at 400m, so just make a little more effort in the bush, and get 130m closer with the lighter rifle. Handloading fudges these figures, but it's just not a big enough step up to bother with. Hornady's own 8x57mm 195gn SP hits harder than their heaviest .300WinMag out to 300m, and I already have a pile of 8x57mm rifles.
That fairly well sums up why I consider .204 and 7mm-08 to be "bread'n'butter" chamberings that every rifle should be offered in