Not to cross sabers with anyone here... but when Congress opens the checkbook wide, amazing things happen when you unleash the full potential of America industry. mRNA had been in a slow trickle of development for years. Covid was the rationale and the U.S. Gov't dollars were the catalyst.
When...
My favorite 300WSM with my preferred load has a jump of 0.185" and it shoots lights out.
The newer bullets with long ogive lengths and boat tails seem either like a long jump or are tolerant of it. I'd load it SAAMI and see how it shoots.
I had one of the Vanguard Deluxes in .257WBY. Very nice rifle that shot lights out. Ended up selling it to a buddy who's tipped over quite a few caribou with it.
Howa makes as good of a rifle as anyone- clean machine work and a solid design.
I'd tag in...
I've used the interlock quite a bit in the 308 and it plain works. Hot-Cors used to be the de facto bullet in the bottom tier Federal loads.
Not flashy, but they do the job when not abused by high impact speeds.
Back in the day, we shot a lot of Hot-Cars and Interlocks into stuff without a second thought.
I much prefer an Accubond on game...but I like shooting stuff more so I'll take what I can get these days!
I'm working on a decent deal on a Ruger Guide Gun in .375 Ruger.
I've had a couple of the Alaskans and like the overall package, but I'm not crazy about the laminated stock of the guide guns and the Hogue overmold of the Alaskan is kinda clunky.
What's out there worth looking at for...
I've loaded 180s with all three of those powders. We were starting from scratch with a new rifle and just loaded to book length.
H4831 worked really well- a little slow, but the accuracy was excellent. The H100V was the most consistent- SD and ES in the single digits. H4350 got us best MVs...
I've tried out the 178 ELD-X in a .308 carbine. In a pretty sedate load, I got a MV in the 2600 range and it worked great. I haven't shot a lot of game, but on caribou it did the trick at 200.
That rifle cries out for a 24" tube with the 25-06! I wonder what they were thinking with a 20" 6.5x55?
I came very close to picking up the Barrett version in 25-06 a couple of years ago...I passed and I'm still kicking myself!