Dakor
Just a thought, but, of all the rifles I have owned, handloaded for and hunted with...the .340 Weatherby is my favorite. In fact, it is the only cartridge that I wish I had never gotten rid of in all my gun trades. Iv'e enjoyed trading guns, developing loads and hunting with the various cartridges for 30 years and I believe that the .340 is one of the VERY best.
My first exposure to the .340 was at the suggestion from Bob Hagel (early gun writer, experimenter and pack and guide) in Salmon Idaho, (a old friend and where I grew up) years ago. I had asked Bob what he thought was the best all around hunting cartridge and he said there are two....the .340 and the 375 H&H. He said "just get the .340, shoot everything with it from Bears to Antelope, and you'll be happy. I waited about five years before I finally tried the .340 but darned if he wasn't right. I always felt very comfortable on shots to 450 or 500 max range with it, and when used on deer at around 50 yards, it did not blood shoot or tear up the meat...which was due to the heavy jacket bullet wall construction. I shot 8 deer with it at very close range just putting the bullet into the boiler room, and they would drop on the spot with all but no blood shot meat...i.e. don't shoot the shoulders with anything this big though, I suspect it would blow a lot of bone through the meat. Hornady bullets from 200 to a max of 250 worked fine.
In the Weatherby's with good triggers it was a superb shooter, packed enough energy for the tough bigger game, didn't blood shoot the lighter game, and had a good trajectory. I don't know what more I could want.
I shoot mostly the 300 Rem Ultra and the 7 Rem Ultra now, but I wish I had my old Weatherby with the good trigger back. Oh well, guess it's time for one more final gun trade huh.
regards
Paul
