I've always been a shooter, hunted in my teens and early 20s. The last 8 years I've been upland bird hunting, shooting trap and reloading shotshells. 4 years ago my son showed interest in big game hunting so I bought him the 6.5CM and myself the 06. Both of us drew mule deer tags and brought home two bucks and I had a great bull elk tag that because of my short range set up I came home empty handed. Lesson learned, I could have shot a bull just under 500 yards If my rifle/scope was set up for shooting that distance. That's what has me wanting a flatter shooting caliber and more time at the range