Another thing to think about is barrel life. I am still shooting a .300 Win Mag I won in a raffle at an NRA banquet back in 1998, and its a Remington 700 ADL with a synthetic stock. It has a 24" barrel, and a blind magazine. I have a Shepherd 6 to 18 power V1 scope mounted on it, and it shoots into 1.3 to 1.4 inches at 300 yards. I've adjusted the trigger pull on the stock remington trigger to about 3.5lbs as measured by my friend and gunsmith, William Trotter. I've put around 2,500 rounds through it. I tested it at Fort Benning this Fall before going elk hunting in Colorado by shooting golf balls at 100 yards and bowling pins at 300 yards after zeroing it at 100 yards (5 shot groups, all less than 0.8, three inside 0.6"). My other 300 is another ADL with a 26" Stainless barrel, and it puts 5 rounds inside 0.9" with groups as small as 0.7". It has a 3.5 to 10 power scope, so I'm not as precise with it, I think. Mr. Trotter adjusted its trigger (xmark pro) to 3.5 lbs, too. Someday I'd like to put Timney triggers into both of them and both of my Whelens, but if I spend the money my wife will probably kill me with my own rifles-probably by beating me with them. Until then they will serve me as they are. The main thing is they work, and I have everything I need (not want) to make them work well. You should have seen the rangemaster's eyes when I put the golf balls out at the 100 yard mark and hit them with both the 300 Win Mag and the 35 Whelen. That was fun. Icing on the cake: they were my son-in-law's golf balls, so it didn't cost me anything.