Good, thoughtful post, JJ. Civility is indeed rare and always welcome by me! Anyhow, everywhere I've hunted boar have offered fairly close range opportunities as the terrain has been fairly thickly wooded. So long range capability has not really been an issue for me, hence the handguns that I frequently use. I also use my big bore rifles more for practice than necessity as I am planning to hopefully hunt Africa in the near furture and as I've stated elsewhere, I feel there's no better practice than on a live target. Do I need to use my .458 Lott on hogs? Why of course not, but as long as I'm doing my job (placing the bullet properly), it sure does its job with impugnity! Thanks for offering up your knowledge.