A 257 Roberts and a 35 Whelen? The 2 perfect rifles? Don't know about that (variety is the spice of life) but just coincidentally those are the 2 rifles I was shooting last weekend in preparation for the Pennsylvania deer season.

The 257's a Ruger 77 that I swapped a Browning A-Bolt for a few years back. Liked the Browning but like the Ruger better (less glitzy) and I finally got a 115 gr BT load that'll shoot under an inch.

The Whelen is the Grice 700 CDL I mentioned earlier in this thread. It flat shoots! I adjusted the trigger to ~2.75 pounds and put a Nikon Pro Staff 3-9 on it and have done nothing else. It shot the Remington 200 gr. factory loads into a 4-shot 0.8 inch group and did the same thing with 2 different handloads with 225 gr Nosler BT's. I was very happy. And you're right, it's not much of a kicker.

In short, I'm real pleased with the CDL and this caliber. Can't wait to hole a real live critter with it. -WSJ