After you have one good 22, one good shotgun , one good big game rifle and one good pistol it is all want. But so what. The need for something bigger or something small or something nicer is all relative to what you think you need. I am building a 416 taylor why because a want one no need,have a 338 a 300wm lots of smaller stuff. They all well kill anything I well be hunting for. But dam something big is just nice to have.

MIKE -----A good question that has made me recount why I have each rifle I now own and shoot. ----- I started off hunting whitetail deer with bow and arrow, in the days when a recurve bow was the biggest and best thing to hit in years. Liked it very much, got the feel of basic hunting the grunt way, then when I could not afford it, bought a 30-30 Marlin 336 anyway and started to enjoy the longer range shooting. Gee to be able to hit something at more than 30 yards was marvelous indeed. Moved on to a .308 Browning lever action and even added a fixed 3 power weaver scope on see thru mounts no less, and it served me well. Started earning more of the green stuff and got the opportunity to hunt Elk, moved up to a .300 Win mag in Model 70 that I paid $167.95 for and put a 3 X 9 Redfield on it, that would shoot one holers with reloaded 180 grain Nosler Partitions and still will, with no fancy gunsmithing. ----- Went to Alaska with it using handloaded ammo, killed a 91/2 ft. Brown Bear near Cold Bay, several Caribou for village subsistence meat and a trophy double shovel. An encounter on the Bear hunt with 4 big bears at once told me to move up in size of chambering. My next trip to Alaska for Moose saw me with a .340 Wby in very modest Sporter model that managed to get me a huge Moose in the middle of the Farewell Burn. A subsequent trip and more earning power later, gave me the excuse to move up to a pair of beautiful Custom .358 STA's which I now use along with the .340 and a .338 Lapua a buddy practically gave me. Many Elk, Deer, Caribou later I now have my eyes set on Africa. I am now in the process of perfecting loads for Cape Buffalo first then who knows what later, thus am shooting a .416 Rem and .416 Rigby. ----- To answer your question, my progression in chamberings of rifles has been a perceived need to improve my shooting power and efficiency to better hunt the animals I desire to take, or to be better prepared to protect myself in the territory I am hunting. Sorry for the long post, but I had to tell the whole story. Good shooting.

That is one of the best comments on the whole rifle/caliber situation I have read and my own experience is quite similiar. I do not have any .416s, but, have shot them and wouldn't mind having one rather than my .375s, if I hunted Alaska or Africa.

If, I were younger and accepted a guide's position in B.C. as I have been asked to do in the past, I would have a .416 Rem. as several people I know do.I see no point in this business of attempting to do everything with a .30-06 or .300 Win. I have been involved personally with more than 100 big game kills and really prefer to use rifles suited for the animal hunted, in the area I hunt in.

I do base almost all of my purchases on "want" rather than "need"; I only tell my long-suffering wife that I "need" four Pre-64 Mod. 70s in .338.........

I try to stay away from guns that I just want because I like them. That means I like too many of them and don't want to spend alot of money on things I'll hardly ever use.

I try to pick catriages that can cover lots of situations. But I tend to specialize a bit in gun types. For instances, I have a .308 that weighs 7.5 lb. empty w/ a 4X scope. It's my "go to" big game rifle. Then I have a 12 lb., long range rifle in .308 as well. E

Neeeeeeed, NEEEEED! My wife figured out I'm a lier long ago. I will never have enough guns!
Happy New Year
Dave

Want without a doubt

and gennerally I prefer classic cartridges.

When I bought my first 12 Ga. everything else became wants. After getting a Mod 94 in 30-30 they became redundant wants. I have several layers of redundancy...

I needed my 416 rem mags I got three so in case I left one with friend.I needed 8 338 win mags cause they were good buys.I usually loan two or three to friends. I bought two 338-378 weatherbys in case a friend wanted to use one also while I was hunting with them.I bought stainless 264 Ruger because there were less than 500 of them and I needed one.I always tell my girlfriend why I needed a new gun.If I dont need a gun I bought any more I sell it.

In my case, before I bought my only big game rifle, I had ample time to consider the following areas:



1. Game animals I planned to hunt, and location (Alaska).

2. The best "all around" and powerful enough rifle for Alaska.

3. The range of ammo/bullet selection to cover all the game I would hunt.

4. Local popularity of that specific caliber, coupled to ammo availability.

5. Most reliable and popular scope for this rifle.



Since I only wanted to hunt in Alaska, where I live, I bought a stainless Ruger M-77 MK-II, and mounted on it a matte Leupold Vary-X III 2.5-8x scope. I had about a year or longer to decide what caliber would be the best for my needs in Alaska, and so far I know I made the right choice.



Ten years later, this is the only big game rifle I have and use for all my hunts in Alaska, and I have been very pleased with its performance to the point that I have no need for another rifle regardless of caliber. This rifle is my "all around" big game hunting gun, and my carry or backup gun is a 7-1/2" (barrel) Freedom Arms .454 Casull revolver. I carry the revolver in a bandoleer holster while riding my ATV or walking, and keep it in my tent when I sleep in it. I guess one can call my choice of rifle and caliber "a need."

Both really!

It's all want.

All I need for my hunting is a centerfire cartridge per Alaska regulations.

My first gun was based on need, but then it became a want need. All of my guns I want and need for no other reason than I wanted them. From Savage 22-250 to the Winchester 375 H&H they cover all necessary applications from hunting to likes.
Gravel

Fun Question!

I too started out with a need. As I got older I relized there are a great many situations where a particular rifle would be perfect. So, I now have a modest collection of rifles to fill many needs.

I can do most hunting with the .30-30 my dad gave me for Christmas when I was twelve. HOWEVER, I quickly wanted more power, then bigger bullets, then a dual purpose rifle. Then a nice Model 70. I find I want far more than I should afford, and need very little. I've been eyeballin' that new.204 and then again I NEED a new .22-250 BigNate

Since my very first purchase (a .270 Winchester) want all the way.

Since I don't need to hunt meat to feed my family, it really boils down to want. Since I enjoy deer hunting, I need a deer rifle. There are over a dozen "ideal" deer cartridges around today. If proper shot placement is a given and appropriate bullets are used, all the "ideal" deer cartridges are more than capable of filling the freezer. I typically use my custom 7-08AI with 140gr Partitions to hunt big bucks in northern Missouri. An inexpensive 30-30 that I could pick up for a song at any pawn shop would easily have killed the same deer I've taken with my custom 7-08AI, with only a very few exceptions. So much for need.

For prairie dogs, a standard .223 would suffice. However, I chose to build a .20BR. It propels a 33gr Hornady or 36gr Berger over 4400fps and is unbelieveably accurate, and it's a hoot to shoot. Even though it won't kill a prairie dog any deader than any .223, I just had to have it. More of that same need.

Then there's the need for a coyote gun (as if the 7-08AI with 100gr Sierra's won't do the trick, or my .20BR won't turn a coyote inside out). Rather than using a .22-250 or .243, I've just got to use the 6-250AI. Another true need.

For elk, I could always reach into my safe and grab my .300 Win mag, or the .338 Win Mag. That doesn't keep me from wanting to build an 8mmSST (.338 UltraMag shortened enough to fit into a standard length action, and necked to 8mm). I could always use the .330 Dakota case, but the UltraMag cases are cheaper and easier to pick up locally. Again, I see nothing here to do with need, other than the need to spend a lot of money for a custom rifle that will chamber a wildcat cartridge, when there are plenty of true elk cartridges around in standard factory offerings (including the ones in my own safe).

We could go on indefinitely, but then again, what's need got to do with it?

Want, all want. I never needed more than I already had (as handed down from my father and grandfather) IF I needed that.

I need the guns I want

From a cold heartless standpoint, a factory 338 win mag would do anything my 350 Rigby would do, but then again, no it wouldn't. I wouldn't have had the satisfaction of making the stock, forming brass, and working up handloads. I'll have more satisfaction in using a tool that is apart of me then something I simply bought.

I would still like a 300 win mag.

Mike,

It's almost always want up here. Regardless of what anyone says, there is usually very little real "need" to owning any hunting gun. When was the last time one of us was charged by an enraged deer while out hiking?

We want them. And thank god, we can get them, keep them and use them. I always seem to want at least three more guns than I have no matter when you ask me. Thankfully we live in a place and time that we can do so up to, and slightly beyond the limits of our wallets.

I personally am taking more of a turn towards the classic calibers, and definately not interested in any of the new "whizz-bang wonder guns". Give me wood stocks, blued metal, and a classic caliber, and I'm going to want it!

It has to be need. My wife wouldn't justify a gun that I just wanted! I needed a 7STW because the 300 win mag wasn't long enough for eastern PA. I needed the 444 marlin because the STW wasn't good in the brush, which is what eastern PA is made of. I needed the encore 308 pistol because the stw and the 444 were getting to easy. Now I need a 454 casul because the 308 really isn't a pistol, and a 44 mag isn't really big enough!