One hears a lot of talk about the 'sharp jab' of cartridges like the 7mm Rem Mag versus the 'firm push' of the .375 H&H and larger Nitro express cartridges. I subscribe to this view myself, but I don't recall ever seeing any serious analysis of it - just the occasional comment by writers like Taylor and Keith.

I had an older friend years ago who had experimented with the Weatherby cartridges before I met him. He finally pinched a nerve in his shoulder (his diagnosis) shooting the .378 Weatherby. By the time I had met him, he had ditched the Weatherbys and settled on a pair of Browning safaris in .375 H&H and .458 Win. He was in the 'firm push' camp. We would spend hours poring over Hornady and Lyman reloading manuals and discussing ballistics and recoil from every imaginable angle. Then we'd drive out to his farm and shoot the rifles in the wee hours of the night. He was about 60. I was in my early twenties. Good times! ...and we never found a tree the .458 wouldn't shoot through with the 500 gr Hornady FMJ.