Welcome to the forum. I have never owned a double myself but have a bit of experience with them and seeing others use them. I always believed for practical hunting the 500 is the upper limit for most people. I have found few people actually handle the big guns well. Also if you are going to hunt elephant and buffalo you may need to carry for a good while and the extra weight will be taxing. But really it comes down to what you are into. For me it would be the 500 all day.