On several issues:

1.) The cocking/decocking system is NOT slower, for those accustomed to it. As mentioned more than a few elephant PH's use and love their keighoff's. A zim ele PH will hunt more eles in a season than most PH n a lifetime. And since most hunt cows as well as bulls they will find the nessecity of using their rifle a hell of a lot more frently than those who hunt only bulls, even a lot of bulls, let alone a PH who hunts many buff but few eles.

One I hunt with and am friends with has the Kreighoff in 470 and he is as quick with his first as I am with mine, and I am very accustomed to the basic slide safety since I shoot shotguns and rifles equiped with them quite a bit.

On the other hand, since I am used to the simple slide safety, I find the system awkward and requiring more effort. But it is only a personal question for the owner or prospective owner. I'd suggest that a fellow who hunts a lot with a regular slide safety might find the cocking lever awkward, while a fellow who is moving to double will find it a heck of a lot more useable than a Winchester style two or three position safety.

2.) The 458wm is more than enogh rifle for buff or eles. It produces, even in the relatively light factory ammo, similar ballistics to the 470, but with a skinnier bullet and so better penetration, velocity for velocity. And Woodleigh .458" solid bullets have a better, less troublesome shape to the nose, more round less pointed.

With handloads, the 458wm will far, far, far outperform the 470. As much as a 200fps advantage goes to the 458wm. Easily more than 100fps. And 100fps in this velocity range means a hell of a lot. My experience with a double rifle in 458wm indicates that because of the pretty wide powder selection, it is possible to find more than one full bullet weight load that shoots to regulation. Plus 480gr and 450gr bullets are available that will peform well on buff and eles. I have several 500gr, 480gr and 450gr loads that shoot to regulation in my double. My 500gr Woodleigh solid load runs 2145fps at the muzzle, about 100fps faster than the great bulk of 470's and almost all vintage 470's.

3.) This rimless/belted/high pressure issue is WAY overblown. If the rifle is well made it will stand considerable shooting as a 458wm. If it ever does shoot loose, it is a simple and cheap repair to repin the rifle. Ejection issues seem to be internet based and I have never heard a first hand report for the 458wm but have heard three for other rimless cartridge rifles, two british vintage, medium bore rifles, the other a more modern medium bore.

If there is an issue, a 458wm can be rechmbered cheaply to 450NE 3 1/4". Hornaday has announced that they will load this cartridge with availability in early '08. I've got 800 rounds through my 458wm double rifle with NO issues, but if it had issues it would become a 450NE 3 1/4" very quickly with minimal expense and trouble.

If I were buying a NEW double rifle I would get it in 450NE 3 1/4". Faling that, 470!! But don't pass on a good used 458wm, which will likely be listed at a steep diecount because of all the BS out there and the few who know how inexpensive it is to rechamber to 450NE 3 1/4" if required.

JPK