... or tips to avoid heartache.

Choosing a new rifle is the scientific equivalent of putting a 2 year old in a candy store and saying "choose anything .. but you can only have one".

As much as we would like to convince ourselves and others that our choice of rifle is financially sensible and purposefully practical, it is in every case a decision based on feeling good and damn the costs.

I would like to give you some practical information that you can incorporate into making your feel-good decision, so that you don't end up disappointed after you find out you can't realise your expectations , like getting married before a first date based on a promise that never materialises.

This is best described by what people looking for a rifle don't ask for.

People ask for everything except a rifle that can launch a particular bullet of type, by weight, of a particular ballistic co-efficient, at a particular velocity. Which is the sensible thing to ask for, considering all the variables governing the final fitness for purpose are in those parameters, and nothing else.

What do you want the rifle for. Everything is not a purpose. Which is why nobody has one rifle. Many rifles - many purposes.

Identify what the purpose is.

If you are looking for a rifle that does everything, walk into any gun store, where a sales person will happily part you from your money for a rifle that does everything.

A purpose has a range. Distance. Far is not a distance.

Target shooting applications are specific - a one mile gun, a two mile gun, a 1000 yard F-Class gun, and so on.

Hunting applications can be reduced to one factor - what is the minimum energy requirement by caliber for the animal you are hunting at the range you will hunt it. All calibers are not suitable to hunt all animals.

Ignore fools spewing crap about how they hunt with their PRS rifle past 1000 yards and never miss. A moron can sound impressive to anyone that doesn't know better. You're reading this now, you already know better.