I'm not real prone to picture-taking, either. And selecting a "favorite rifle" from the gun safe is a tall order, too. But here goes--it would be my CZ-550 Lux in 9.3 x 62 Mauser. Those familiar with the CZ-550 know them to be a modern Mauser 98 turnbolt rifle with the controlled round feeding made famous by the Mauser design and plagiarized nicely by the pre-64 Winchester Model 70. I bought the rifle in 2002 after "getting the business" from a black bear in our local mountains, and not liking the dubious warm fuzzy feelings provided by the Redhawk that came along for liturgical purposes. The 9.3 x 62 features a 5-round magazine in most bolt rifles so chambered; it is adapted readily to 30-06 length actions. The sole fault of the 338 Win Mags I had owned over the years was the low round counts in their magazines; usually 3 rounds is all that gets offered. The 9.3 x 62 can prompt 2425-2450 FPS to its usual bullet weight of 286 grains, but its best bullet may be the 250 grain spitzer; this load tracks closely to the 30-06 with 180 grain spitzer, both clocking 2650 FPS and having near identical trajectories at sensible game-taking ranges. The difference is that the .366" bullet packs half-again more energy than does the '06 x 180 grainer, and that load has a creditable track record afield for the past 100 years or so.
Castings have made up 90% of the CZ's shooting material to date. I designed a 270 grain Mountain Molds flatpoint late in 2002 with 70% meplat that I put up as a BruceB Softpoint and run at 1800-2100 FPS. These stay well inside 2" at 100 yards, sometimes into the 1.25"/5-shot neighborhood. No large game animals have fallen to its bark so far, but the castings and some Hornady XTP Makarov bullets I used to finish forming 35 Whelen brass into Mauser hulls have scattered jackrabbits comprehensively throughout the desert washes and foothill brushlands I infest to pursue them within. The Leup 2x-7x now atop the rifle seems like just the right magnification for the work I do with the rifle.
