well i hope you got something for this weekend dave. a couple of my friends both got the 44 mags. the new one with the sb1 receiver can be had relatively cheap, around $230. they seemed to shoot reasonably well at 100 yds. i believe they should be pleanty good for if you're hunting the hardwoods. before you go run off an buy a ruger bolt action 44 mag, do some research. i did and they may not shoot as well as you want. if you have an encore receiver, you may consider a 44 mag encore rifle barrel. they are around $266 at midway. i bought one and it shot pretty well, but for now i'm sticking with my encore with OTT 500 barrel.
