Haven't seen the new MKII Stainless in .350 Rem Mag. I have an older M-77 in .350 Rem Mag, the gun feels good, is well balanced, and shoots nice. The shorter action makes the gun two inches shorter than guns like the 30-06 or .35 Whelen. In fact I often carry the Ruger .350 when bear hunting. I own two .350 RMs, one Remington 600, and the Ruger M-77. One thing I like about the Ruger is the fact that I can load heavier bullets in it than the Remington will accept. The magazine is a little bit longer on the Ruger, and I can load 225gr bullets for the Ruger that the Remington won't accept due to the short magazine. The only load that Remington loads is a 200gr bullet. I do load a 250gr bullet in the .350, and I load them individually into the chamber. I don't like seating them as far as required to get them into the magazine, but the chamber is long enough for the larger bullet. Since we are shooting from a tree stand over bait, and one shot is all we are going to get anyway, I don't have a problem with this. That .35 sure makes a big hole, and they seldom go anywhere. In fact if the bear is under 350 lbs it's pretty devistating. A couple years ago we had a small (two year old) Black Bear getting too friendly with people in the parking lot at a trail head. It was crippled, appearantly had been hit by a car. My friend decided to end a bad problem before it got started and take this little bear before he hurt someone. It was the end of the season, and he had only taken two bears at that point, so it would take him to his three bear limit. My friend shot the bear at fifty yards with my Ruger .350RM not realising how high the bullet would strike at that close range, with the gun sighted in for 150 yards. Broke both shoulders, and took out both lungs, he hit it higher than he planned. The exit wound left a three inch hole in the hide. Bear dropped like a sack of potatoes.
