I dropped a loaded/chambered BAR out of a tree stand. It fell 15' and landed on the butt, pointed straight up at me.
It cracked the stock at the pgrip, and half extracted the round.
The Nosler Patriot is guaranteed to print real nice with Nosler Trophy Grade ammo.
Sweet little vertical integration they got there, and it's in OP's range.
"Barrel burner" is a nonissue in a hunting rifle, esp a hunting rifle that's been factory load-developed. 2 hunters could go 2 lifetimes...
You may still be able to find a MR Terraframe 50 [remarkably similar to the Pintler but marketed to granola-crunchers] on sale. They were $300ish last month at STP & Moose & even REI.
Pretty sure he blew most of their legs off with a moa rifle and nice scope during rifle seasons. He always had one story or another about shooting deer he was unable to recover.
I knew a guy, had 1500ac and loved to hunt, but wasn't too good at it. He'd loose his shit and crank some dumb shots.
So when he talked about big ol bucks he'd seen on his spread, people would ask, "Was he limping off his good front foot, or just hopping off the rear?"
Bring your XtraTuffs. Right now, it's blowing Force 9 with 16 foot seas outside, a mellower 10 foot inside Seal Rocks, and it's raining hard...Just another day in the GOA.
There's roads and trails and cabins all over Montague, and places to get out of the wind. It doesn't always blow like hell...