Hard to argue. I bought an early '60's Model 700 (the one with the stainless barrel that was actually blued) in the late '80's from a coworker. I sold it in the mid '90's to my hunting partner, and subsequently bought it back about ten years ago from him.
It's still hard to beat for more open country Western hunting. I used to haul it to Wyoming to hunt antelope every year. Loaded with a 150 grain bullet at darn near 3,100 fps, it was effective on them as far out as anyone would reasonably try to shoot one. With 160 grain bullets, it could well be the ultimate mule deer cartridge, and I've taken a number of them with this combination.
Very easy and forgiving to handload. Pretty much any reasonable combination shoots very well out of my particular example. My only complaint is the weight of the rifle (just over nine pounds with a Leupold 3-9x), but mine is a very old school example, dating from the early '60's. The weight does help with recoil, though, making it very easy to shoot.
So, yeah, a wonderful "old" cartridge. Seems to be somewhat overlooked these days, with the proliferation of all of these huge "ultra mags" and whatnot. They lack balance, though, where the old "seven mag" hits a real sweet spot.
I don't think I'll sell mine ever again. Made that mistake once...
