No disagreement at all!
My mindset was that these things are designed to be used by normal people and that I would prevail. I wouldn't dissuade you from purchasing a big bore #1 if that's the outfit that really grabs your imagination. I wanted a .416 Rigby more than any other rifle when I bought mine, and the #1 was the most affordable way to proceed. Experience with it taught me that a bolt gun would of been the better choice for my purposes, but maybe not for yours.
The only way you can afford to shoot powerful rifles is to handload and if you handload you determine the power level. Over time you can increase the power, but your ability to withstand heavy recoil will plateau, and that plateau might be below or above my limit. For me, any rifle that I cannot shoot from all field positions, including prone, is either:
A) too much rifle for me to use for general use or
B) a specialized stopping rifle to be shot off hand only.
My pal Pounder only shoots his .458 off his back legs, and his practice is 50 yards and in. There is a difference of opinion here, in that I believe you can't control what you might be doing when an emergency arrises, so you can't be sure that you will be able to shoot off hand. His system works for him, mine works for me. We both believe the other is wrong, but we're( usually) too polite to point that out.
I might suggest this to a new big bore shooter. Load the cartridge to about 70% of the rifle's potential with the heaviest bullet you are likely to use. If that load is a bit too harsh back off another 10%. You might have to switch to a burn rate consistent with 4895 rather than attempting to use light loads of a slow burning powder. Shoot that load every day for a week, then add a full grain of powder and shoot for another week, then another grain for another week etc, etc.. When you've worked up to full power then move onto other bullet weights.
Many people believe that heavy bullets produce the highest recoil, but that has not been my experience. The mid weight bullets often seem to have the right mix of bullet weight and powder charge to produce wicked recoil. The 285 gr bullets in my Ultra I find unpleasant; the recoil is fast and hard. No onesays that you must load the rifle to full power. The historic .416 Rigby load was a 400 gr bullet at 2400 fps. This load is very strong for the uninitiated, but is quite managable compared to the rounds full potential.
