I was thinking about this thread this morning, and just wanted to say something. This thread has been around in various incarnations since I have been going online. That predates the Internet. I was reading versions of this thread back when it was BBS technology and 300 baud dialup. I kept a distributor's catalog next to the Apple II, so I could look things up.
I was thinking about how things change. Back when I started, I had only 1 deer rifle (Rem 742) and a shotgun (Rem 1100) . I was longing for a Rem 700 in 30-06 and Service Merchandise had one for $300, but I could not come up with the scratch and settled for a beat-up used Win 670. By comparison everything else seemed far superior. The distributor's catalog had just b&w line drawings, so it either had to be in manufacturer's catalog, or I had to look at the drawing and imagine. I think that was why I never paid much attention to a Savage 99 back in those days. The drawings were so poor.
This was all on the front end of my hunting career. I still had not taken a deer. Back in the early 80's, there just weren't many deer. I'd been hunting, I'd seen deer, but I still had not closed the deal. I was still single. I was still wearing three-piece suits to my job and I was driving 3 hours on Friday nights to hunt on Saturday and then drive back on Sunday, because there was no hunting on Sundays, and all I could do was listen to the Bengals lose on the radio.
You guys gave me a lot of good ideas over the years. I am now starting the back end of my deer rifle collecting. I gave the Winchester 670 to my youngest son last year. I also probably bought my last 30-06, a nice Ruger Hawkeye. This is not my last deer rifle, but I'll probably explore other avenues from now on. I've got a nice rack, and I have had a ball filling it. I just wanted to say thanks to y'all.
