I don't know,,, I could see myself filling a safe with Model 54's. (Anybody know of an affordable M54 .22 Hornet?
)
Another anecdote about The Old Man, which actually set him on the road toward Savage. 1956 (I was going on 4 years old and this constitutes one of my earliest memories), and Mom had given Dad "permission" to buy a deer rifle with the income tax refund check, so he wouldn't have to continue borrowing a rifle to hunt with. As luck would have it a LGS had been flooded by the Susquehanna River and was having a big water damage sale. There on the rack, side by side, was a Savage 340 .30-30 and a Model 70 .30-06, both new but with a water mark halfway up their butt stocks. He had $60 to spend. The 340 was discounted to $40, the M70 to $60. He wanted the Model 70 so bad he could taste it but it would suck up his entire stash with nothing left over for ammo. He opted for the 340 instead, and had enough left over for two boxes of ammo and a hunting knife. We all walked out of that shop with smiles on our faces, got in the '50 Ford sedan, and stopped for ice cream cones on the way home.
Later, we went to the local gravel pit to "sight in" the new rifle. Mom even went along. The target was an empty one gallon gas can at what was probably 50 yards or so from the Ford hood which was the makeshift benchrest. I remember being Holy Hell impressed by the loudness and the fact that he hit it the can- this gun was truly the most awesome thing going in my young life. Perhaps it was a subliminal instigation for my current infatuation with things .30-30, and Savages?
I gave my nephew that 340 a few years ago, but I still have the knife, and the two tattered boxes of Remington ammo are sitting on a bookshelf. Geez, I'm getting a little misty eyed from remembering Pop and his 340 proudly posing beside the first deer he killed with it as it hung from our back porch. Somewhere I have that pic- if I can find it I'll scan it and post it.
