My relationship with the little Browning has only amounted to lust. I can't recall how many times I walked to the hardware store in my youth for a date with the first one I laid eyes on. Oh, how I loved to fondle that thing. Years later, after I had money to spend on such niceties I came across another lovely little lever. This one was a Winchester 9422 and it had the nicest, highly figured wood on it. I wasn't really looking for another 22 just then but I had the money so I bought it to save it from a sure life of hard use and neglect. See, this rifle showed up on the rack in a small village in rural Alaska. That it would have seen honest use is beyond question. That it would have likely ended up in someone's boat and in the corner of a damp porch is also just as certain. I couldn't see such a pretty rifle ending up that way so I bought it. It turned out I liked that little Winchester so much I felt the need for the Magnum version for my, then, fox hunting obsession. In more recent years the magnum has seen less use so the wood has been switched between the two and the original 9422, which is the Long Rifle version, now wears the plain wood that came on the 9422M. It's probably a good thing. The little 9422's metal has considerable bare steel showing - and it's all from honest use.
I grew up thinking my dad's Model 62 Winchester pump was the end all in 22 rifles. Now I can't imagine being without some kind of quality lever action.
