I’ve got an EG my wife bought me for our anniversary one year. It wears a Lyman receiver sight and a Sourdough front. I took it to Kodiak and Afognak several times and killed some deer and a fox. I’ve packed it elk hunting since we moved down home but haven’t shot one with it, yet.
After I hunted with the 99 for a while I decided I was a fan of the 300. So I bought a pile of brass and rebarreled a M7. It was a 1st run 243 with the steel bottom metal but it had a big goose egg in the barrel. Guy didn’t want to bother with rebarreling it and gifted it to me. Another guy had me rebarrel his M70 300wsm that someone had barreled with an uncontoured Douglas blank. He didn’t want the takeoff back even though it hadn’t been shot much and gave it to me. I cut the chamber off and threaded and chambered it for the M7, then turned it to a M7 SAUM contour. Only thing I wasn’t crazy about was that I could only get 19” out of it, at least the price was right. Swapped another buddy something I don’t even remember for a Bansner and bedded the whole works into it. Got a 2-7 Leupold for nothing from a guy who was upgrading and mounted it in a set of Talley LWs. The beauty of working in a gunshop with a bunch of friends for customers! I killed black bears and whitetail deer with this one, took it for backup on an elk hunt this year but tagged out with my other rifle.
I have a little boy as we’re thinking he’s probably left handed. He’s just 3 but it won’t be long before he’s ready to shoot his own deer, heck he’s ready now if you asked him. So in the interest of having a lefty friendly rifle if that turns out to be true I did some horse trading for a 1950’s production 760 in 300 Savage for him when he’s ready. The plug screws have never been out of the receiver but I have an M8 4x waiting for me to find a mount and fit up for him. I’ll convert the safety to LH if I need to and he’ll be set. I shot my first couple bucks with a 50’s 760 so the whole idea is kinda cool to me.
I pretty much stick with 150s and 4320. All of my rifles have shot well with that combo regardless of bullet brand. I have shot some 180s but don’t really feel the need, the speeds attained with 150s are pretty easy on standard cup and cores allowing them to hold together and penetrate. I’ve killed stuff with 150s from Norma, Hornady, and Nosler, as well as the old 180 RN Hornady. The old 150 Norma boatail semi spitzer is my favorite but they haven’t been made in decades and my supply is dwindling. The 150 Interlock is my replacement and it’s been good so far too.
