Looking into the far reaches of my safe I pulled out three. My favorite an old 24/47 that had been rebarreled to 7x57, worked into a Ramline synthetic stock made for the Model 96 Mauser, a Timney trigger added, bolt bent and D&Td. It had been retired a couple of years ago and the Redfeild scope had been repurposed. This is the gun I named "Ugly". The barrel was a heavy sporter contour and I cut it down to 19 inches for easier box blind handling. It is a heavy rifle still but balance is excellent and over the years this rifle has taken more deer and feral hogs than a lot of people take in a lifetime. Next up is another 24/47 that I put an Israeli 7.62x51 barrel on, turned the original trigger into a pretty light, smooth single stage trigger with some creep. I remember thinking I coulda bought another Timney.....cheap! I also did a bubba on the stock turning into a light straight grip slender handle. Musta had all sorts of spare time back in the 80's. Had the bolt bent, the action drilled and tapped and put another Redfeild scope on it, this one a 4x Wideview. I shot a few deer with it but it became my favorite night hog gun and it still gets used some.In fact I shot it today. Next up is a Dirty Bird M98 I bought already sporterized and barreled for 6MM Remington, nice walnut stock, Bueler safety. Barrel didn't last so I rebarreled it again to 270 with a heavy sporter contour barrel. This one had already been triggerized by someone else and it was tolerable. Another somewhat heavy rifle this one is a tackdriver. I have taken coyotes, two elk, several deer and hogs with it. These rifles are stacked behind their "replacements". A Remington model 7 7-08, a Ruger M77 270 tanger and a Marlin XS7 in 308. I don't think I will let the Marlin replace the old Mauser 308. The replacement rifles are all lighter than the older guns and have better triggers though the Timney on the 7x57 is just fine. Not sure why I decided to make this rambling commentary other than to put some thought on three rifles I have used a heck of a lot over the years. I also like Springfields but that is another story.

Dog I rescued in January

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