I didn't look this year but scored a Remington 1187 for $249 and a Savage A17 for $189 last fall and the A17 kinda surprised as being a nicer gun than I expected. Well nicer at $189 than msrp.
Two years back I bought two Weatherby Vanguards a 243 and a 270 at $249 apiece. Still have the 270 and it shoots well and the 243 went to a raffle at the chilli cookoff in my dinkey home town. They raised $1100 in tickets for that one so was well worth it.
Brickseek showed two Mini 14s at the store the furthest from me and still in the county and also had one of the Vanguards I was looking for. Met a fellow in line that had been going to Walmarts all over NW Nevada and had purchased seven walnut stocked gloss blued Vanguards at $349 and a pile of the synthetic stocked ones. He was waiting for the sporting goods folks to find the box for the Mini 14 he bought off the rack for $399.
After seemingly days for his purchase to go through I was at the head of the line. I asked the nice young lady working the counter if she would look for the remaining Mini. She told me she didn't think there was one in the back but would check. After twenty minutes she came back with the boxed Mini and we started the paper work. When it came time to check the serial number and pulled the rifle from the box we saw that the stock was cracked through the wrist. She told me if I still wanted it she could drop the price 10% and my wallet came out quickly. Just $359 and Ruger was happy to replace the stock.
Happy happy.
