My first Savage 99 was a .308 my father bought for me, after I took my first deer with his Marlin .30-30--which was 52 years ago. That proved I was a far-gone hunter and rifle loony, so he took me to a local (Bozeman, Montata) store which had a great selection of used rifles, and told me to pick one out, up to $50 in price. The 99 was $55, but he said that was OK. It turned out to be very accurate, and I hunted with it for several years, but when I got even loonier sold it to buy something something else. He'd passed away, so never knew, but still regret my young decision. Luckily I have several of his other guns....
