I'm grateful for the input given so far. I'm taking each bit into consideration. I feel like I owe more information on my thought process. My kids are still little. In a week and a half they take the hunter education course and become eligible to shoot in addition to their current walk along. They are both right handed, but left eye dominant. ...so ideally I'd like to introduce them to shooting off the left shoulder first. I had been shopping left handed bolt guns, but after coming back from a pig eradication hunt where I shot a borrowed 30-30 extensively (over a hundred pigs) and realized it offered left and right shoulder options, I started shopping Win94's and Marlin's. I stumbled onto the Mossberg 464 of which I knew nothing...and so here we are.
Calhoun, can you be more specific in your steering away from Mossberg (outside of style or status points)? Between their father and their grandfather, there's many levergun options, but none I'm willing to cut down. Cutting down a new manufacture Mossberg seemed less painful than cutting a 336 or 99.
Last edited by ChrisF; 08/01/12.
