Don't see much about them here, but thought I'd ask.

I got introduced to Valmet back in one of our periodic "downturns in the economy" in the mid-1980s. My wife and I were working for a public university when the state's economy crashed due to a the combination of very high interest rates and sluggish growth. We both "read the tea leaves" and knew that we would both likely not get new contracts when ours ran out. I had most of my year left, so I told her to find a good job someplace nice and I'd finish my contract and move me and the kids to that nice place and find work.

She moved to the University of Vermont, a very nice place but a long way from Moscow, Idaho! By the time I got there, we needed cash to put down on a house, and didn't have any--our house in ID wasn't selling. So we sold everything we had that was liquid--her family jewelery, our first edition and classic jazz collection, and 20+ years of guns I'd collected. Got a really nice little house, but I had exactly three guns left: a Winchester single shot .410 (my first gun), a Winchester '92 .25-20 that my granfather had given me, and a Colt .44-40 New Service that I'd inherited from my other grandfather. Hunted my first small game/bird season in Vermont with the .410; had fun, but not a lot of meat.

My wife remembered that I'd admired a Savage/Valmet 330 a friend used for birds in Eastern Washington, so when we got back on our feet financially (almost), she asked a local dealer if he could find a Valmet shotgun for a gift. He found an old pre-Savage import Valmet "Lion" 12 guage O/U at a bargain price that has a stock of Turkish walnut that looks more like rosewood. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed to find it on the dinner table one night when I returned from work.

I've used that gun, which fit me perfectly, all the seasons since then and use it still--last gun I'd get rid of.

Since then I've become a Savage/Valmet nut and have 4 of them--a 330 30" 12 Magnum, a 333 26" 12 guage Skeet, and Model 2400 combination guns in 12ga.over .308 WCF and 12 ga. over .222 Rem, plus the "Lion." My younger son shoots a regular 2 3/4" 12 guage 330 as well.

Anybody else like these Savage imports????