Long-time gun-nut loves his 1st Savage

Blacksport · 08-05-2014, 12:37 AM

I still remember the muzzle flash from my Dad's Ruger Standard, when he let me shoot it when I was like 6 or so....I've bought and sold a lot of guns in the 50+ years since then....even had an FFL in the 80's. Now, I'm down to a few Sig pistols, a couple of target shotguns, couple of Rugers, and two very sweet collectors I inherited from my Dad, a H&R 32 auto, and a Rock-Ola M1 carbine he somehow "acquired" near the end of the war. A few months ago, it dawned on me how much I missed the 2 bolts I've owned and sold years ago: a Winchester Model 70 30-06 and a Ruger M77 223....there's just something about center-fire bolt action sporters, thank goodness for that guy, whoever he was, who brought a Mauser home from WW1, put a cut down stock and a scope on it...no disrespect meant for modern military rifles, but scoped bolt-actions just have those beautiful lines, and that deadly one-shot-will-do-it sniper-thing going for them. After looking at every bolt available (thanks internet), I decided on the Savage 116 Weather Warrior, an incredible combination of looks, amazing accuracy, and fair price. I will be up-grading the stock and transferring the aluminum bedding rails to the new stock...a tough job, but I'm confident it'll work out fine. Actually, it took me longer to decide on a caliber; for long-range target shooting, I wanted something blazing fast with a flat trajectory and a decent, but not painful kick...of course, it had to be long action, those short action calibers look kinda stubby, again no disrespect, they do work well in military rifles. So, what caliber has everything I'm looking for, and to top it off, it's tall and slender and beautiful as a New York model?