Things happen so slow in" Nordakota " That the problems may not have gotten here yet. I quess I bought most of them in South Dakota but things move pretty slow there too.

Another thing though, I don't hardly ever use the safty on a rifle. I usually don't but a shell in the chamber until I am ready to shoot. Most of my hunting is done from ambush spots along the river breaks. I get into position about an hour or two before the deer and elk come out in the evenings to feed on the grain fields. This is prairie hunting. The animals spend the days in the cedar chocked draws in awful rugged country. In the evenings though they come up on the winter wheat fields in the winter or alfalfa fields and haystacks. Not much to eat in those river breaks except in the spring when everything greens up. In the breaks it takes 30-40 acres to graze a cow so the pickings are slim. They are all grain and hay fed though on the surronding farm fields. It pretty easy hunting because you know they are going to come out to feed. There isn't any hunting pressure except maybe the first two days of season. They won't set tight in the cover for more than a day or two. I don't even go out until the end of the first week when all the weekend hunters have gone home. If I do chamber a shell while I am waiting I always leave the bolt handle up until I am set to shoot. If I need to walk out a side draw or something then I might chamber one and put the safe on.

I know what you mean about getting sour on something. I got that way from my fisrt impressions of the 243. I have not one ounce of faith in them after seeing the poor bullets that were available when it first came out. The light bullets would blow up and the heavier bullets would poke a pencil size hole through and do no damage at all. Nosler and a few other companies corrected most of the problems but I would probably go after a deer with my leatherman tool before I would try the 243 again.[:@]