ORIGINAL: Folically Challenged
ORIGINAL: npaden
... I didn't really think I would get a resounding "you need to buy this brand and this caliber" response, but you never know. ...I guess I'll go see how they feel.
I'm sort of in the same boat with you. I want to get a 7mm-08, and I want to get a Savage, since I've heard many good things about them, and because the Savage rimfire I bought this Fall is a great little gun. But I go to the gun shop, and I hold the model I've been eyeing,and it feels "clunky" in my hands. It's not grotesquely objectionable, mind you, but it just didn't "do it for me". Then I pick up a Remington Mountain Rifle, which I've always wanted, and it was far better - it just flew right up to my shoulder.
So, for sh!ts & giggles, I have the guy hand me a Remington 700 CDL, and it's PERFECT! It's as if the gun was made for me by the friggin' Gods! It fits all my nooks & crannies (and folds, and rolls, and...) just ever so. So why don't I get one? Because
that's what I already own, onlyin a .30-06! Why get the same gun in a different caliber? I feel like I'm back to square one!
The first time I ever went to a
real gun shop, with a ton o' selection, I was amazed. I asked the counter lizard why there were so many kind of guns ineach caliber. He calmly replied, "beacause there are so many kinds of people". I wasn't expecting to get sage advice from the whippersnapper-du-jour behind the counter, but I have to agree with him. If the gun doesn't fit you, you'll never be really happy with it, and the "two of you" won't perform to your capabilities. Like it or not, you & your rifle are a team.
On sites like these, you'll find all of us zealots extoling the virtues of the models we like from the manufacturers we like, while positively slamming all the other companies. If you think about it, though, the only objective information you can get about which companies are best, is to look at which ones are still in business, or are growing. Apparently, Savage, Remington, Marlin, Tikka, Sako, and many dozens of others, are still making guns that many people can reliably kill animals with. So, you might as well choose what works best for
you, and let the posters excoriate you, or praise you, as they will.
As for me, I kind of like the looks of the CZ 550, but it comes in 6.5 x 55, and not in 7mm-08. If the gun fits me like a dream, I guess I won't have
too bigof aproblem going to a different caliber. I just think it's a b!tch that the longest story I'll ever be able to tell the kids about thisgun,
if I can ever make a choice,is how friggin' long it took me to pick it out!
Best o' Luck!
FC