I have the same gun A11en. I probably trust this gun more than any of my others deer guns.Granted it doesn't have the range of some (which is why I bought my .280) but like I said earlier I have complete confidence in it. It's killed a ton of deer in its life and will contine to.

You spoke of your son using a .243, that's interesting because when I was young my dad had a friend that wanted to give me a .243 and my dad and I both decided to keep the 30-30 instead of .243. I still would probably make that decision today.

You have a good one there. Take it out a time or two I bet you'll be surprised by the performace of it.