Thought I'd make a formal introduction. I like to be very upfront with my experience or lack thereof, and given my main interest is in hunting with rifles and shooting rifles, this looks the right place.

I have been posting on Internet forums for the last 12 years and just left a forum I had been an active part of for almost nine years. I'm looking for place that doesn't coddle the terminally disrespectful, and this site looks promising.

I took my first deer 36 years ago in SW Oregon, but hunted very infrequently as a kid. My dad got very busy and all but quit hunting right after I got that first deer. I became serious about hunting when I was stationed near San Antonio in 1994, so that is where my hunting clock really starts. In 1998 I started coming home on leave to hunt in SW Oregon. After retiring from the USAF in 2007 I got to move back home to SW Oregon--though I have a full time job and probably always will.

I have harvested 18 deer, 7 hogs and one elk; using: 243 Win (1), 280 Ack (1), 7 Rem Mag (7), 300 Winny (6), 30-06 (7) , 338 Winny (1), 338 RUM (1), and a 416 Remmy (3). None of the animals were trophies. I shot competitive 1000 yd NBRSA Benchrest in 2005 and 2006 when I was stationed in Tucson (Got some trophies doing that). I also shot two NRA Highpower matches in 2006.

My choices in rifles went from heavy to light to medium weight rigs. I also went from Rem 700s, to customs on Rem 700s, to trued up M-70 Classics to where I am now: pre 64 M-70s. I like (settle for?) Leupold scopes on my hunting rigs, though I ran a Nightforce on my 1K BR rifles. My spotting scope, binocs, and rangefinder are by Leica.

I hunt mainly blacktail deer and elk, though a muley hunt is in my future, and I hope to take an Alaskan Brown Bear and a Cape Buffalo in my lifetime.

I am an avid handloader, though I am at that place in life where I am very time limited. I have a few rifles to sell, but I want to get a little more established here first. Otherwise it will look like I just registered to sell my guns, and that isn't the case at all. I am not a dealer. I am just now figuring out I MUCH prefer to hunt with a pre 64 M-70 over anything else--though I am not "anti" any brand. I have my eye on another pre 64, and I need to sell some of my M-70 Classics to fund it.