My Niece turned 16 this week, She's a Daddy's girl and tough as a pine knot, works hard on the farm, good grades, softball, volleyball, 4-H animals the whole 9 yards, She has been Deer hunting with every time he goes but hasn't shot anything yet but her time is coming, anyway she is very special to me so I got her a rifle of her own that fit her so she wasn't struggling with something awkward, A CVA Hunter in 243 topped with a 2-7 X 32 Nikon, Nothing special but very accurate and capable, She came over last night for a bit and was so tired from her day it was all she could do to hold her eyes open. I brung it up from downstairs and said Happy Birthday, I swear her eyes grew three times in size and her smile was mesmerizing and for a moment in my world ...............Everything was rite, I had forgotten what it felt like to see a kid that happy over a gun or anything for that matter.............. It's good to be Uncle Bean
PS She shot it off the back porch just to make sure it worked
Great story, nice to read family stuff on the forum. I can tell you from experience, my son is fifty-years old and I usually will buy/build/put together a rifle for him for Christmas. I see that look that you have described every Christmas, it's great to see that smile, and.....a slight tear in the eye from him. We both like tang safety Ruger 77s. I just bought a Ruger 77 donor rifle in 7mm RemMag, it's out being rebarreled with a 24 inch Lilja barrel ( contoured to factory specs) in 300WinMag (that's what he's been talking about for a while now), blueprinted, reblued, I'll do the bedding when it comes back from the gunsmith.