Rifle attraction & handling
Today upon delivering a rifle to be re-barreled to a 6.5 CM at McGowen, I saw another customer's re-barreled Savage 99 in
.30-.30. The folks at McGowen did a spectacular job with the re-barrel. They duplicated the original barrel contour and re-blued everything with an even, deep matte blue. Not a ripple or tool mark. The rifle had what looked like a 22 inch light contour barrel having a .5 diameter at the muzzle and was gracefully contoured with perfect wood to metal fit. It would handle and carry great and probably weigh about 7 pounds or less. The original or duplicated open sights were installed in carefully cut dove-tails. A real jewel.
In comparison my Ruger M77 MKII, 6.5 CM will weigh 10 pounds or more, have a protruding asymmetrical bolt handle, a jagged picatinny rail, lumpy laminated stock with high comb, palm swell, asymmetric camber, fat fore-end, big top heavy scope, free float barrel, heavy 26 inch #5 contour barrel and not be as nifty looking or easy to carry. Not for hunting.
The point being - the
.30-.30 will be around for a real long time provided these 99's or similar rifles exist.
The rifle's owner, a nice looking man of my generation, answered in the affirmative when I asked him if he planned to shoot deers with his rifle.
Edit, 10/29: Gary Gilmore's execution by Utah Firing Squad - The five executioners were equipped with
.30-30-caliber rifles and off-the-shelf
Winchester 150-grain (9.7 g) SilverTip ammunition. More use of the .30-.30 by LE.