Cool. Interesting gun.
What I want to know is why you didn't tell us you were selling off bolt guns. Might have been worth a trip to look.
Jay, I'm sorry it was easier to just push them locally. I doubt if any of you really want these.
The first one was by accident, a CZ .17HM2. Struck up a conversation with a stranger (well he was looking for reloading powder so we had a connection right off the bat) at Cabela's grand opening. He mentions,without prompting, how he's a member of a group that has an HM2 competition every month. (BINGO) We met back at Cabela's the next week and he bought the gun and my stash of 1,000 rounds of ammo. (Actually, he bought my stash of that very--y-y-yy rare ammo and I gave him the gun. I wouldn't want the IRS to know I got a 10x return on the ammo.)
The centerfire bolt actions were eclectic. A Ruger M77 and a 1895 Mauser in 7x57 and a Tikka in .338 Fed which went to a local gun store who happened to have customers looking for those calibers. The IBM M1 Carbine went to a collector. Made money on it.
Now I still have a MosinNagant, but I'm in the process of sporterizing it. Cut the long-g-g-g-g fore end off the stock and have cut the barrel back to 18". Lost the trigger drift pin in the process, duh. They're both just rough cut right now, but I'll take a picture and post the progress. Trying to decide how short to make the stock. I may remove an inch off the butt, the put a slip-on recoil pad on it. Lookin' like a pretty handy rifle already.
This is all part of a bigger, but ever changing scheme of mine. First I was going to have all the popular calibers for doomsday. You know, .223, 30-06, .308, 30/30, 270, etc. Then I got hooked on 7x57 for a brief period. Then I was going to have all the bullet sizes, but in .308 case (.243, 260, 7-08, .308, .338). Now as I'm coming to grips with my mortality, I've decide all I need is .223 and .308. (well I'm keeping the old Montgomery Wards 30/30 and the Mosin.) I had fun with the other guns, but I'm working on a trim and useful collection. Ones that I'll shoot more often than not. No more safe queens. Retirement's around the corner and I want to be in a position that all my money goes towards ammo from that point forward.