# How to pick a favorite gun



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

OK I promised sawsman. Here's the story:



I first seen this custom Remington Model 725 .243 rifle one winter at a local gunshop. I fell in love with it and it's fine craftsmanship. I am a sucker for pretty wood, even though sooner or later the pretty wood gets scratched and dinged up. The .243 caliber is a favorite of mine and I always wanted a Mannlicher. The gun was on commission and the guy wanted more for this beauty than what I paid for most of the cars I ever owned. It sat on the rack for months and months.

Once in awhile I would go in the store and hold it. After a number of trips to that gun shop I couldn't take it anymore. I got the owner's phone number, called him, and started to negotiate the price. Back and forth we went, and our negotiations ended up with me being a "dumb a**". So I gave up.

The holiday season rolled around and the guy called me. His tone had changed, and he said he would sell the gun for my last offer, hundreds of dollars off his sticker price!!!!!! I smugly said "I'll think about it, and get back with you later" remembering the names he called me earlier. Well big game season was long behind me, it was the holiday season, and my 7-day a week, 14-hour-a-day work schedule kept me busy. My fascination with the beautiful rifle had subsided.

The wife and I opened our presents in the early hours of Christmas morning before I went to work. Holy Moly!!! Santa had brought me that .243!!! Man, I haven't cried that hard since high school football, when I had to sit the bench for missing two tackles....ah.... bad thing when you're the safety. Later I found out how much she paid for it......yeah, you guessed it, she paid the original sticker price. Again I cried, sobbed actually. No biggie, "Love ya, I'll just get a second job, paper route perhaps" I told my loving spouse.

Oh, Santa dropped off a new rifle sight-in stand too, a nice one; cost about as much as the sales tax did on that beautiful .243 Mannlicher.

A month later my brother came out to snowmobile. Like every visit, he and I would talk of big game hunts and argue over Winchester versus Remington and naturally what caliber and/or projectile was the best. He would bring out his Christmas present and I would get mine and we would go to the shooting range and murder some paper.

I took my new beaut out of it's case and laid it by his black fiberglass-stocked .600 Black Panther Martin Express Super Magnum er whatever. He laughed at my .243 masterpiece. Called it a girly-gun. I cried for the third time. It snowed like crazy that day and I kinda rushed sighting-in the weapon, not letting the gun cool down between shots, the snow sizzling and dancing as it fell on the barrel.

After destroying both front lock-out hubs while buried in a snow drift at the range we finally made it home....late for supper. Mrs Goob was mad. We ate without conversation, I complimented her for the wonderful meal, and then slithered down the basement stairs to clean our guns.

I took my fine firearm out of it's case to find the cheek piece on that AAAA feather crotch walnut stock was splintered!!! It had rested on an unprotected part of the new sight-in stand and I didn't notice!!! I cried again. My brother chuckled...saying "that wouldn't happen to fiberglas stock". (Brilliant, runs in the family) I cleaned the gun and put it away, hoping my short-term memory would not let me down and the episode would fade away. But everytime we had company the wife insisted I show off the pretty rifle she had gave me. Boy, it was a trick to wrap my hands over the splintered cheek piece and still display the gun. Naturally, everyone wanted to hold it, but as soon as they grabbed for it I would jerk away and reach for my cell phone and go into another room, acting like I had an important business crisis to attend to.

It wasn't long before I took the gun, without my wife's knowledge, to my gunsmith, an old-world craftsman who loves mannlichers. Geeze, I felt like I was sneaking off to the Bunny Ranch to get a pack of smokes...ah...well...I wouldn't know about that, I don't smoke. My gunsmith, in an odd manner, asked me "been busy, been workin' alot?" and then told me how much it would cost...yikes!...I agreed to the repair, and as I left, in that thick German accent I love so much, he told me to "stop *&^%ing" crying". I asked him not to call my house; I would call him. "No way can my wife find out about this"

For three months I saved money, putting all my loose change in a drawer that Mrs Goob would never look into; uh...the drawer with all the skillets and frying pans. August came quickly and another covert operation ensued, sneaking a money order and another trip, alone, to Ogden. On the way to pick up the repaired firearm, the gunsmith called my house to let me know he would be out of the shop most of the day and I could pick up my repaired rifle any time after that. Mrs Goob took the message. Whoops, busted. And boy, I can't tell you how angry I was when I got to the gunshop and it was closed! My anger turned to pain when I got back home and faced the Mrs, a lover of .243s and an admirer of fine feather crotch stocks, and had to hear about the her conversation with my gunsmith that day. Ouch!

The next day was the wife's day off and I took her to Ogden to shop for jewelry, girly-clothes, and all sorts of arts and crafts thingies. Later we went to the gunsmith and picked up my .243. The wife held it, inspecting the stock closely and then gave the smitty "the look". Yikes "the look" ! Uh..I paid the guy, and for the first time the gunsmith, who never quits talking, didn't say anything as I left.

I reloaded a couple hundred .243 cartridges, cancelled my eye examination for the 5th year in a row, and took off for dogtown to sight-in my "new" rifle.....uh not exactly "took off"....Mrs Goob ordered me and my camper out there right after we picked up the repaired gun. The sight-in didn't go well. The gun didn't group very well. It was like a previous owner got the barrel too hot or something. Or maybe the rifle didn't like my reloads. Whatever, very few pretty things are functional. In an effort to keep the barrel cool I would shoot a couple of rounds and then drive down the road and pick up litter, shoot a couple more and then drive the road and pick up litter. The third time I stopped, I couldn't find the gun. I looked everywhere, even in the garbage bags full of litter. When I turned around and went back to cover my tracks I met two vehicles. I flagged them down and asked them if by any chance they'd seen a custom, engraved, fancy Mannlicher stocked rifle laying in the road. I got the same look my boys gave me while in high school when they would come home at 4:00 am and meet me at the door.

Those guys drove off, and even though in my mind I knew they found it, I kept searching and searching, retracing my route. An hour before dark the wife called me on my cell phone, something about some fly rod purchase showing up on the credit card statement. Uh oh; so as a diversion I fessed up about the misplaced rifle, told her the truth, someone had stolen the rifle!!......... She said she would be right out, and gave me "the look", uh, on the phone.

Geeze, when she came out she was really mad, something about a highway patrolman stopping her at the UT/WY stateline. Boy I'm glad it wasn't something I had done....ah...well...I asked her if she would help me look for the rifle. "There's a slim-to-none chance the rifle fell off the truck into the weeds along the road somewhere, babe." I said. I also asked her to please stop swearing.

We walked the road, in opposite directions; fruitless I thought, covering ground I had gone over two or three times before. She found the rifle in 15 minutes, at last light, in some tall yellow sweet clover at the edge of the dirt road. I had walked by it twice. The gun was OK, no damage. I was dinged up a little though.

That fall, after a long walk and sneak, I shot a fine antelope with that old Model 725 Remington and kinda got a little teary-eyed as I loaded the antelope in the truck and then slid the gun in it's case.

Yep, it's a favorite of mine.


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

*Re: How to pick a favorite rifle*

     Dang Goob. I need a hanky for that one. Glad ya found it. :wink:


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

*Re: How to pick a favorite rifle*

Goob, that is a great story and makes sense to me why it is a favorite rifle. I think it is one of the nicest Remingtons I have EVER seen. You have great taste my friend!


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

*Re: How to pick a favorite rifle*

Beautiful gun and GREAT story!! I like the ones where Mrs. Goob goes on her swearing rampages. After meeting her I just cant imagine she would do that. I'll have to take your word for it.

Really good story though, almost as good as "drop dead gorgeous". :mrgreen:


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## coyoteslayer (Sep 10, 2007)

*Re: How to pick a favorite rifle*

+1 awesome story


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## huntnbum (Nov 8, 2007)

*Re: How to pick a favorite rifle*

Very funny story, thanks.


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## stillhunterman (Feb 15, 2009)

*Re: How to pick a favorite rifle*

Great story goob, and a beautiful gun there!


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## chet (Sep 7, 2007)

Holy Shiz Goob!!! Thats an effin sad story with an effin happy ending!


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Thanks Goob. That is a great story and again, a fine looking rifle.

Funny how a fine work of art like that can make a grown man cry, isnt it? Them scratches and all are going to happen, they're just good memories and they add a little character in the end.

By the way, sounds like you have a fine wife there too.. 8)


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## lehi (Sep 13, 2007)

I love the mannlicher style stocks. Great story goob.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Great story.
I use to make custom recurves and longbows. I've worked with a lot of exotic woods from all over the world. During those years I grew to love a fine piece of wood. That is one of the finest pieces I've ever seen. Beautiful gun.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Since LONGBOW brought up the topic of nice wood, are there many guys that can make custom rifle stocks out there?
I am not saying that I am actively trying to get one made, but I have toyed around with the idea of having a custom stock made for a rifle, but I have some pretty picky tastes for quality of wood.
Just curious more than anything


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Bax, you should start another thread about custom stocks. I think I'd be interested in that too.


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## Dekashika (Oct 23, 2007)

Hey Goob,

Great story....................and I really like your mannlicher. By the way, just how is "mannlicher" pronounced? :wink:


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## hyperduc (Sep 18, 2009)

Dekashika said:


> Hey Goob,
> 
> Great story....................and I really like your mannlicher. By the way, just how is "mannlicher" pronounced? :wink:


An Austrian would pronounce it: mahn-lichh-air

Everyone else says man-licker


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## stillhuntin (Feb 14, 2008)

Goob,
Thanks again for a wonderful story!!
And what a work of art!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Bump for the newbies. 

A long, and true, story I told about 6 years ago.

.


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

That was good...thanks for bumping this back up.


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## bekins24 (Sep 22, 2015)

I'm glad you bumped this. You have a great way of telling a story goob.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Bump, for JerryH


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Great story, glad you bumped it up.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Still a great story, I'm real sorry I never met Mrs Goob, sounds like a wonderful gal. UHH by the way I might be thinking of selling a certain pistol???


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Thanks for bumping this - incredible story!


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## JerryH (Jun 17, 2014)

Yep that's the one. I love this story. Goob you have a great gift of story telling. 

Beautiful rifle


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