I was 11 years old when I got my first gun, a 20ga Pardner for $75 at Wally-World. Ever since then I've loved the simplicity of a single shot gun, and the level of confidence one has to have to use one. For a long time I've been going back and forth on whether or not to get a single shot rifle as well. Honestly the only thing that has stopped me up till now is something my Dad told me quite a few years ago, which was that they're a pain to sight in. I saw the logic in that, because after every shot you had to come off the bag and then get rested again, and yes I know you shouldnt have to constantly sight in a rifle but for some reason this was enough to deter me.
What finally put me over thedge was when I walked into the local gunshop a couple of weeks ago and saw a gun that someone was having a scope mounted on. It was a bull-barreled .308, chopped to 16", fluted, moly-coated camoflauge, and sporting a collapsible stock. Even after having seen the gun it doesnt sound that impressive to me either, but this was one of the sexiest little packages I've seen in a while. So I himmed and hawwed for all of about two days before I came back with $270 so I could have my buddy at the store order me a .308 Survivor to start my project with.
It came in last Thursday and because I'd made arrangements with a local gunsmith (Mike Cappetta in Barre, VT), who by the way does top-notch work, I was able to drop it off that afternoon with him to get started. So five days and 5.5" later (I had it cut and crowned to
16.5" just to be safe) I picked up the gun from his house and took it home. I'm still waiting on my Millett high rings to come in at the store, but I had to give it a test drive, so I put a 165gr bullet in, shouldered the gun (with the hard plastic survivor butt-stock), got good cheek weld to get the full effect and touched it off. I was extremely surprised how little recoil it had, I thought it was going to kick like a mule but it was almost the same as my Remington Varmint .308 with a 26" barrell and about four more pounds under its belt.
After a lot of debating I dont thinkn I'll go with the ATI collapsible stock, but a regular synthetic monte-carlo instead. Now for the obvious question, why so short? Well I couldnt legally go a lot shorter, and in Vermont we do a lot of walking through thick brush and trees in deer season and the earlier mentioned 26" barrled Remington wasn't really made for the job. Also why not, the thing is friggin cool, easy to carry, and points and swings like a dream. I plan on putting a 2-7 Leupold on it, but the 1.5-4.5 Bushnell will do for now, I plan on doing some close in work on deer and hogs next year in Texas.
Sorry if the thread was long, but there was a lot to get off my chest (I feel like I just went to confession).
The cut down .308 next to my Remington Varmint to show the dramatic difference in my new woods gun.
The Survivor cut down, Monte-Carlo butt-stock is in the mail.
A not so great picture of the recessed target crown my gunsmith did for me.
By the way, this gun is friggin loud!
