gave away 2 ar15s yesterday

[Lloyd Smale]

My nieces husband has been helping me build my house. He has a contractors licience so i got my lumber cheaper and hes cut me alot of slack on labor. Probably didnt make a dime after he paid his two workers. We were sitting down having a beer yesterday in the heat and got talking guns. He asked me if i could build him an ar pistol. He just loves mine. So i went in the house and grabbed my plain jane gun and handed it to him and said its yours. I gave all my nieces and nephews a gun and somehow didnt give this niece one because she had no interest in them. Well his main worker came over to check it out. Hes a combat vet from nam and pretty much screwed his life up with booze. Hes 68 and doesnt have a pot to piss in. So i went in the house and grabbed a plain jane psa ar and gave that one to him. Going to have to build again. Im down to a dozen. Did draw the line though. I gave them ONE mag loaded with ammo and said there on there own to feed them.

[Graybeard]

No more than I use mine I might as well give them away.

Back I think it was 2016 Matt left headed west with no particular plan other than to find a place to live and work. He stopped off in Texas for a night's rest and really never left there until he headed back east again.

He found work there and with other business owner's in that area and kept himself quite busy and the guy who owns that hotel gave him free rooming and had lots of work for him also.

He later moved out  and into a house and even got married while out there.

At any rate not to get too off topic he took one of my Springfield XD .45s, my Armalite AR15 with an Aimpoint on it and my Remington M700 .280 with him. I didn't exactly give them to him just made him a long term loan on them.

I'm about to take back my Limited Edition R700 stainless fluted CDL .280 and loan him a TC Venture .30-06. He is already claiming the .280 tho when I'm gone or no long need guns.

[Lloyd Smale]

like you i love the 280. Had a #1b a rem 700 mountain rifle and a push feed 70 featherweight. I stupidly let them all slip through my hands. My buddy wanted my 77rl ruger 250 savage real bad and i told him the only thing id swap it for was a 280 700 or 70. They were about impossible to find. About a year later i got a notice from buds that they hand 70 featheweight controled round fed guns in stock. I called him and told them they only had 10 and hed better jump. He himmed and hawwed about the 1000 dollar price and when i called the next day he still hadnt done it. I told him either call now or im keeping the 250. He called and luckly got the last one. Id bet the nicest of the bunch. It has exceptional feathering in the wood. Id say it could almost pass for a super grade. IT WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS HOUSE.

My gun loans are to my dad. Hes a hunter but sure not a shooter or a gun guy. Hes to dammed cheap. He gets mad when he has to waste ammo checking his zero every year. I gave him a blr 308 for a retirement present in 81 and gave him 4 boxes of fed premium ammo with it and hes down to his last box. Hes got plenty of money but is cheaper then a drum. His 4 wheeler battery was bad for 3 years and instead of buying a new one jump started it every time he used it. He thinks it would be a waste of money because he might die tomorrow. I think his most prized possession is his bank book. Hes got my glock 43, a single six, side by side browning 20 gouge and a 22 mag marlin. Hes one that would give away my guns to my nephews. He did it before when he gave one nephew my tc contender carbine with a 3030 and 4570 barrel. I got pissed and that nephew was at camp at the time and he said hed give it back. I told him to keep it. But i also have a list of guns my dad has of mine at camp so they know not to take them if he offers. I used to give him whole butchered and packaged deer. Found out he was giving most of it away to my sisters. He wants everyone to think hes a great guy but does it with my stuff because hes to cheap to part with this own.

[Drilling Man]

  I also love the 280 Rem....

  I built a Rem. 700, Douglas fwt. weight bbl., "light mountain gun" before there was such a thing, to hunt sheep with...

  I worked up a VERY accurate load for it with 145 Speer BT's, and did kill a few animals with it, including one bear and several black tailed and white tailed deer. (I forget what else)  Then I put it aside and kinda forgot about it, as I did/do pretty much all of my hunting with my drilling.

  Well, last year I dug it out, put it back into a 700 BDL stock and mounted a 3.5 x 10 Zeiss on it, BUT I never sighted it in.

  It's on my "to do" list to use this fall for a deer or two.  I hope I get it done!!

  DM

  I just remembered, I shot caribou with that rifle too.

  Anyway, one time I shot a Sitka black tailed buck with that rifle and hung it about 6' up in a tree by the float plane we flew to the island with.  (Cessna 180) Anyway, we took the seats out of the 180, flooded the floats and slept in it that night.  The next morning the deer was gone, a brown bear had taken it, and as he carried it, NONE of the deer was dragging on the ground!  lol

  I tracked that bear for a time, it was a BIG bear, but my buddy wouldn't shut up about just going out and shooting another deer!!  ha ha ha  Finally I gave in and we went out and shot another deer, but I really wanted to catch up to that bear and shoot it too!

[Graybeard]

My .280 is fairly light with the fluted barrel and original walnut stock. It's pretty much like the Mountain rifles Remington made for awhile. I also have a high grade plastic stock, dunno what it's made from. I call all synthetic stocks plastic tho I know that's not proper for all. That's what was on it when Matt got it and is still on it.

I have recently purchased a black/grey or pepper laminate stock for it. I will put that on when I get it back from Matt. I really love that color stock and have it on several rifles so got a stock from Stocky's for it.

It is one of 3 limited edition Model 700s I own and when I put that stock on it all 3 will have the same stock on them.

[Lloyd Smale]

that mountain rifle i 280 i had was a jewel. It was actually lighter then my short action ruger 20 inch ultra light. Only lighter bolt ive owned is my kimber montana. that thing feels like a daisy bb gun in the hand. Only cdl i had was a 257 wby stainless fluted. It was sure not featherweight but wasnt what id call heavy either. It did have a 26 inch barrel though so im sure some weight came from that. One of my favorite rifles is a sps matte blued 06 that i bought a cdl stock for and bedded it. Guns a tack driver and i like the matte blued with that stock much more then the gloss blue they used on the blued cdls. If i could find another 280 mountain rifle with a floor plate instead of the later mag feed guns id buy it in a second.

It gets a bit ridiculous at my age though. I can rotate maybe 5 guns doing crop damage shooting. Ive got bolt guns in the safe that havent killed anything in 10 years and yet i keep buying more. 5 new ones for this year. Ive got about everything on my wish list except id like to replace the 257 wby i traded off. But i dont have brass and dies anymore and they dont give away wby brass and ive got other guns that shoot as flat. Thing is with us is we shoot deer at the farm but we dont know till about this time of year if they want us back for another year. Got the call two days ago so its a go for this year. But when it stops ill have probably a dozen rifles that are about useless for hunting at camp where a long shot is a 100 yards and most are under 50.

[Graybeard]

I don't have as much .257 Whby brass as I'd like to have but truthfully I almost certainly have more than a life time supply for me no more than I shoot.

I have all of the brass I own or at least all of it I know where is loaded up now. I have four different loads with Barnes 115 TSX, Nosler 120 PT, Nosler 115 BT and Nosler 110 AB bullets loaded up and ready to go. All are proven loads in my rifle.

BTW I found out the hard way the Barnes bullet will zip thru AR500 steel plate targets like they were cardboard.