Heck 50 cents an hour is good money around my shop anymore.. Retirement sure cuts into the income! Of course I do have more time to do the 'honey dew' jobs.. and of course the family and friends also know I have all this free time! The 550 is an intersting rifle. One of the first to function with shorts, longs and long rifle ammo. I grew up with one. My father used shorts for squirrels in the spring and it worked well. When it didn't I got to clean the thing. When the mainspring cap in the rear got a bit loose it would spit powder granules into your face when it was fired. Time to tighten the cap.. It did shoot fairly well though. Sparrows and squirrels were fairly easy to take and even with a cheap scope and miserable trigger it did it's job well.