I was at my local gun store the other day buying some cartridges and did a little slumming as I do in hardware, outdoors, computer, and boat stores before I leave. Happen to see a Savage Mdl. 24 .22/20 gauge up on the used rifle wall for $250.00 and a Federal Man belt holster for a 5-shot .38 with 4 inch barrel for $10.00 in the clearance bin.

I went home and hit the web for information. The Savage model 24 combo has a suggested retail price ot $598.00 dollars these days, and I had no idea that holsters were up in the $60.00 + range for leather (I can't help being old fashioned about some things even though I know there are better alternatives than leather.).

I went back the next day, offered $5.00 for the holster and bought it for my offered price. It looks brand new and is very dry, so I will have to get out my one pint can of military surplus neatsfoot oil that I bought about a million years ago and never seems to run out no matter how many boots, baseball gloves, and leather jackets I have treated with it over the years, and give it a good several coats of oiling. It holds my stainless steel Taurus 5-shot, 3" barreled, .38+P wheel gun very nicely.

I then asked to check out the Savage with my checkbook burning a hole in my right hand shirt pocket. Took it apart at the counter and noticed one dislike, and a couple of minor problems. It had not been cleaned, but that was not the dislike as it was clean enough to see good rifling and a good shotgun bore. The biggest dislike was that the receiver was made out of powdered die cast metal as so many steel guns and other things are these days. I am old enough to remember parts that were milled from solid billets of steel and the luster and strength they projected. My first Savage Mdl. 24 receiver of years ago was made of a billet of solid steel, and my nostolgia took a serious hit when I saw this one. I know the strength factor is not significantly less, but preception such as mine made Winchester return to milling solid billets for their Model 94 after losing market share from having gone to powdered die cast metal in about 1974. The other problem was a broken firing pin spring for the shotgun which they repaired on the spot. The loose firing pin had worn a groove on the shotgun extrator that peened metal into the shoulder groove for the shotgun shell rim. Some very excellent work on their part with a RotoTool put that in working order. They test fired it at their range and offered to let me test fire it, but it was too late as the passion of the moment had passed and my checkbook had cooled down.

That night on the web, while cruising the sites of some of the gun manufacturers, I found that Rossi Firearms of Brazil offers a 2-in-1 single shot rifle in .22 barrel with a 20 gauge shotgun barrel for a suggested retail price of $145.00.

Unless I find a really old Savage 24 in a .22/20 with a milled steel receiver in good condition for a reasonable price, it makes more sense to get the Rossi as it is also offered in barrels from .17 to .308, and 12 gauge, and I can live with a powdered die cast metal receiver in that low of a price.

If the Savage had been cleaned, the firing spring replaced, and the extractor ground properly before I saw it, I would probably have bought it despite my dislike for modern metallurgy in firearms. Folks!, if you are going to sell something that has to function in a certain way, fix it before you sell it or you may lose the sale.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />