Gents: A few years back I picked up a rifle for a few hundred dollars. It's a John Dickson & Sons (engraved on the barrel), Mauser-actioned bolt gun in .270 Winchester. I don't know much about this gun, but my best guess is that it was built in Birmingham (marked "Made in England") in the 1950s or 60s and sold by Dickson as an entry-level, "I'm going to Canada to hunt sheep" kind of gun.
It's got some miles on it, but remains very accurate, has open three-position iron sights (came with Tolley bases, as well), and is chambered for a great, practical cartridge. I consider it my foul-weather deer rifle. That's the good part.
The not-so-good is the trigger, which is a two-stage "military" style; the bolt, the top half of which was ground away to clear some sort of scope; and the safety, which is this white-steel, after-market number also put on to accommodate the scope.
The safety is the only part I can't live with. It rattles and, worse yet, tends to let itself "off" when the rifle is carried. When at "nine o'clock" the safety is off and at "eleven o'clock" it's on. How hard will it be to retrofit this rifle with a safety that is much closer to original and, frankly, just "safer"? Suggestions as to my next steps? It won't make sense to put a lot of money into this gun. Your thoughts, as always, will be appreciated. TT