Great comments! Many thanks. You guys make a good argument for the .30-40 Krag cartridge. It's the rifle I have an issue with. I have to say I find the things darn ugly, though I think there was an exceptional one posted here within the last year that did sort of look attractive but really, I am ugly enough that I don't need to hold an ugly gun to boot. Yes, I realize that doesn't really sound to rational but this is about hunting for rifles, and so who needs rationality to get in the way. That said. I'll look a little more closely at Krags if I can find one to trip over. I'll try to wrap myself around that "retro cool" idea which does sound a lot like the things I find interesting, but it needs to grow on me a bit more. Where I am, such beasts are few and far between. I have only held one in a shop and never seen one at a range.

I'm mostly interested in rifles that have some history and stories, albeit unknown, so those that have been rode hard, and put away carefully appeal to me the most, even if I don't know where they have been. I don't want to rebarrel one or anything like that, just a nice, well used sporter that somehow I find attractive. I feel the Lyman receiver sight or the equivalent is important to me. I hunt and compete with tang-sighted singleshots (and, recently, vintage lever guns). I can't imagine a rifle w/o a rear aperture, unless it is my flintlock.

In the end, this is probably as much about the hunt for the rifle as it is about the rifle I end up with.

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BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)
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