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Thank you for the kind words on my collection.

Yes, I do have a favorite, but it's not in that gun cabinet, it's in another gun cabinet on the other side of the room, and it's the gun shown in my avatar.

I always considered the Savage 24 a 'walkabout' gun because with the right combination of barrels/ammo, there's not much you couldn't take with it while walking about in the woods, especially upstate NY, which is where I like to walk around with such a gun.

I also felt that the ideal barrel combination for that would be a .223 over 20 gauge in a Savage 24V, light and compact compared to the 24F.

SOOOO there was an older gentleman that used to come to this board years ago, named Ray, from Missouri. Great guy, and I haven't seen him here lately, I hope everything is ok with him. He had one for sale in that caliber combination and I bought it from him sight unseen.

When I got the gun I realized it wouldn't have any great collector value because the case coloring on the receiver was faded, and the original finish on the stock appearred to have a coat of polyurethane over the original finish. It was early 1980's vintage flat sided receiver and the metal spacer seperating the barrels before they went to the round ring around the shotgun barrel around the mid 80's. But is was exactly what I wanted as a walkabout gun and nothing like a project redoing a Savage 24.

I had a really nice stock (brand new dull satin finish) bought on Fleabay years ago that appeared to be for a Savage 94 shotgun in 12 gauge, I say that because there was no pistol grip cap on the stock. I also had a 10 inch beavertail forarm with the finger groove, that I had gotten from Numrich and stripped/refinished high gloss, it was a very blonde piece of walnut under the ugly stain, probably outer sapwood that is light in color.

Stock was so oversize I had to strip it and fit it to the receiver, then finished it high gloss like the forend. Trigger guard was aftermarket machined aluminum and nicely done except it was shiny aluminum. Found a spray can of Krylon high gloss black in the closet from daughters old high school project and that made me happy with the trigger guard. 

So I put it together and originally had a 3X9 Redfield Traditional scope on it in see thru mounts which was period correct for the gun, but the 40MM objective bell hung down to far into the see thru , so I took it off and put an older Leupold(also period correct) Vari X II 2X7 with a 33MM objective bell, and that worked for me.

It's done other than that I have to put a stud swivel in the stock so I can sling it, just haven't seemed to get around to it yet, and you're better off with the gun in your hands anyways, so I may never get to it.

Pics:


 

Here it is with the 3X9 Redfield on it, gives you a better idea of how pretty the wood is:





LIke I always say, life's to short to hang with an ugly woman, or hunt with an ugly gun.