The stories of my great grandfather hunting in the area that was to become Riding Mountain National Park (and poaching in the same area afterwards) are the stuff of family legend. I recently learned that when my great uncle passed, his son had given my great grandpa's rifle to my uncle's hunting buddy. I spoke to my cousin, and learned who it was had possession of this rifle. A few weeks ago, my dad went to visit this fellow in the hospital; I half jokingly said if they ran out of things to talk about to mention the rifle and ask if he would be willing to part with it. He agreed, but died 2 days later; I thought oh well, I missed my chance. But Dad mentioned it to the fellow's brother, who unhesitatingly gifted it to me. There were some complications, the gun had been loaded (along with 122 others) into an auction company van, and driven to a town over an hour's drive away. I heard nothing for 2 weeks, I thought, oh well, they forgot. But lo and behold, they had not, and now I am the proud owner of a Savage 99 made in 1946, with a shortened military 30-06 barrel (shortened on the cylinder end in order to remain a 300 Savage???) married to a 300 Savage reciever, due to the fact my great grandfather shot out the original barrel. There are rumours as to the accuracy and doubts as to the integrity of this rifle, but the fellow who delivered it said he had shot the gun himself and these rumours are unfounded. I am excited to forge a new future for this family history, I suspect it hasn't shot a deer for over 20 years.
