[ABNRGR]

My first high power rifle in 1973, when I turned 21, was a Belgian Browning Safari Grade Mauser in 30.06 with a beautiful stock that resembled tigers eye. At that age, I could put 5 shots in the same hole, prone at 100 yards. Browning marketed to 'The Browning Man' with the slogan, "It must be flawless." And they were: beautiful wood, deep blue, superb machining and finish, total reliability with controlled round feeding, and superb accuracy. Since then, I have added Belgian Brownings in .270, 7mm Mag, .308, .458 Win Mag, and .243 (Finland) to my collection.

For today's choice for foul-weather, deep woods hunting, I prefer Tikka (owned by Beretta) T3's made in Finland, push-feed, synthetic stocks (no worries about dinging walnut in the woods), stainless fluted barrels, guaranteed 1 MOA, light weight and regarded by some as, "The Modern Model 70."

Old World Brownings for collecting, admiring, and shooting under controlled circumstances, Tikkas for hunting under any conditions. How could you go wrong?