She ended up buying one of the last of the available Russian biathlon rifles with all the bells and whistles. It is one impressive rifle. I got a chance to try it and the very pricy Anschutz models side by side. The simplicity of their straight pull actions and all the little specialty gizmos on them I founds especially interesting.
I commented that with hunting sights they would make the best squirrel rifles on the planet, but none of them seemed to understand.
I really pissed off the guy that's been selling them all extremely overpriced competition ammo when I pointed out that every rimfire rifle has its own opinion of ammo and that they should try as many different kinds, from el cheapo all the way up to what they'd been buying from their "friend" at twice retail. The only opinion that matters is the rifle's and you can never predict what it will like, you have to try as many kinds as you can find to see for yourself what it will shoot best, from an ancient single shot to a tricked out 10/22 target rifle to the fanciest competition rifles. He got all red in the face and yelled "What do YOU know about rifles and ammo?" My friend pipes up "He builds hunting rifles and loads custom ammo for them, and he makes his own bullets. And he's been doing it since before you were born." He shut up, got in his car and drove off with steam coming out of his ears. I gave the shooters there the names of three local dealers who would happily order any ammo for them including what they'd been using at half what he'd been charging them. I'll trade one instant enemy for a dozen new shooting friends any day. I wish I had gotten interested in this when I was still able to do it myself.
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