hey guys i find that when back in alaska i buy more .410 than 12g more meat left when ya get after the bunnies and grouse, the story on this savage made by valmet is i got it back in the 70's from an old trapper when i was stationed at eilson afb near fairbanks . i used to spend a lot of time in the bush so it was ideal with th echoke honed out it handles slugs too . me and a partner got caught in an early freeze up in the ft yukon area so we cached everything and flew out as there was no way to make it back to or down the yukon before it locked up.i wrapped it in a wool blanket so it would breathe and sealed the cache ,this one being a ground type ,well i thought i had lost the map to it and it was gone forever but 8 yrs ago when preparing to leave country to caretake my wife I found the map! well curiousity got the better of me and i returned to the area ,someone had found the cache as the valmet had been removed from it's cover and used a bit but not put back the way i had it ,figured it was a native because he left it there a white man would have taken it not realizing the importance of said cache. well after the native found it so did a bear ,which left the long brown calliing card hairs of his , he tore the place up good and got into the rocksalt that was there and you can guess where it spilled-------- the ol valmet looks like craters of the moon especially the shotgun barrel but the .308 still shoots wiht authority and i use ligtht loads inn the shotgun side there have been a few times when i thought about rebarreling it but the voice from within it always whispers please no ,if i could only talk what a story it would be so ugly remains but deadly she is especially whe the snot nose new in the box from wal mart looks down their barrels at her . there was an article in the master back woodsmaqn maganine about using .444 brass for loading shells for it
thanks smitty