[skeet]

The Kimber is basically a Winchester M-70 that has been slimmed and prettied up. The Montana is based on the Mauser 98..also slimmed and prettied. I defineitely like the Kimber much better than the 98 No matter what is done to the 98..it is still a 98. But they can be made to be very pretty. and they always seem to work. Same with the M-70. And your assessment of the "classics"is spot on. But in another 20-50 yrs..the Classics will once again be in vogue. The young'uns will finally see the differences and come to appreciate the finer things in guns..but of course they will then be the old guys and will have more money to spend. This is of course pre-supposing that guns will still be able to be owned. We are lucky right now that Nobama and his crowd have more "pressing" matters to be concerned with ie the Benghazi mess and the Infernal Revenue mess. Be nice if we could keep them busy with their messes. This bunch REALLY seem to have been covered thickly with Teflon. BTW I am seeing quite a few custom guns built on M-70s at the shows with very high prices..just because they are M-70s. Watching at the shows though I really don't see many 1000 dollar firearms selling..except a few SxS and O/U doubles in shotguns and some SxS rifles. I sold another guys Krieghoff 470 Nitro not long ago. There is a lot of interest in African firearms..and I've seen a lot of interest in Wincheste pump and bolt 22s. Some of the pumps are getting REALLY spensive. I bought and sold a really nice little 61 Win 22 mag not long ago....for 1900. But it really was a nice one.