Mossberg 1500 (made by Howa)
My grandmother won a Mossberg 1500 in 7MM Mag in a VFW hall raffle, back in the mid 1980's, and gave it to me when I was 13. This rifle had a very light wooden stock, with too much drop at heel, a cheap scope (Bushnell IIRC - very little eye-relief) and a fairly poor trigger. This resulted in quite a bit of muzzle jump, and countless "Scope Bumps" across the bridge of my nose. I eventually got to where I did not like shooting this rifle, and when I inherited an excellent .270 a few years later, this one spent the next decade or so in the back of the safe.
Since the sentimental value prevented me from selling/trading it, a few years ago I made a project of turning this one in to a "shooter". I replaced the stock with a Boyd's thumbhole stock, the trigger with a Timney, and the scope with a Leupold VX2 4-12x40. I am happy to report that the project was successful.. The rifle is extremely comfortable to shoot, and holds under an inch at 100 yards with 150 gr Core-Lokt.
My only issue is with the safety next to the bolt, and my thumb through the thumbhole, I end up using my trigger finger to disengage the safety. This makes it a poor "walking around" rifle, but does fine from a stand, especially where longer shots may be expected.
I have only taken 1 animal with this rifle - a 200 lb boar, at ~50 yards. The hog was DRT, but the bullet stopped inside the far shoulder. Since that's almost identical to the performance I've seen from my .270, I'll likely be looking at a heavier bullet for this one.
