Way2slow

My problem is have more good rifles than I have good optics. A number of my scopes were scopes I bought back in the 70's and 80's when I was doing a whole lot more hunting than now. It's only been in the last 15 years I've actually started buying upper mid level and lower high end scopes. I've bought rather nice scopes for the handful of rifles I shoot the most, nothing like a Schmidt Bender but nice. Now I'm upgrading the older ones and trying to get scopes on all of them. In the past, I've been taking a scope off one rifle and putting it on another I wanted to use. Since this is an ongoing project and I have no certain time line I have to meet. I'm an opportunistic shopper. I have come to really like the Bushnell's and they are very good at having some really great deals on them. Their Forge line are some really nice scopes and when I can buy their $800 - $900 Forge scope for $400, and their $1,500 Elite scopes for well under $1,000, it's hard to buy another brand. A friend of mine thinks there is not other scope than a Schmidt Bender and I have shot with one he paid over $4,000 and I am yet to see how I could justify something like that. The only time I've noticed a marked difference was late one evening (almost dark) and I was shooting a 500 yard target with his 6.5CM with a SB scope on it. I was going to shoot a couple with my 260 and call it quits. Well, that didn't happen. With his scope I could still see the target, with my scope, I could see a blob down there, but no way I was going to make out the bulls eye. Both scopes were similar in power, but that still don't make me want to run out and pay what those things cost.

Even coming close to the color is probably not going to happen, 30 years of UV bleaching is not going to be matchalbe You probably won't even find one of the same texture. Boat carpets have changed a ton from the early days of bass boats. If you don't won't to do the whole boat, just find something you think you can live with.

Never got on board with Vortex. $1,000 has always been my cap for buying optics for a rifle and every time I've looked at the Vortex, it was almost twice that for their good scopes. When you get down into their mid range and upper mid range I've never felt I was getting as much scope as I was paying for. Don't get me wrong, not saying they are not good, I just felt others were better for the price. I just ordered two Bushnell Forge FFP scopes and one Bushnell Nitro FFP 4-16x44 to put on a new Marlin 60ss 22, Does that make since or what? Actually, it will probably only be on the 22 for several months while I'm waiting on a couple custom barrels for rifles I'm building. That's six Bushnell scopes I've ordered in the past eight months. I remember the day you couldn't give me a Bushnell, they were are the bottom of the food chain then. About like a Simmons, but they have made a hellava turn around and now, I think they offer the most scope for the buck. I was buying Sightron SIII's but every time I get one of these Bushnell's I seem to like them better each time.

My dilemma is I want to put a new barrel on my 6mm, 788 Remington I bought new for $66 and the new barrel I want to put on it is over $500. I loaded up 12 bullets that’s the same load it has always shot, took it out today and shot four three shot groups. The first one from a cold, clean barrel, two bullets were overlapped a little, the other was just under those two and had about 1/8” space between it and the other. The other three groups had all three bullets touching or overlapped. I bought the rifle in 1968 for $66 in Left Hand action (I’m a south paw) and $12 for a 3x9 Tasco scope and they gave me a box of bullets. I wanted something cheap to keep in a gun rack I had in the roof of my Bronco. I put the scope on it, zeroed it in about five shots and in the gun rack is where it went. Other than when I took it down to shoot something, it stayed there for three years. Was still using that box of bullets they gave me with it until so one day I decided to develop a load for it. Right off the bat the thing was amazingly accurate so I decided to make it even better. I had lapped the barrel. Then I pillar post and glass bedded the action and free floated the barrel and work up a very accurate load with 44 grains of IMR4350 and 85gr, boat tail hollow points target bullets. I always shot everything in the head so being target bullets didn’t matter, the head still exploded. When I say “very accurate” I mean just that, the thing was consistently shooting one hole, three shot groups, all most unheard of back then, even for a high dollar target rifle. Fast forward a few years, in 1990 while I was station overseas. I had left my guns at my parent’s house and my dad had let a friend of his use my 788 and sometime after I got back I went to run an oil patch down the barrel and it came out with rust. One area about three inches long had some significant rust, made me sick. The thought of the barrel being in that condition has always bothered me so I finally decided I was going to put a new barrel on it, even though I don’t use the rifle anymore, but it has a ton of sentimental value to me. I rarely use it because of the left hand action. Even though I’m left handed, every bolt action rifle I’ve ever used other than that one has been right handed and I’m just a whole lot better and more comfortable with a right hand action than a with a left. The thing is, even being a rust bucket, the thing shoots so dang good, the new barrel may not even shoot as good as the one that’s on it, but it bugs the h*** out of me it being rusted.

Oh, I've meet a whole bunch of people that would have had their day ruined if they had gotten it. I sent Marlin an email telling them what I thought of their QC. That bore mop looked like it was worn out several hundred guns before that one. It was bent in a couple of places, most of the fiber was gone and brass wire they twisted to make it, was worn half way through in those area where it was bent. It was bad enough, I hope it broke off on the first pass through that barrel. I've always preached, never shoot a new barrel without cleaning it to get any petroleum based oils and rust preventer the factory may have used in it out. That makes a bad carbon for the barrel. I reload and years ago I went to check some loads I had made for a 6mm. Before leaving the house I pulled a bore snake through it to get the oil out. When I got to the range, just from habit after setting the rifle on the rest and before putting the clip in, I pulled the bolt out and looked down the barrel. There was a frigging spent primer in it. I figure it had to have either been in the soft case I put it in, or stuck to the bore snake some way but it was sitting there, about three inches down the barrel. That could really ruin a day because with the power behind that bullet and that was a sport barrel, It would have peeled that barrel back like a banana and sent shrapnel in all directions.

Bought a new Marlin 60SS the other day and got a surprise bonus. I always clean and inspect the bore of any new rifle, plus I never shoot a gun before I inspect the barrel to insure it's free of any obstructions. Here's why. This was in the barrel of that brand new, out of the box Marlin 60. You can tell it's used at the factory to lube the barrel before boxing. That end to the left is the threaded section that broke off the rod that holds it,

At the range I used to go to, I was pretty well known (probably more so for my granddaughter they called her little Annie Oakley for her shooting skills) and was asked all the time if I would shoot someone else's rifle to see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. I would shoot it and most of the time, it shot fine. What I would do then is shoot a quick, three shot group with my rifle just to show them how it shot. Then I would sit them down, load a round and have them shoot. I would load another, and them shoot, then I would load a snap cap, it looks like a regular bullet. When they pulled the trigger, 95% of them jerked the whole rifle. I had one guy ****** it clean off the sand bags it was sitting on. Dry fire practice from a steady rest is worth it's time in gold. Get you some snap caps for one you like to shoot, sit down at a table or prone (my neck doesn't let me shoot prone anymore). Practice keeping both eyes open, even with a scope. I never close one eye when shooting, that greatly reduces eye strain, because the eye can only focus for about five seconds before it starts to blur, if it does, look away for a few seconds, then come back to it. Next pay attention to your breathing, take a fairly deep breath, exhale most of it to a comfortable level and then quit breathing. Don't take a deep breath and hold it. Remember, your eye is only good for five seconds, so that's all you have to quit breathing. If you have to look away, you can breath again if you need to. I hope you know proper trigger finger position and squeeze because that, I only try to show, not explain. Then comes the trigger itself, on hunting rifle I want about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds and silky smooth. When all this is done, work on squeezing off shots without moving the cross hairs or blinking. A blink is a sign of a flinch. If you shoot in low light, the muzzle blast should blind the crap out of you, or wiping out the target picture if in good light, yet a lot of people don't even know there is a muzzle blast. You should be able to call your shoots, every time that firing pin drop. You should be seeing exactly where that cross hair is, or sight if shooting open sights, when the rifle goes off. If you are blinking, you can't do that. If I haven't shoot a rifle for a while, I still go through my dry fire drills. I've probably dry fired my Glock, 100 times for every one time I've shot a bullet through it, and I've put a few thousand bullets through it, learning to shoot a pistol. Forgot to mention one other critical part, your cheek weld. The same position it critical. If you have your scope very high, or don't have a Monty Carlo style stock or elevated cheek rest, that can really throw you off. If you have a fixed Parallax scope, which is what most of the run of the mill hunting scopes are, they are usually set at approximately 100 yards. If your cheek weld is not the same every time, and you are shooting some other distance, then your cross hairs are going to be in a different spot on the target every time your eye is in a different position. Most like their cheek bone testing on the stock in the same spot. You find that perfect spot so when you pull the rifle up, and lay you head forward to rest on the stock, it hits the same comfortable spot. You don't go moving your head all over trying to get the scope picture right, you have the stock so it's the right height for the scope and have the scope positioned so it has the proper eye relief. OK, So much for shooting 101.

Understand, what I posted only applies to two stroke carburated engines and those plug numbers were for a 3.0 V6 OMC. Four stroke engines and EFI/DFI two strokes are computer controlled so they are going to run much leaner and the plugs are going to be a lot closer to white, if not white.

On a properly tuned and jetted carburetor engine, the only time carbon should a problem is at long periods of idle. A two stroke has to idle a little rich or it will lean spit, which is not good for reeds and other things. Once you get up to above about 3,000 rpm you should be off the low speed jets and only running on mids. At that point, after several minutes of running, the plugs should clean up a a paper bag brown or just a little darker toward the color of tea or coke. They should not be burning black. At approx 4,800 rpm than engine should start changing over to the high speed jets, depending on the size pullovers they have in the carbs and the plugs should start to lighten up a little more. At WOT, 5,500-6,000 rpm, they should be closer to a light tan to almost white. If white, they are on the hairy edge to going lean, and that you don't want, can get expensive. Now, with all that said, and since I know a little bit about reading plugs and tuning two strokes, I run mine a lot leaner than anything you are going to see come from the factory, makes a huge difference in fuel economy, but if the average individual try's that and the first cool, brisk morning he goes ripping off down the lake and is thinking to himself, man that thing is running good, it probably won't be for very long. They make a distinct and very sickening sound when they pop a piston. Also understand, a rich engine has more torque, a lean engine has more speed. One other tid bit. If you do a lot of wot running, run 78s in it, if you rarely make long, wot runs, use 77's in it. I think those are QL77 or 78, old fart brain, just made a memory dump.

If you are asking me, I use and assortment of mouth diaphragm calls and Lynches slate call that looks like and over size match box you cup in the palm of your hand. I use the slate call for my initial calling and to get him coming, but use the mouth calls when he's close because I don't want to be moving around swapping the caller for the camera, gun or what ever. I started with Lynches slate caller back in the early 60's before the mouth calls came along or got popular, got really good at talking turkey with it and that's still my caller of choice today.

A one size over bronze brush spun at a slow speed in a drill, keeping it just short of the lands with some type of carbon remover to keep it wet will take care of most of it. Just don't get it on the lands, that brush going across them instead of inline with them probably won't be very healthy for them. To finish up that area and a few inches up the lands, JB's. IOSSO, and KG2 are all abrasive compounds that will finish cleaning the throat and up the lands. These work great for cleaning the up the barrel https://www.brownells.com/gun-cleaning-chemicals/patches-mops/cleaning-pellets/weapons-care-system-pellets-prod13839.aspx. Tipton also makes some. The super intensive have brass fibers woven in that really work on the hard to remove stuff. I try to avoid using a bronze brush up the rifling, but if/when I do, it's usually one a size under wrapped with a cotton patch and I do not pull it back across the crown.

Yes, windows, Mac or Android, USB port. It comes with adapters to fit three different USB ports. I've owned a bore scope for bunches of years, but has always been having to use a little peep hole to see inside the bore. Once I almost spent the extra few thousand to get the Hawkeye with video. I found out many years ago, it's almost impossible to properly clean a barrel without one. I used to do a lot of competition shooting and some exhibition shooting, so accuracy was critical. The main problem area is just where the throat starts and goes into the lands and the small space between the case and the throat, and up the barrel a couple of inches. Almost all powders create a hard carbon buildup in the throat that just a regular cleaning will not remove and without some way of looking at it, you probably won't be getting it clean. It can actually get bad enough to cause high pressure problem, and will greatly affect accuracy. If you ever looked at the throat area with a bore scope, you will probably think the barrel surface has burned and cracked badly from the extreme heat generated there, but after a couple of hours and some creative cleaning, you will probably find the metal looks almost new once you get that carbon off. Trust me, the carbon in that throat area is next to being turned to diamond, it's just that frigging hard. The carbon build up on valves and piston don't compare to it, and I have not found or ever heard of a chemical the will de-solve it, and I have tried most all. There are all kinds of claims, but I've tried them all, they don't work. Even went so far as trying Barryman's B12 Aqua Seal carb cleaner on an old take off barrel. That stuff makes an piston look new, but didn't touch the carbon in the throat of that barrel. I shoot a couple thousand rounds a year for rifle's and pistols, and get very tired of cleaning that crap out. Now, if you are just one of those shooters/hunters that might shoot a box of bullets every few years, that's something you will probably never see as a problem. If you have a nice rifle and like to go out from time to time and punch holes in paper and like to see little bitty groups when you do, then you need to check it out. Something like this, I know it looks like three but that's actually 5 shots from a 270 at 100 yards The first four were almost in the same hole, then I pulled the fifth. Oh, that's also. using an 8-32x55mm scope cranked up to 24X.

The best $50 I've ever spent. I have a Hawkeye Borescope, but it's a bit of a pain in the but to use and cost more than I want to spend to connecte it to a monitor. I've tried several cheap contraptions that claim they would do the job, but were not worth the time it took to order them. Last week I was on Amazon and came across another one of these contraptions but this one caught my attention and the more I read, I figure what the hay, won't be the first time I've p****d away $50 so I ordered one. The item is was a TESLONG Rifle Bore scope, https://www.amazon.com/Teslong-Borescope-Mirror-195-Inspection-Compatibale/dp/B07XDYN296/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&hvadid=78408984240650&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&hvqmt=b&keywords=teslong+borescope&qid=1577741499&sr=8-5. It came today and went to the link they said in the directions and download the software, and installed it on Windows 7. (took 10 off this computer). The directions leave a bit to be desired but finally got it going, and was totally surprised at the results. I also installed in on an old Galaxy S4 phone that I don't use as a phone. If you do that, use the USB Camera app, the other have too much baggage attached. IT DOES NOT WORK ON IPHONE. Here's a couple of picture's of a rifle I thought I had clean, but had not inspected yet, needless to say, still needs a little work.

Sunoco has some very good info on their site about gasoline and storing it, but this is a paragraph on storing their racing fuel. Perfectly stored, most race fuels will last more than a year. If you are not sure you can use the fuel up within 2 years, add a quality fuel stabilizer to the fuel as soon as you purchase it. Fuel stabilizer can only postpone fuel degradation; it can’t fix fuel that’s already bad. Now, they also say their race fuel is not the same blend as their pump gas. Nor is their 87 octant the same as the 93 octane. Pump gas is driven by the cost at the pump, so 87 octane gets the cheapest stuff they can put in it. Making the volatile additives used for octane booster evaporate much quicker. Fuel stabilizer does not stop the volatile additives from evaporating, how it's stored affects that. A full, tightly sealed container, stores fuel much better than a partially full, vented container. I used Seafoam as soon as put fuel in the tank and I only buy fuel from high volume stations, (gas is going bad just sitting in a gas stations tanks) and I will not run fuel in my outboard motors that has been stored more than a couple of months. If I know I'm not going to be using it for a few months, I pump it out and put it in something else, or if it has sat for a couple of months, and fuel is in it, I pump it out to be run in something else. After over 50 years of building and racing these things, I know first hand what bad fuel can do to two stroke outboards, seen it too many times. So, I could care less what other do or say about running old gas, I know what I'm going to do, and it dang sure ain't going to be running it in an outboard motor. Now, I've never worked on or run a four stroke outboards so can't say how it affects those.

I just saw this post, so a little late. What would be nice, if someone in the Ft Hood area could try making a connection with the boy and serve as a mentor. Back in the mid 80's I was stationed at Langley AFB in VA. A couple moved in next to use with a 15 year old boy in a similar situation, but his father was killed in Vietnam when he was very young. The mother had remarried twice since and the guy she was married to at the time was waste. The boy really had no father figure and had an attitude that showed that. I started working on a relationship with him. Getting him to help me do a lot of things, and teaching him how to work on cars, which he really enjoyed. He had never been fishing or hunting so I started taking him. When his attitude popped up, I would put him in his place. After about a year, he was a totally different person. He and his mother had me doing all the things a father would normally have done, like go with him to pick out his first car when he turned 16. Help him prepare for his senior prom etc. His mother and my wife still stay in touch (matter of fact, she will be here for two weeks in Jan) and my son visited him a couple of years ago, and at almost 50 years old now, he still told my son he thinks more of me being a father to him than anyone and credited me for him being the successful business man he is today. So, if someone in the area will put forth the effort to make contact and offer the spend time with him doing things his father would have done, it can make a world of difference on what kind of man he might grow up to be. Take him fishing, hunting etc, have him come over and help do things with them will mean a lot.

There are number of things that will slow them down, but not much of anything is going to stop them if they want it. For instance, that console safe, being visible like that just advertises there might be a pistol in it. They would just rip the whole thing out of the console. A friend had a Mercedes they stole the radio out of. Had to been kids because a pro would have had the special tool and gone if a few seconds but these busted and ripped most of frigging dash out of the vehicle. $10K in damage to steal a $200 radio. You have to wonder about the mentality of these businesses that ban the carry of firearms in them. That just advertises to the robber it's a much safer place to rob. Just the other night a store clerk was killed by a robber and two customers robbed. The sad part was, one of the customers left his carry pistol in his vehicle in order to obey the law when he went in. I would have a sign, "ALL PROFF OF CARRY CUSTOMERS GET A DISCOUNT" I've actually gotten to where I have quit taking mine most of the time because so many of the NO WEAPONS/FIREARMS ALLOWED. Going on base and a couple other places I go, it can't even be in the vehicle. Going into a doctors office or medical facility, you can't even have your pocket knife on you.

Way better than me with a pistol. Put a long gun in my hands, rifle or shotgun, and at 72 I can still embarrass most that think they can out shoot me. While I can shoot a pistol, and think I can defend myself with one, they are not a natural feel to me like a shotgun or rifle and need a little time to aim to hit a paper plate at 25 yards. It's only been in the last few years that I've started putting any effort into learning to shoot one. Wasn't many years ago, the safest place to be at 25 yards when I was shooting, was directly in front of the barrel. A few thousand rounds through a Glock 20 has helped a lot, but doesn't compare to the hundreds of thousands of rounds I've put through long guns. I've probably shot a box car load of 22'a and BB's (yes, BB's as in Daisy Red Rider).

First time I've been here is a while. GA does not have a fall season, but back when I lived on the farm, two fall wild turkeys were always part of our thanks giving diner. The fall turkey taste sooooo much better than anything you can buy in the store. Unlike the spring birds you can legally hunt that have been either starved all winter or been eating wild onions, the fall birds had had a rich diet of acorns and other berries and seeds. Now that I can't just walk into the woods, it's too risky to hunt get a fall bird. As for calling and hunting them, I started back in the early/mid 60's when GA first opened a season on them. Never cared for killing the spring birds because they usually were not fit to eat, but have probably called hundreds of them. Usually for other people, called up 27 in one season, and never took a gun with me because I was just calling for my bosses that season. 27 birds and they never carried one out of the woods, but left the woods full of feathers because the were insistent on hunting with 222's. At the end of the season, they were using 30-06s and still having them run off to die after shooting them. As for me, I've never killed but three spring birds, but have taken hundreds of photos and movies of them. I'm not a trophy hunter and if I'm not going to eat it, I don't kill it. I let the bucks with the big racks walk but will shoot one the size of a German Shepperd in a heart beat. I've never mount anything other than one 10lb3oz bass my son caught when he was eight years old, and he wanted that one so bad. For fall hunting, a good dog is fantastic. My bird dog was great at tracking them and she was well trained at staying close when I wanted her to. When we got close enough, I would send her into them and get them scattered. Then move a couple hundreds yards in the direction they flew, sit down and start calling with the lost or assembly call. Doing this, I was probably about 95% successful.

Well, one good part about this deal, the price is right. The best way for you to check the transom is to try tightening the motor mounting bolts. If they start making a recess and pulling the washers on the inside down into the fiber glass with just 50 or 60 pounds of torque, then you have a major problem.

I don't want to sound blunt, but they are cheaply made boats. I looked at one that was only three years old at the time. They had traded in the hull for a new Stratos, and the dealer was offering me a good deal on the boat without a motor. Upon inspecting it, it was very obvious to me why they traded it in. The transom was total rotten junk. I didn't see any signs of silicon around the bolt holes so it looked like the bolts were not sealed when they installed the motor. I've know of a few others that had them all had problem with soft wood in the floors and one had a cracking transom. So, with that be sure you check it out very well or have someone very knowledgeable check it for you. I put it in the same class as a Bayliner.

A smaller, slow boat will make you a better fisherman. The lake I mostly fish is about 77,000 acres and over a mile wide down in the main body. I can go almost 60 miles in one direction so, if the area I'm fishing is not working for me, it doesn't take long to go to another area 15 or more miles away at 70+ MPH. Unless you want to spend your whole day riding, that's not so easy to do in a 25 - 30 MPH boat (or even slower). That makes you have to hang around in a somewhat limited area and figure it out. Figure out where the fish are at and what bait and how to present it to them to entice a bite. I started almost 60 years ago fishing the backwaters of this lake using nothing but a 17ft canoe with a little 1.5hp outboard hanging off the side, so my fishing was confined to no more than a mile or so in any one direction. I learned to make it work, and know that area like the back of my hand. When other people say they can't buy a bite, I can always fall back to this area can catch fish. It may not be the large numbers other places, if you could get to them, would produce, but I can always depend of getting a few fish out of it. It's like learning a small lake inside a huge lake. The things this teaches you, you find if you pay attention, you can use the same techniques in other, similar areas you come into that work in your are. Also, when gas gets back to $3.00 a gallon again, you don't really care about the whole, huge lake if you are generally fishing on a budget like I am and don't want to spend $100 a trip feeding some big a** motor running all over the lake at 70mph.

It's very common for people to change decals on motors when they are similar looking , especially in areas where the law or local guidelines don't allow a motor the have more horse power than the hull is rated.

Yep, back then, there were no V6 Merc's. As mentioned, the 135BHP was an I6, with a small brass, bullet type lower unit and a huge exhaust port at the anticav plate. Stickly intended for racing. As WRB mentioned, I haven't done much with merc's since the early 70's. I thought the only 135 V6 they made was the Mariner. I like the OMC looper motors, got into those a few years after they came out with it in the 60's with the 3 cylinder models. Those could be made to scream. Then the V6's in the mid 80's. When OMC developed those, they left so much horse power on the table, it very easy to get bunches of cheap horse power out of them. The things were just built like a tank. Mercury did a much better job in manufacturing, so they got a much better HP to Weight ratio, but didn't have all the free extra power that could easily be gotten. To modify a merc, you have to rob Peter to pay Paul. In other words, if you want bunches of horse power, you have to give up bunches of bottom end torque (hole shot), and spin them a zillion RPM so they have to go on lighter boats to take advantage of that extra HP. I can take a 200hp 3.0 OMC motor, get over 300hp (well over 400hp from a 3.3) from it and still launch a heavy Stratos 201 or Ranger like they were shot out of a canon, and not have to turn it that zillion rpm to get that 300hp.

Lets just say, it's always been in my blood. I could be a wealthy man if I had all the money I've spent one fast vehicles, boats and motors. Built my first hot rod, 55 Ford, when I was 16, that was 1962. Bought it with a I-6 on my 16th birthday, went through a hopped up 272 and 312 V-8 and was installing a wicked 427 in it on my 17th birthday. I raced go-carts, micro midgets, drag raced, and circle track dirt racing back then. Drove for another in Modified Sportsman. Got into boats in the mid 60's and in 68, I had installed two 135BHP Mercs on a 16' Allison, that was running 80mph. I bought a new 1969 Charger R/T 426 Hemi, and had the heads off and swapping the cam out with less than 50 miles on it. Don't think I was born with one of the silver spoons in my mouth, there was a lot of times we had nothing but beans for supper. Being a county boy, I got hooked up with hauling moonshine at 15. I was driving at 13 and had a car, 48 Ford I bought for $10, just was not supposed to drive in town. At 16, I was making $120 a week from three runs a week. That was major money back then. Even my chain saws are supped up. One was 4.1hp, It now has almost 7. That sucker screams through big oak log. I'm like Tim Allen in the Tool, gotta have more POWER. Now, what you will find, the lions share of those folks that have those high powered fast boats, will get tired of spending their money on them and get rid of them. Unless they are already old enough, like me, to have gotten them out of their system, and have already gotten rid of them. It cost to play, and that play money is gone forever, with very little but memories to show for it. Keep it reasonable and in a range that you can afford to feed the motor regularly so you can enjoy going fishing. Those big, fast motors, go through huge dollars worth of gas maintenance, real fast. Contrary to most, I consider 75 a reasonably fast speed and don't care to own a boat that runs much slower. That's why I keep my 225 ficht that runs in the lower 70's on my boat and typically cruise between 50 and 55mph, but can still go play when I want to. After all, I've had an STV that would run 121 but at 72 though and retired on social security, that need for speed doesn't come as often.

One word of caution from someone who has been there, done that many times. You get on of those hydro rockets like the Allison and Bullet, that basically have no speed limitation. The more you add horse power and better the setup, the faster they go, and you are a speed freak like me, you are creating you one huge money pit, and time hog. You never quit trying to make it faster. Because of that, if I had to have one, I would lean toward the Gambler. They are a fast boat, but they seem to have their limits, meaning when they get to a certain point, it's almost pointless to keep trying because that little extra you gain, is not worth the money and effort it takes to get. Because of my first paragraph is why I've stuck with my 20' Javelin for over 15 years now. When I get that wild hair, I can throw my 326 hp hot rod motor on it and wipe that funky grin off every Triton driver on the lake wants to give you when he goes by. I know that boat has it limits and I've reached it. It's very easy to get it into the mid 80's with a load and passenger, but it hits a wall at the mid 80's. I have had 450hp motors on it breaking them in and testing them before sending them home and it only ran in the lower 90's then, a 7mph gain for a whole lot more expensive motor, ain't worth it.