Seems like I'm perpetually searching for a "handy" little rifle / carbine that I can shoot a lot. I played with a friends M1 Carbine a while back and thought it was really fun (although not a huge fan of the sights or the trigger).

I spent a little time looking for a Marlin 1894CBC in .38 Special, but they're hard to come by. And it'd be another caliber to reload.

Stumbled across this Olympic K9GL, which is a darned near PERFECT plinker out to ~150yds. Except at 9.33lbs, it really is heavy.

My new SDI SR-15 (essentially a CAV-15 Trooper) isn't too far off the mark, except those little .223 holes are awfully hard to see on paper, and it just punches right through clay pigeons. .223 also has a tendency to "eat" my steel targets at <100yds.

With a 2.5x "scout" scope, I'd think with this I would be able to "if I can see it, I can hit it" -- and know I hit it (out to maybe 300yds). I'd prefer it in .243, but that blows the "cheap factory ammo" factor, so it would have to be .308.