Dotman , I have a cdl sf in 7mm-08 that broke me of ever wanting to buy another remington. The quality control is gone at remington since cerbus bought them. If it was an older 700 from the '70 id say jump all over it. The savages just shoot good these days and for my money a great deal. I will say the savages are just not sexy , good looking rifles like the remington is. If I am going for a no drama , just shoots good right out of the box rifle then I am all about the savage but if I want a project the the remington has a lot of work to offer. If Bell and Carlson would make a ti style stock for the savages I would be all savage all the time. That said , my current project is a push feed m70 winchester In 7mm wsm I picked up for $250.
The last Remington had and has a bunch of problems. First off the finish bubbled and peeled within a month , the scope mount holes are not strait , the action face is not square so barrel goes down and to the right enough to see , the bolt handle did not have a good solder and came off after I gently tapped it with a 8oz mallot when I blew a primer and it got jammed. If I put a real tight patch down the barrel you can feel where the barrel is tight in some places and looser in others. All in all the remington is a good looking piece of sh*t ! After bedding in a new stock and a new trigger , lots of load work all I have is a 1moa rifle that is crooked. I could of had a savage that would have shot better right out of the box and saved me $900 off the price of the remington and all the parts.
Oh , and the remington bolt lugs had about 20%contact on each side . After lapping the bejesus out of them I have about 85% mating but I wouldn't even think of trying factory ammo anymore. I neck size only anymore so if the headspace is long it doesn't matter. I fire form anything I shoot in it then load for real.
If I wasn't trying to equip for backpack hunting I would have already torn it apart and had it trued and a new barrel put on.
