As RIPP and I have discussed in the past

, I am not a particular fan of the Remington 700.

For what you might call aesthetic reasons.

But function and accuracy?

The notion that "handles fall off" and "extractors fail" is probably less viable than the statement that on Mausers "the locking lugs set back" or "actions crack if the guard screws are torqued too tightly".

All of these things can happen under certain circumstances, but it must be remembered that Remingtons are churned out in the gazillions and reports of failures of any kind are rare indeed. They make up phenomenally accurate rifles.

I admit it does not take but one personal serious failure to sour a guy on any rifle. I once received a recall notice {after other troubles} on an expensive German rifle stating that the bolt handles were welded on with too high a heat or some such malarkey and the welds were brittle and handles fell off. The company made good but I'm done with that manufacturer for good. The gun was junk in so many ways.

But here is a fact: I literally cannot remember a single gun of any manufacturer I've purchased over the past ten years that was perfect, pistols included. All needed some adjustment to bedding, trigger, feeding, etc. VERY few guns I've ever owned in my life were perfect in function without some adjustment. Maybe I'm picky, or maybe others just don't care. One of the guns that was functionally perfect was a Remington 700. No problems whatsoever. Meaningless as it is one gun only, but it was my experience.

When I was in the business we didn't sell Remingtons because we couldn't compete with mass marketers. But we did sell other "higher end" guns and yes, we took some back from time to time for various problems.

It should be added that M24's are not simply plucked off an assembly line and sent to Iraq. I would recommend that nobody assumes any new gun purchased is perfect without making sure it is so.

As for the 7x57, we have used it on elk and deer with marvelous results. 150 grain Remington PSPCL's run to 2800 fps are sure killers. I have not one thing to say that is bad about the 7x57.