Plains, I think the general thrust of all this is that FN production will {theoretically...} represent an improvement over the later-production USRAC {or whatever they were called when the company sank} guns. Obviously they will have to be an improvement or the ship will sink again. CZ is not without its own problems involving stocking up, etc. as has been shown time and again over at the CZ Forum. Does anybody use a stock CZ DG rifle or are almost all rebedded?

And another good example of CZ blockheadedness is their 527 in 7.62x39, one of the single BEST-concept guns ever made in my opinion. I had one for several years and shot several deer, stock-chasing dogs and coyotes and varmints with it. But unfixable engineering shortcomings in the magazine system forced me to dump the thing. I hated getting rid of it but I can't afford to have a gun around that isn't reliable. CZ has refused to redesign this rifle and in 7.62x39 it frustrates a very high percentage of the people who own it. Take a 1905 Mannlicher-Schönauer carbine and convert it to single-shot and that's about what you got with the 527/7.62. I lost a shot on a second big stray dog due to that feed problem and I guess I never forgave it. Anyway, a company that steadfastly refuses to address a problem like that needs a management reshuffle of its own. Such silliness hurt Win/USRAC, too.

I have never owned a Winchester 70, but I'll go so far as to say that anybody who turns their nose up at a well-made, new-production Model 70 will be in the extreme minority. I have a feeling this thing might just take off and I do wish them well indeed. I guess we'll have to wait and see.