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I have seen many and owned four Baikals and had a lot {too much...} of interaction with the old EAA concern.

First, though I loved the concept of the EAA combos and I had one superb one, I did have some troubles with the EAA guns. Regulation was a problem on 3 of them, with no solution. One allowed primers to flow back through the breech and that gun was replaced by EAA. EAA was a difficult outfit to deal with, but in their defence they were very eager to experiment and encouraged the production and sale of Baikals in a whole host of calibers/configurations, some of which I wish were still for sale. My opinion is that they were just about ready to clinch the deal so-to-speak and establish a great line of guns in setups unavailable anywhere else when disaster struck and the marketing rights were sold to Remington. Maybe a good move for EAA. Bad move for the customer.

Remington has in my opinion absolutely screwed the pooch yet again. They eliminated the big game calibers from the combo line and shaved the line down to just a few guns, have made no improvements whatsoever as far as I am concerned and have ruined the entire marketing concept of the Baikals, which was to introduce to the USA very practical European concepts in hunting arms at a very cheap price. Oh, yes, for all this Remington added insult to injury by tagging on an additional $100-$150 Good-Ole-Boy Factor per gun. Your added value for doing business with Remington. Nothing for something.

Remington has a habit of dropping a turd in the punchbowl.

Look at the Mauser 98's they sell, or should I say, catalog. I'm not certain anybody wants them in their clubby plywood stocks. Look at the dandy Yugo .22 they took over. Ditto. Take an inexpensive, Eurostyled, walnut-stocked, practical, trim and slim, sleek little bolt rifle and hand it over to your designers to recreate into a cheap-looking Americo-Frankenstein halfbreed bastardized axe handle you don't even sell spare magazines for and then hand your loyal customers the bill that includes, surprise, yet another Good-Ole-Boy premium.

When Reminton goes out of business I bet they'll have a few '98's and some of these .22's left on the shelf. Unless they are successful at dumping them and the leftover Baikals on the shores of unsuspecting Blighty.

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