Why do so many people say this? I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm just curious. What is different today than X years ago? When did the change happen?

Also- can I find out what year a Remington was made by using the serial#? FYI I'm getting an old 700 in .30-'06. If I could have gotten a new one for 255 bucks, I would have.

Oh yeah....another thing- What the heck goes through some people's minds? I answered someone's ad in the classifieds on another site. I asked if he had any Remington or Savage actions. He offered me a 700 with a factory .243 tube on it for 475bucks plus FFL&shipping. Hmmmmm. Only 100bucks more than Wal-Mart. No trigger or stock to sell to offset the cost, + 40 bucks or so to get it here. Let me think about THAT for a while

LDO, some people aren't sure what things are worth, OR are used to paying the cost + 30% MSRP prices that most brick-&-mortar gun shops charge. Also, it's possible some work has been done the action/barrel?

As for your first question...

-I've have two Remingtons with the matte finish that started rusting pretty much as soon as they were taken out of the box, and didn't stop even when literally soaked with a very good gun oil. There was about 18 months when Remington used some new "blueing" technique and ended up with salt deposits under the matte finish. You can send these back to be refinished for free, BTW.

-For most of the 80s Remington put triggers on their guns that would allow it to fire when taken off safety-without pulling the trigger. Many people believe the overall trigger design is faulty. You can send these back to be fixed, BTW.

-Often times "little" things like scope-mounting holes not being lined up, sights being off-center, chamber being cut in a variety of wrong manners, barrel being crooked, etc are found on factory new guns. These can all be sent back to be fixed, BTW.

As you can see, their warranty dept has great job security. Are any of these things just horrible, on their own? No, and they tend to be the rule rather than the exception. BUT, should you expect more when you pay $600 for something that doesn't cost all that much to make? I think so.

These are just

Overall bolt gun sales are declining in the marketplace and manufcturers (USA, that is) have had to cut a lot of corners in the last 10 years to make a dime in the low dollar market. savage is uniquely positioned and excluded from that observation. Imports like CZ, Chas Daly and Howa have eaten a lot of market, too. All these newest latest weirdest calibers are part of the effort to support lagging sales and by in large it works. Unfortunately, short sighted management decisions affecting quality have hurt more than helped.