[Justinmd]

Very good points, to be sure. TR made a good point about ammo availability, the OP mentioned survival, and what is better for survival than a universal cartridge. Gene's mentioned .260 which is a great cartridge but has not made the .308 obsolete any more than .338 has made .50 or 300WM obsolete. The .260 suffers from lack of factory loadings and a weak selection of brass, there is a neck donut issue to contend with when forming .260 from .243. It is hard to beat the bullet availability in the 6.5mm though, until you look at the BC's of the 7mm bullets, haha. I have wanted to build my own .260 for quite some time but every time I think about it, the .284 Win (parent case of 6.5-284) just beats it out. Then I think about reloading for another cartridge, and I go with .308, haha.

I realize there's a lot of love for the Remington 700, but it's not the end all-be all. In fact one I bought recently is not very impressive at all. The AAC version has a threaded barrel and a 10 twist. Unless you are shooting subsonics, you don't need 10 twist, in fact Berger says that for its 210gr VLD only an 11 twist is required. And that's for a VLD, with a secant ogive and a long overall profile. The Hogue stock is...far less than a good stock. I can make my stock touch the barrel with only light pressure, actually it has a small patch that's constantly touching the barrel due to the stock not being straight. My point here is don't overpay for a slightly tweaked 700.

I have written a primer on the 700 which looks at its pros and cons. I will be posting it soon on my website, after some further review. It's not as in depth as Stuart Otteson, but I can include things which he did not.

TS, you mentioned looking funny hunting with a TRG, but it's a very popular hunting rifle in Europe, and my buddy's former TL bagged an Elk with a TRG in 338 last year. The TRG does have its downsides, but for a mass produced rifle it is very hard to fault.

A note on break in, or the fallacy thereof...I would suggest doing a google search for "objective research on barrel break-in procedures". Basically, barrel break-in is unnecessary with a good quality barrel. I didn't break in my TRG, nor my custom .243 AI, and both have produced several sub .5 moa 5 shot groups, (basically as good as I can hold).

Justin