505ED, and MarineHawk You certainly have a right to your opinions, and since this is the USA, for the time being at least, you may own what ever firearm you choose, the hunt what ever you choose with it!
I too, have no desire to cause conflict but I'm simply of a different opinion than you. So if we can stay civil, it would be far better for the other folks here who want both sides of the debate.
I have my opinion, and that opinion is based on 67 years since the age of six, of owning just about every make an model of rifle made during that time, and hunting everything for English sparrow with a Daisey BB gun to cape buffalo hippo, and elephant with bolt single shot and double rifles.
Let me say that any rifle regardless of type needs to be made, and adjusted to feed flawlessly before it is taken afield, especially for any animals that has the ability to kill you, or another member of your hunting party. Anyone who has fired 12000 rounds through a push feed rifle, especially a mod 700 Rem with out a hitch is a very lucky person for sure. I own some push feed rifles, including two Rem rifles, a 7mm mag mod 700 that belonged to my dad, and a 788 rifle chambered for 223, and have owned several other makes of PF rifles, however I don not use them to hunt dangerous game. I haven't had a malfunction from mine but I doubt the 700 has had more than a 20 round box of ammo through it because I never shoot it. The little 788 has maybe 500 rounds through it, while coyote calling with one shot each on coyotes. Of the hundreds of CRF rifles I've owned over the last 67 years with hundreds of rounds through each of them I' have never had one to miss feed a round, or eject an empty, or loaded round.
The example of the JUNK military rifles being push feed is not a good recommendation for push feed, it is only a recommendation for cheap manufacturing! The military rifle is set up to be used in a fire team, and the idea is to fill the airspace with rounds and hope the enemy gets hit. If the rifle jams, the rest of the team is there to sustain fire till the jam can be cleared. In door to door street fighting jams in those stamped out POS get a lot of GIs killed. Top that off with the fact that about the only way to make automatic weapons is with push feed actions, but they are still volley fire types, one depending on the other to finish a firefight. The 700s used by snipers are not you over the counter 700s, and there is little need for quick sustained fore for a sniper. He usually fire one shot from concealment, and lays low so he doesn't draw fire to his position, so the PF is PK there too.
The problem with a PF BOLT rifle on dangerous game is when the action get close and the need arises for three or four shots in very shot order, with your life on the line, and with damn little time to do the shooting. The nerves play a very important part in this scenario. The mind seems to work faster than the body, and your body is still doing the first job given it by the brain, when the brain give the body a second task in the middle of the process of accomplishing the first one.
This is where the body stops on job in the middle, and starts the next one before the first one is finished. Here is the problem that can't be duplicated in your shop unless you have a cape Buffalo or lion rushing you in there too! This is where the SHORT SHIFT happens, but the name given to this phenomenon is miss leading, because most think this means you don't pull the bolt far enough back to pick up a cartridge off the magazine. This is not what is meant by that phrase. The real meaning is something that cannot happen with a CRF action. Before you say it, let me say here that both PF, and CRF should be working properly before going into the field, starting out both feeding properly. The short shift in the PF action is a problem because the bolt never takes position, or control of the cartridge that it has just stripped of the top of the magazine till the bolt is pushed all the way home, and the handle turned DOWN. Then and only then does it take control of the round, leaving the round loose in the action of the rifle. Here is the short shift because of the hurry of your brain being faster than the hurry of your body the body tries to take the second order before finishing the first. So the first round is either chambered but the bolt not turned dawn, or the action is stopped before the round is chambered, and the body hear the second command, and draws the bolt back, then forward again stripping another round off the magazine! NOW what you have is two rounds in the loading tray vying for one chamber, and when the bolt is slammed forward the second time there is no place for that round to go, or both get pushed forward till both BULLETS enter the back of the chamber jamming the rifle so tightly that tools are most times required to clear the jam. Time you don't have before the buff or Leo get to you.
I this same scenario with a CRF action the first round would simply be ejected when the bolt was pulled back prematurely, before a new round can be stripped off the top of the magazine. The next round cannot be stripped of the magazine with a cartridge already in the bolt face of a CRF action.
If anyone here thinks these things cannot happen to you with a Lion getting very close you have another think coming. I have seen it happen with PF actions, and on one occasion I saw a friend who had never seen a MULEDEER get so flustered that when the deer jumped up 50 feet in front of him he got so excited that he jacked all of the seven 30-30 rounds out of the rifle and never pulled the trigger once, than asked me if he had hit the deer. He was so shaken that he didn't know he had not fired the rifle at all, and didn't believe me till I pointed out the round on the ground still loaded. NOW that was with only getting in a hurry to get of the next shot before the big deer got away, what do you think this guy would have done with a bolt rifle, facing a charging cape buffalo that his first shot hand no effect? The CRF action is simply a stopgap to keep the idiot working the bolt from getting a jam form a short shift, and can and does happen in such situations. The rifle works perfectly as it was designed in both cases! It is the nut behind the trigger that failed, but the failure is guarded against with the CRF action. Since they cost no more than the PF then my question is why not have the added protection of the CRF?
There was a long time Brown bear guide in Alaska who used a SAKO 375 for years without a mishap. Till one day he had to go into the alders with a gut shot brown bear shot by a client. He short shifted his very well made Sako rifle jamming two rounds in the rifle so tightly it took pliers to remove the two rounds from the beginning of the chamber. The round weren't remove by the guide, because he was mauled very badly by the bear before the client shot the bear off him. He now carries a late CRF Mod 70 458 Win Mag. This guide was one of those folks who said My PF Sako has never failed me in 20 odd years and the short shift can't happen to some one who knows his rifle!
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Along with a Rigby in 375 H&H!!
