ORIGINAL: xd9x19
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the "urban legend" of the bolt handle falling off in one's hand.
Meaning the bolt breaking or coming out like you'd take it out for cleaning? Cause I've had mine come off in my hand twice now. The 2nd time made me loose confidence in it so now its going down the road in favor of a Vanguard probably. The action and trigger leave somthing to be desired, but this being said my 710 30-06 put together nice groups and I even took a doe at 270 yards last season with one shot, so I'd say its a very usable rifle, But this fall I'm going out west and after having the bolt come out the 2nd time I've lost confidence in the gun for a situation where I'm spending alot of money to hunt and I may need a quick follow up shot, the last thing you want is stare at your animal as it runs away and you look stupidly after it with your bolt in one hand and the rifle in the other. I still havnt completely figured out why it came out because I havn't been able to duplicate the situation intentionally. I bought it because I needed a budget rifle that was ready to hunt, the bushnell scope got me through one season then I upgraded to a nikon prostaff, this made it a very usable rifle, the 710 gets alot of flack but most of it is about the ugly stock and the action, niether of which kept me from taking several deer with it, get comfortable shooting it and know what its capable of and you should be fine. As long as you can live with it thats whats important.