vapordog,

Years ago, i also did some small scale test, and came up with the same results as you did. The Remington is a very strong action. It's just plain a better design (for strength) over a mauser style.

One thing that showed up in actions with a lot of locking lugs, was that it's a rare case that all the lugs are locking equally! Almost always, 2 or 3 are doing all the work. That hurts accuracy and strength both. It takes a lot of "lapping" of the lugs to get them right!

When i was putting together rifles, Remington 700 actions were what i used, because of there strength, and also because they are easiest to get the best possible accuracy out of! That "round bottom" is just so much easier to "bed" properly!