Yep, the bolt isn't the best in the world. Seems smooth enough to me...it's just that the closing downstroke takes more effort than one would care for. I would say in most cases you'll end up moving the rifle from your shoulder in order to get enough leverage to firmly close the bolt in one stroke. Maybe this issue is related to the pressed barrel and how the bolt locks into the barrel? Guess that may add strength to offset the lack of a threaded barrel.

And bigcountry, I've got better things to do that troll around message boards posting bogus claims. I did get a 3-shot 1/2" group and a 4-shot 1" group. That was the only group I shot after getting my scope sighted in. Some time in the next week or two I will get back to the range and shoot more and with different ammo. Being a newbie, I even had to go ask my next-door neighbor if that was a good group or not.[8D] I didn't know what to expect from my 710.

I posted a message because I've found most of the "reviews" of the 710 have been opinions based on appearance and second or third hand accounts. For those of us who can't hunt twenty, thirty, or forty days out of the year and don't want to spend a fortune just to have someone else say "what a purty gun", I think the 710 fits that role. Spending $500+ on a rifle just didn't seem to be the wise thing to do when, if I'm lucky, I'll get to pull the trigger 5-7 times during the hunting season. As for a used rifle (such as a used Rem 700), I didn't want to drag some associate around town looking for a good used gun, since I'm too new to the gun world to know what to look for or expect out of a used rifle, and then to know what is an acceptable price.