I'm not sure where all your hostility toward the 710 comes from. If you could quote the source of your information perhaps that would help me to understand where you're coming from. You state it's overpriced, compared to what? It doesn't have a good barrel, news to me. Doesn't have a good bolt, I beg to differ! With very few exceptions owners of 710's are quite pleased, for those that aren't, hey you can't please everyone but I haven't heard them saying these things are falling to pieces or blowing up or anything like that. I'm not coming to your door saying you've got to buy THIS rifle and get rid of everything else. Perhaps you're a die hard Savage fan, that's fine by me but don't berate my rifle with psudo-facts. Savage makes some decent firearms as far as I'm concerned. Heck, I was looking at the 111FXP3 Savage in .243 for my son. I figured it's lighter recoil would be ideal for starting out and even though many see it as only marginal for a humane kill, I disagree, I believe it's quite adequate for the task. Personally the 111FXP3 didn't appeal to me ergonomically or asthetically but my son seems to like it. I did however really like the AccuTrigger system. There are a lot more choices out there in this price range than there were nearly 3 years ago, again I think that's great news.

And as far as a rifle you can use all your life and hand down to your son who hands it down to his, well I think it'll be interesting to see how the 111FXP3 holds up. I personally don't see it as a potential heirloom even if could last that long and how many barrels do you think you'll have to put in it? Do you have any data on the the expected barrel life of your gun? 2000 rounds, 3000 rounds, what? How many rounds have you fired so far and how long have you owned it? I know I didn't buy my 710 for it's potential collectors value. I've got plenty of other firearms, including rifles, that are family heirlooms and I appreciate their quality and/or historic (if only from a family stand point) value. I do occasionally hunt with some but I don't shoot them nearly as often as the one's I buy so I won't wear them out.

I'm not "kidding myself" on anything. I look at it very realistically. Every firearm has a servicable life and I don't expect my 710 to be any different, but if you think your 111FXP3 is going to last three generations with continuous use then you may want to re-examine your logic. You've certainly put a lot of effort into telling us how the 710 is such junk and that they are all going to fall apart any day now. Well, I've put my rifle through a lot in all kinds of weather conditions over the past 2 1/2 years and put a lot of rounds through it and I have yet to experience ANY failures. Now get me a list of people who've owned 710's and had all the problems you describe and some data on these phantom failures, particularly failure rates compared to other rifles, then you've got a good start to a meaningful debate.