Have you ever compared two cars that you have never owned or perhaps seen? If so, unless you are an automotive engineer, such comparisons must be completely invalid?
If you read my original post carefully, the purpose of writing and posting it on a public forum was to invite debate. I asked for factual criticism and duly received some constructive comments.
I don't doubt that the 75 is a good action, but it has flaws (all designs have compromises). Nostalgia or aesthetics do play a large part in the purchase of any product, so this applies to rifles as well. People tend to forget features like the 'Key Concept' bolt shroud which was hailed as innovative when it came out but later deleted. If the 75 action is the holy grail, why do they ever come up for sale on here? Surely, you just keep the action and re-barrel it as necessary to pass it down the generations or keep it in case of economic collapse as it must be worth more than its weight in gold?
A great example is the much fabled Mauser 98, as brought up by
@Kalahari . If it is such a good action, why doesn't every sporting rifle use that design? The Ruger M77 and CZ series of rifles certainly do, but push feed bolts with Sako or M16/AR15 style extractors are now the norm.
Manufacturing costs are usually the culprit but designs have moved towards the fact that modern sporting bolt action rifles are almost inevitably used with scopes and detachable magazines, and the older designs came out when iron sights and fixed magazines with stripper clips were the mainstay. Look how WW1 and 2 saw military rifles being modified to fit riflescopes, yet even the best examples from that era struggle to keep pace with modern 'off the shelf' offerings. For a deeper dive, look up the USMC M40 or US Army M24 rifle programs to see how they evolved from what was basically a tuned up sporting rifle (Rem 700) to a fully fledged chassis system.
Sure, there are people who are willing to pay premium prices for something that is both old and obsolete yet still functional (I collect stalking telescopes that fall into that category). Just because designs have moved on does not mean the old ones no longer work, but there is a reason why designs change and not all of those reasons are cost cutting measures.
The new Land Rover Defender came out and most people's initial reaction (including my own) was to scoff at it. Having driven a couple of 110's (ancient and modern) I now realise why the design was ditched, it was flawed from the beginning. However, emotional connections will always prevail as it is a British icon.
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