I sure don't have an ax to grind here either way, and I don't personally own either one. Just thought I'd pass along what I've found in my shop. I don't post just to see my own words on a screen, and I'm sure not trying to ruffle anybody's feathers.
I only have one Predator in my shop right now to compare to Remington 700's. I think it is a more recent example as it has a fluted bolt. The clearance between the bolt body and bolt bore raceway is .010. I checked several Remington 700's and the average is .008. From the action face to the bolt face on the Predator is out of parallel about .0009. The untrued Remington's that I checked ran between .0005 and .0015.
Perhaps this is not the case with all Predators, as there are some well known gunsmiths that do speak favorably of them. All I can do is comment on the ones that I have seen.
As far as round counts on the Alpines, I only barreled the actions, so I'm not sure what bottom metal ended up being used with them.
