The safety has never been an issue for me, as I’m used used to dealing with all kinds of safeties on various guns. Even the trigger on my current 455 could hardly be improved much, if any. The cheesy trigger guard has always been a shortcoming, but the biggest issue is the high bolt lift. The 457 fixes it all. My Varmint MTR is very nicely made indeed, and the new action takes care of all the little flaws.
There’s always resistance to new stuff from those who are heavily “invested” in the old in one way or the other. In this case, it’s their loss; the 457s are excellent rifles. I like mine even better than my old favorite 77/22s, which is pretty surprising.
