Actually, I've owned 3 A-Bolts SS's, all with 26" tubes and in LH.
The first 2 were a matched pair in .300 WM and .375 H&H.
The .300 was a tack driver and I never had any issues with it. It also gave better MV's than my 24" .300 Wby. 3200 fps from 180s and 3000 from 200s. I loved the stainless, the lightnes, the accuracy, the 60* bolt lift AND the relatively quiet muzzle blast!
The .375 H&H had the same encouraging features as the .300: It was relatively light and had a "fast" barrel. One particular "book" load easily gave 2700 fps from 300s. I never noticed the recoil. At the time I was in my mid-sixties, weighed about 190 lbs at 5' - 9" without shoes.
The rather serious down side was that the bore was off-center, hence the accuracy was very poor. My gunsmith found that problem that couldn't be fixed, so I took it back to the dealer and for $100 got the same rifle in .338 WM and promptly had it rechambered to .340 WBY, installed a .375 magazine clip and it proved to be a GREAT rifle. It too was fast as a .338 WM -- getting close to 2850 fps from 250s with sub-moa accuracy. After conversion, I was getting 3000 fps as a .340 and 250 NPs. Shot a nice moose with it. But, I would say that as a .340 the stock was not quite stiff enough, so I epoxied 2 stainless screws in the fore end to put some upward pressure on the barrel. That worked wonders and it too would shoot 1" - 1.25" with the NP load. Never had any issues with that rifle after putting about 1000 rounds through it. I have a friend who bought the Medallion in .338 WM. He had problems getting 3 cartridges into the clip. I had a slight problem with that in the .338/.340, never with the .300 ??
I'd previously owned an M70 in .375 H&H with walnut/blued 24" barrel that, in my view, was way too heavy and would not give the velocity of the A-Bolt.
Just the facts,
Bob
www.bigbores.ca
