Slickest bolt action?

[tdbru]

well, since i've never had or shot every style of bolt action out there, it's hard to say. at one time i had a Nazi 1936 98 that was incredibly smooth. built with good steel, surface hardened, and had probably been cycled 100K times i suppose. many of the higher end actions/rifles mentioned so far i've never had the opportunity to try so i cannot judge. where i think manufacturers could improve, though it's probably too cost prohibitive to do so, is to case harden or surface harden the cocking cam ramp and the cocking cam piece nose that rides on the cam. this is where most of the effort at raising the bolt comes from as you are retracting, via the cam surface, the striker spring, which is pretty stout. and where a lot of drag adds to the effort. i have heard that some custom actions us a little miniature caged ball bearing assembly on the cocking piece nose to reduce the drag between the cocking piece nose and the cocking cam. i don't think i've had a bolt gun yet that was so rough that it was unusable. some are better than others, of course, but i am not sure if that is due to design and manufacturing procedures or if they've just been worn in smooth.
-tdbru