I will add my name to the 40X voters. It is built like, feels like and shoots like a full sized short action center fire Remington 700 HB. I shot them in college some on the rifle team many many years ago. They are the basis for the design of many (most?) of the current custom actions that go into bench rest and other rimfire competition rifles. The 40X is one of the few factory rifles that still competes and wins in benchrest unlimited matches. I love the Kimber 82G, it is a very nice, very pretty rifle. The Remington 541T is another great rifle. I own two Remington 540XR tgt match rifles. Both shoot extremely well. I would trade them both for a really nice 40X. If you look at the sticky with the 5 shot groups on six tgts (30rd) challenge at 50 yds., my little 540XR (has same action as 541T) sits in 3rd place. JBell is in 2nd, and Carter Mayfield sits in 1st. Mr. Mayfield was shooting, you guessed it a custom 40X with Kreiger bbl. That says a lot.
Add to that, I shoot ARA and IR50/50 off and one. In those BR matches, I am shooting my factory stock Remington 540XR against custom unlimited rifles. They are Turbos, Hall, 2500X actions with Lilja, Shilein, Mueller, bbls and 36-42x optics that cost more than my car. My 540 is NOT competitive in such company but I routinely see 40X's with a match grade bbl, jewel trigger, good optic and some bbl tuning turn up and give the high dollar match rifles all they can handle. Keep in mind, that a nice Kimber 82G will cost you $500-700 these days depending on condition. A nice 541T will be less. About $450-600 (guessing on this). As word is spread of the fine accuracy of the 540 series Remingtons, I am seeing the prices climbing. They lack to mil-spec cache of the Kimber but shoot better (IMO). The 540 series Remingtons have 6 locking lugs on the rear of the bolt similar to the old 788 series which also shot very well. When you lock the action, it is like closing a bank vault. Very tight and secure.
Finally, the 541T is a repeater, more of a hunter grade rifle than a match rifle like the other two. Both the other two are single shot actions which are a little stiffer. I would not consider the 541T to be in the same class as the 40X or the 82G. It is more like the old Win Mod 52's which mostly were also repeaters. Remington did make two rifles that are closer in design and specification to the other two. They were the 540X and the 540XR. Both have the adjustable trigger but it is not as nice as the triggers on the 40X, but it is still pretty darned good when properly adjusted.
So, finally it would depend on your planned use for the rifle as to which I would suggest. If you want to shoot tiny groups at the range from prone or a bench, the 40X is best. If you are on a budget and cannot afford the price of the 40X which is about 2x that of the others, then the Kimber or the Remington is a lower cost option. If you plan to use it to hunt with, the repeater will offer both lighter weight and faster follow up shots. If match shooting is your goal, consider a custom action like the Turbo or 2500x which is similar to the 40X and will cost about the same.
Irish
