I've heard a lot of negative stuff about the X-bolt.
View Quote
What stuff? Have 3 of them here and they shoot good. The Remington 798, not imported anymore, was an ideal weight for the 375. The m70 is on the high end of weight for a 375 in the safari trim imo, but the Alaskan variant is pretty close to ideal. The cz550 is too heavy until you get into the Lott realm. The m70 is perfect for the 416 Remington mag, have one and love it
Winchester 70 375H&H. Had the barrel shortened to 20 inches. Dont shoot it much anymore but when I do i usually use a lead-sled. Put a leupold 1.5-5x scope on it and can shoot about 1.5 MOA at 100 with 300gr handloads if I do my part.
There's a photo of Eleanor O'Connor holding a Winchester 375 next to a tiger she just killed with it in one of Jack O'Connor's books. If you see that, you will always want the Winchester.
That said, the majority of big bore folks want a classical CRF (Mauser) action and resale, if that matters to you, may be a bit less with a non-CRF rifle.