Push feed is cheaper to manufacture and has proven to be acceptable in 99.99% of the cases. I realize it may not be needed but do like the idea of CRF.
Agreed.
Control round feed was an invention of Paul Mauser. Paul Mauser used or invented virtually every other type of extractor ever put on a bolt rifle. He invented Controlled round feed to solve a specific problem: Double feeding.
The M88 Commission rifle was push feed, and believe it or not, Soldiers created out of battery ignition when they left an unfired round in the chamber, then fed another from the magazine. The bullet tip of the round from the magazine would hit the primer of the round in the chamber, and BANG!
Control round feed Mauser military rifles were set up so that it was difficult not to feed rounds from the chamber, or accidently leave a round in the chamber.
Mauser designs were about the best that have ever been designed. Springfield used the M1896 Mauser as a basis for design of the M1903. The M1903 used the Mauser extractor. The American public was familiar with the 03’, and when Winchester product improved their M54 to the M70, they kept the Mauser extractor.
Mauser actions, and their directives used the claw extractor. However many successful military bolt designs used a variation of the pre M1896 Mauser push feed extractors. For semi automatic mechanisms, the push feed extractor is the dominant extractor.
Differences in reliability between a CRF and a Push feed are marginal. Feed and extraction have to be carefully engineered, round orientation, magazine feed lip contours, timing, release points, are all more important than what extractor is used.
The Mauser extractor is expensive to make, so fewer and fewer commercial products used it. Winchester eventually dropped it in 1964. Since shill gunwriters had been extolling the virtues of Winchester CRF for decades, the loss of it created an empty void in many. The Grail was gone. It was a marketing disaster for Winchester, and the shills had to really work hard to convince Americans that push feed was now a good thing. Just read Ken Warner's review of the post 64 Winchester in the 1964 Gun Digest. Shilling at its best.
However Winchester brought the controlled round feed back in the late 80’s. Since I like being able to open the bolt and roll the round out into my hand, I like CRF.
That's the biggest difference to me.