All sealed stainless bearings, carbon drag plates that hold up to 20lbs of drag(a lot more than abu's), steel worm gear, brass pinion gears. That ain't no abu BCX.

Lots of the heavy hitters fishing big rivers up north don't use abu's at all. I have abu's but also like the browning 6 river reels and catmaxx. Loads of quality reels on the market that don't say made in sweden that will catch a 100lber and last years.

It's a Chevy/ Ford thing. Some say their Ford is the best pick up on the planet, that's fine, I'll keep buying GM

i never said the Swedish Abu was the only cat reel...just my person favorite. Built like a tank and built to last a lifetime and probably 2... I'd love to see what those China reels all the northern "heavy hitters" are using will look like after 10yrs of weekly use. browning and catmaxx at least have parts to source so if they break you can repair. Y'all can defend chinese junk all you want but you'll never convince this Redneck any different. I'm stubborn and hard headed...I have Swedish abus that are 25 yrs old and still kicking..I have shimanos from Japan that are 25 yrs old that are still going strong...That's the kind of quality I have come to expect from my reels.

I've got abu's that need repairs a lot. Had a 6500 rebuilt by turbo Fred a few years back that needs a new worm gear in it right now. Abu's will wear out just like the rest. I thought I heard salsa littlejohn has switched to all shimano because he was wearing out too many abu's.

I've had a couple of mine worked on over the years but to say they break all the time is not my experience at all. Quite the opposite, only had a few give me issues and southwest had em fixed in 10 days cause the parts were in stock. I fish a lot and im rough on my equipment. Littlejohn would wear out a reel if it was made out of titanium. That guy catches more monsters on here than most of us combined..By you saying he switched to Shimano only confirms my opinion. If you told me he switched to KastKing then I might listen.

I'm not buying a kastking right now, I have enough rigs for now, but I might in the future. Getting the new six rivers first, that thing is smooth and looks really good.

Since we're on reel talk, have any of you had your hands on a Penn warfare? I've been curious to see how they hold up.

No sir I have not. The only Penn I've used was a spinning reel spinfisher V ...I think is what it was. For a spinning reel it was a good one and tough, but I prefer bait casters. Some of the Penn bait casters I've seen don't have level winds and are pricy, so I haven't tried one.