Remington

REMINGTON  RIFLES

Our semi-custom Remington 700 rifles are particularly aimed at the target and sporting shooter who wants something a bit better than a straight “out of the box” rifle but doesn’t want to go down the route of a full blown custom rifle. This of course also means cost savings…..what better reason to say to your other half when wanting a new rifle! We have now supplied over one hundred of these rifles and many shooters have expressed amazement at the performance they have achieved regarding accuracy and sheer pleasure this has given them.

Two of the most important areas to be addressed when seeking to improve a factory rifle are the trigger pull and the condition of the face and crown of the barrel. All our Remington 700’s will offer  a modified factory trigger . It is well known that the condition of the barrels muzzle face and crown can have a marked effect on its accuracy. Our experience has shown just how “out of true” these can be!                                                                                   

WHICH REMINGTON RIFLES DO WE USE…..?

The photo above left shows the muzzle of a Rem 700 SPS Tactical rifle which has had a special expanding arbor inserted down the barrel. This in turn has been fitted with a specially designed facing cutter designed to ensure that the muzzle face is cut exactly 90 degrees to the bore. This is followed by a tool to cut an even crown angle. Note how neither the crown nor the muzzle was correctly cut at the factory! In each case the newly cut (shiny) areas allow the black, uncut areas to stand out, illustrating the lack of concentricity of the muzzle face and crown to the bore. To be fair this is probably one of the worst examples we have seen! To correct this, the face is cut back below the original crown, which is then recut. This ensures that the bore is perpendicular to the face of the muzzle and the crown is concentric to the boreline. The redult may be seen in the  photo above right prior to final polishing. You can now see the slight bevel at the crown and this rifle should now shoot better groups than it would have done before the recrowning procedure.The practical importance of these procedures is to ensure that, as the bullet leaves the muzzle the high velocity gases produced by the burning of the powder within the cartridge escapes evenly around the base of the bullet. If this does not occur the disturbance of gas flow can cause the bullet to yaw and hence have a detrimental effect on accuracy, particularly at longer range. We also use a properly fitting tool to lightly polish the rails upon which the bolt rides. This may not confer any actual benefit on accuracy, but it does make the bolt operation smoother. This may be more evident in the Police, SPS and LTR series of rifles which have a parkerised finish which, although non-glare and practical are in effect quite rough.  Then we adjust the factory trigger to give a crisp pull of between three and four pounds and carry out the necessary and vital safety tests bearing in mind that ANY rifle which has received trigger tuning should be treated with due care whilst shooting!

Remington 700 rifles are renowned for their strength and reliability with a receiver recognised for its legendary “ring of steel” but it is often not appreciated just how accurate they can be for a factory produced rifle and they remain very popular as the base for many full custom rifles.  For target shooting in .308 calibres the SPS Varmint and VSF series  are our firm favourites, frequently giving MOA accuracy or better at 100 yards from the box using good factory ammunition.  Naturally better results may be anticipated when using well crafted handloaded ammunition. For .223 calibre chamberings we frequently recommend and use the SPS Tactical rifles as these come with a 1 in 9 rifling twist rate which allows the use of 69 grain bullets for greater long range accuracy.

WHAT ABOUT STOCKS …..?

This is where things start to get more interesting as we now come to the area of semi-custom rifles where personal preference reigns supreme …. the choice of stock! We feel there are very few stocks on the market for Rem 700 rifles which are not particularly good, in fact some of the budget brands eg Choate and Bell & Carlson may not always reach the heights of aesthetic beauty but they are still a very good choice when it comes to functionality and economy. So if you are on a tight budget this is an area where savings may be made. Let’s face it if one’s personal financial status improves you can always update the stock fairly simply at any future time if you wish to do so. However, we feel that the most important aspect of any stock is the inclusion of some means of bedding, whereby the barrelled action may be securely retained in the stock by allowing the two action screws to remain tightly held in the stock by at least a pair of pillars or preferably the inclusion of a solid aluminium bedding block in the stock.  This we feel is the ideal and the ultimate is probably the use of an exclusively metal chassis system.  If the barrelled action is properly set by one of these methods long term accuracy is virtually assured! After that it all comes down to comfort and our belief has always been that if you feel comfortable shooting with a particular stock then you will almost certainly shoot better and more consistently which also means that your shooting should be more enjoyable too ….. which is surely what it’s all about after all!

WHAT ABOUT TRIGGERS?

Over the years we have used almost all the well known triggers available in our semi-custom Rem 700 and our full custom builds including Rifle Basix, Jewell, Jard, Timney, CG, and we frequently adjust the factory triggers too. However we recently came across a company called TriggerTech and tried a few of their products. All we can say is that we are hoping to offer nothing but these superb triggers in the near future. They will blow your mind!

HERE’S A FEW WE MADE EARLIER …..

There are far too many permutations and combinations of Remington 700 barrelled actions and stocks to be able to illustrate them all here but we thought it may help or give you one or two ideas of a semi-custom Rem 700 rifle you might wish to consider if you are currently in the market for one of these rifles.  We usually have one or two on display in our shop for you to handle and take a look at but we will always try to dummy any combination of barrelled action and stock for you to look at when you call.  Meanwhile here are some examples of the most popular stocks we use for you to see …….

SPECIAL  OFFER  STOCKS FOR REMINGTON 700 RIFLES!
Over the years we have acquired quite a few stocks for the Remington 700 rifles we have used for preparing semi-custom rifles. Many of them are “one off” examples taken from brand new rifles and put aside for the future. Well, the future has now arrived as courtesy of the Covid-19 virus related lockdown we have some spare time on our hands so here are some of the stocks currently offered at realistic prices and ideal for you to refresh or upgrade your Rem 700 until the time comes for us all to get back out there shooting! Shipping cost is £15 per stock

STK001 Bell & Carlson Light Tactical stock with aluminium bedding block, short action, BDL floor plate and Varmint barrel channel. Showing slight marking in the barrel channel …. £225

STK004  Hogue short action, pillar beds, Varmint barrel channel fitted with M5 stye floor plate which accepts AI style magazines but the inletting is not brilliant ….. £120

STK005  Bell & Carlson Light Tactical short action, BDL floor plate inlet, Varmint barrel channel, aluminium bedding block, soft touch coating …. £225

STK008  Choate Tactical adjustable stock, short action, aluminium bedding block, BDL floor plate inlet, Varmint barrel channel …. £350

STK011  Choate Ultimate Sniper, short action, aluminium bedding block, no floor plate, Varmint barrel channel ……. £225

STK012  Choate Sniper SCP, short action, no floor plate, Varmint barrel channel, adjustable cheek piece and butt stock …. £375

STK014  Boyds Nutmeg laminate, short action, BDL floor plate, no bedding, Varmint barrel channel …… £150

STK015  Manners MCS-T short action, M-5 floor plate fitted (accepts AICS style magazines) pillar beds, Varmint barrel channel …… £575

STK016  Manners MCS-T, short action, BDL inlet, pillar beds, Varmint barrel channel, Olive Drab …… £450

STK017  Manners MCS-T, short action, BDL inlet, pillar beds, Varmint barrel channel. Black ….. £450

STK018  Manners MCS-TA, short action, BDL inlet, pillar beds, Varmint barrel channel. adjustable cheek piece …. £575

STK019  Hogue short action, BDL inlet, full aluminium bedding block and spine, Varmint barrel channel, Olive Drab ….. £200

STK020  Hogue short action, full aluminium bedding block with spine, BDL inlet,Varmint barrel channel, Advantage Timber camo …. £200

STK022  Boyds Ross thumbhole, short action, BDL inlet, no bedding, sporter barrel channel, Nutmeg laminate …… £175

STK023  Boyds Target/Varmint, short action, BDL inlet, no bedding, Varmint barrel channel, Nutmeg laminate …. £195

STK025 Hogue short action, sporter barrel channel, full aluminium bedding block and spine, black overmoulded finish ….. £200

STK026 Hogue short action, sporter barrel channel, full aluminium bedding block and spine, Timber Camo overmoulded finish ….. £200