Re: rem 700 sendero old style. 300 winmag
I am not a guru, but I do use this rifle and happen to like mine a lot.
About the only thing that might need attention is the trigger, What is yours set at?
Get out your torque driver and make sure all the action and scope mounting screws are torqued properly.
Other than that there is really not all that much you can do to make it a better shooter.
Yea you can accessorize it with bipods, monopods, fancy rings lasers muzzle brakes, bloop tubes and such, but we are talking about a +10# long range rifle that already gets 1/4 MOA or better if you keep your end of the deal up, not an M4 in the hands of a mall ninja.
Have you checked the locking lugs for even contact?
Is the action nice and slick?
1/4" @ 100yd. with a .308 diameter bullet sounds pretty good to me.
In all truth you can spend thousands of dollars and dozens of hours without making any improvements.
I admit a bipod might help you in the field, but a good backpack or range bag will do just as well.
A supressor will cost you time, money and paperwork, It will reduce perceived recoil as well as muzzle blast, but a good pair of earplugs work fine and I am not sure about the hunting laws in your area.
Muzzle brakes are cool items, but you have to buy them, do without your rifle while your smith threads and or recrowns your barrel and they redirect the blast and sound back at you. Again if you use one hunting and do not have your ears in, you will deafen yourself in a painful manner.
One of my good friends got a PSS in .308 several years ago and it is a great shooter, On the advise of a knowledgeable friend I got a Sendero in 300WM, it turned out to be the "old school" one you have, CS parkerized barrel, HS precision stock with single swivel stud and rounded off fore end. We both have Leupold rings and SS scopes, mine is a SF-10x and his is a RF-20x My rings are QR on Weaver 2 piece mounts, his are fixed on Louie 2 piece. they are both basically the same as far as barrel, weight, action, scope, mounts and rings. Mine has a 40oz. trigger, he is still resisting adjusting his which is running about 5-1/2#. The only obvious difference between the two is the stock, he has to use a cheek pad to get his stock weld/eye relief, or he gets slapped, I don't.
My rifle goes all day with heavy custom loads punching cloverleafs as does his with moderate loads, but at the end of the day, my shoulder feels fine, he whines and complains. I have shot his and the appearent recoil is indeed greater on his.
I am going to assume yours is a carbon alloy vs. stainless.
If you are not planning to guncoat or epoxy paint it, get some Kano Labs KROIL (if you dont have any yet) and soak the barrel and action down inside and out. Let is setup a day or so wipe the outside down and re-apply until it stops absorbing at which point just wipe off the excess and wipe it down again with a kroily patch once in a while. While soaked, cycle the action a few times every now and then, then clean out with solvent and look at all the krud you did not know was there, repeat as above, but use a drop or two of a lubricating oil on your races when you are done, kroil works fine, but is not really all that slippery. (Kroil will also loosen up and remove surface rust, dirt and helps with copper fouling)
Break the barrel in!!! I know saying that invites a flame war, but keep in mind most folks that can't see much difference are talking about hand-lapped bores, Remington does not do that on the sendero and I noticed a huge difference by the time I was done.
If you want to, you can remove the magazine follower and polish it, but probably wont notice a difference on a remington. (it made a huge difference on my SAKO however, rough as a cob.)
You could get a BAdger M5 trigger guard, but you have to wait for the bore to cool down anyhow, you have loads of time to thumb another round in.
Some folks like to cut and fit a SAKO type extractor on their Remingtons, but it weakens the bolt. I have never had a FTE on a Remington, but I will say the only times I have ever had a case seperation was on a SAKO and it was right at the extractor groove.
You can camo it or paint it a neutral OD or sand for now and finish at your hunting site, this will reduce maintenance on a CS model and look pretty cool as well.
To summarize, Clean the snot out of it, adjust the trigger, break it in and go out and shoot!
There is really not all that much you can do to make it shoot any better without spending loads of money for minimal to no improvement.
If you really want to spend some bank, start saving up for a custom maybee even take one of the courses offered by Mr. Gradius.
http://www.gradousrifles.com/class.php
FYI My loads are:
F215 Primer
Rem. Case
77gr. RE-22
168gr. SMK or 165gr. Spitzer.
OAL to .005" from lands
