I had the opportunity to go through the Remington armorer’s course this past summer and received an employee pricing on one Remington firearm. About a year ago I built, with some help, a Remington 700 in .308 using a Shien barrel. So the idea of getting another 700 seemed like a good idea. The only question was “what caliber’? I didn’t see the point of another .308 and I have yet to be bitten by the 6.5 bug. I ended up picking the M700 LR in .300 Winchester Magnum. Price out the door from my dealer was about $520.
https://www.remington.com/rifles/bol...ange-stainless
I came into this knowing full well that Remington’s quality has been hit and miss and many complaining about the lack of accuracy with their rifles. I decided that the initial cost and the ability to do any necessary work myself could make this an interesting project.
Visually the rifle looked great, fit and finish was great. The bolt was very smooth and solid feeling. The X-Mark Pro trigger was a little heavy at a just over 4 pounds. Adjustment of the X-Mark trigger is accomplished by turning the adjustment screw counter-clockwise until the desired pull is achieved. However, the adjustment screw on mine was already sticking above the trigger face. The instructions advised turning the adjustment screw half a turn at a time until you get the trigger pull you’re looking for. In my case, after turning the screw out the first half turn the screw fell out. This left me with a trigger pull of 3 pounds 9 ounces. The trigger was very crisp and I felt it was something I could work with.
I topped the rifle off with a Bushnell HDMR 3.5-21X50 using Weaver 34mm low rings and a Leupold Picatinny 20 degree mount. I then attached a Blackhawk bipod I had laying around and went off to the range.
Shooting off the bipod with a rear bag on a concrete deck I worked the round into the center of the middle of the target and then shot the first five shot group of almost three inches! I was shooting Hornady TAP with a 178gr ELD bullet. I will admit that I’m not the best rifle shooter. And I was having a hard time getting in a comfortable prone position. I decide not to waste any more ammo and come back another day in another way.
The following week I was back at the range. This time on the bench with a rest and a variety of ammo. The first group of Hornady TAP was 2.24 inches. Well, that’s not very encouraging. The only bright spot of the day was some ABM ammo using Burgers bullets. Both the 185 and 230gr rounds came in at .95 inches. Other ammo tried was Hornady’s 195gr match at 1.34 inches, Federal’s GMM 190gr at 1.45 inches, Black Hills 190gr at 2.1 inches, and Hornady’s Superformance at a little over 6 inches.
My plain now it re-crown the barrel and see if that helps. I don’t think it will make much difference but it’s an easy thing to try without pulling the action out of the stock. I’m going to thread the barrel and put a break on it anyway, but I’m just curious if this will show any improvement.
The second range session wasn’t any better than the first. I decided to do three shot groups instead of my normal five in order to conserve ammo. Even with three shot groups the only two that shot well was both of the ABM loadings with .86 with the 185gr and .45 with the 230gr loadings. The only five shot group I did was the Hornady TAP and it came in at 2.42 inches. All of the three shot groups did better than the five shot groups as one would expect. I didn’t shoot the Superformance considering how poorly it did last time.
What’s interesting about the ABM ammo is the overall length is longer than the others at 3.62 for the 230gr and 3.54 for the 185gr. The rest came in under the SAAMI max of 3.34. I think this may show some insight into some of the issues regarding accuracy.
So the re-crowing did work, as I expected. Next will be to pull the action out of the stock and see if I can find anything wrong. I’m also going to thread the barrel and put a comp on it and adjust the trigger. I would like to knock another pound off it. If I can’t I may look at getting a new one. I also may make a chamber cast and see how far the lead is. I’m also going to shoot the Hornady TAP and 195gr match until I see some improvement with them before trying the others, I have a larger supply of them.
https://www.remington.com/rifles/bol...ange-stainless
I came into this knowing full well that Remington’s quality has been hit and miss and many complaining about the lack of accuracy with their rifles. I decided that the initial cost and the ability to do any necessary work myself could make this an interesting project.
Visually the rifle looked great, fit and finish was great. The bolt was very smooth and solid feeling. The X-Mark Pro trigger was a little heavy at a just over 4 pounds. Adjustment of the X-Mark trigger is accomplished by turning the adjustment screw counter-clockwise until the desired pull is achieved. However, the adjustment screw on mine was already sticking above the trigger face. The instructions advised turning the adjustment screw half a turn at a time until you get the trigger pull you’re looking for. In my case, after turning the screw out the first half turn the screw fell out. This left me with a trigger pull of 3 pounds 9 ounces. The trigger was very crisp and I felt it was something I could work with.
I topped the rifle off with a Bushnell HDMR 3.5-21X50 using Weaver 34mm low rings and a Leupold Picatinny 20 degree mount. I then attached a Blackhawk bipod I had laying around and went off to the range.
Shooting off the bipod with a rear bag on a concrete deck I worked the round into the center of the middle of the target and then shot the first five shot group of almost three inches! I was shooting Hornady TAP with a 178gr ELD bullet. I will admit that I’m not the best rifle shooter. And I was having a hard time getting in a comfortable prone position. I decide not to waste any more ammo and come back another day in another way.
The following week I was back at the range. This time on the bench with a rest and a variety of ammo. The first group of Hornady TAP was 2.24 inches. Well, that’s not very encouraging. The only bright spot of the day was some ABM ammo using Burgers bullets. Both the 185 and 230gr rounds came in at .95 inches. Other ammo tried was Hornady’s 195gr match at 1.34 inches, Federal’s GMM 190gr at 1.45 inches, Black Hills 190gr at 2.1 inches, and Hornady’s Superformance at a little over 6 inches.
My plain now it re-crown the barrel and see if that helps. I don’t think it will make much difference but it’s an easy thing to try without pulling the action out of the stock. I’m going to thread the barrel and put a break on it anyway, but I’m just curious if this will show any improvement.
The second range session wasn’t any better than the first. I decided to do three shot groups instead of my normal five in order to conserve ammo. Even with three shot groups the only two that shot well was both of the ABM loadings with .86 with the 185gr and .45 with the 230gr loadings. The only five shot group I did was the Hornady TAP and it came in at 2.42 inches. All of the three shot groups did better than the five shot groups as one would expect. I didn’t shoot the Superformance considering how poorly it did last time.
What’s interesting about the ABM ammo is the overall length is longer than the others at 3.62 for the 230gr and 3.54 for the 185gr. The rest came in under the SAAMI max of 3.34. I think this may show some insight into some of the issues regarding accuracy.
So the re-crowing did work, as I expected. Next will be to pull the action out of the stock and see if I can find anything wrong. I’m also going to thread the barrel and put a comp on it and adjust the trigger. I would like to knock another pound off it. If I can’t I may look at getting a new one. I also may make a chamber cast and see how far the lead is. I’m also going to shoot the Hornady TAP and 195gr match until I see some improvement with them before trying the others, I have a larger supply of them.
