new Remington M700 barrel quality any good?

[quaticman]

On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate the quality of the barrels on current production Remington M700 rifles? For comparison sake let's say a sewer pipe is 0 and a Bartlein/Krieger match grade barrel is 10.
What kind of groups would you expect from a current production M700 rifle with carefully worked up hand loads? Is 3/4 MOA a stretch?

 

[skhunter]

3/4 MOA is very doable, if the shooter is up to it.

 

[Eagleye]

I know a lot of folks on here get a kick out of "slagging" Remington,
but my personal experience does not support their claims of poor performance at all.

I have owned a lot of 700's over the years, and by far the vast majority would shoot right with any other production rifle out there.

Even a couple 700's of recent manufacture left little to be desired in the accuracy department.

Sure, there are "duds" out there, but that is not the exclusive territory of Remington...all of them, including European made ones,
lay the egg at some time or other. [A number of years ago, a buddy had a HB Sako in 308 that was, at best, a 1½ moa rifle ]

¾ moa is a realistic expectation from a factory barrel on a 700. some even do better....I have at least 3 factory 700 rifles that will better that quite consistently.

On your scale of 0 - 10, I would give the Remington a solid 6½, possibly even a 7. Some custom barrels I would not give a 10 to, lol.

Regards, Dave.

 

[skypilot]

I have gotten that a few times with Nosler Accubond trophy grade 165, Fed GameKing 165 and Fed GMM 168 gr. out of a bone stock SPS varmint and less than 1.4" @ 350 meters prone off of a bipod and rear bag.

Not bad for a 650 dollar gun. Not a Tango 51 but less expensive also.

 

[bubba300]

I have 3 stock 700's . 300 rum cdl. 204 ruger sps varmit and a 1963 7mm rm and all 3 shoot under moa consistantly when I do my part and with reloads so I will rate them a 7. My brother just bought a sps varmit in243 win and it is a shooter tne thing I have found with the sps varmits is that they seem to like a few warm up rounds before they tighten up. I do have 2 custom rifles with RKS barrels both 700 actions that shoot better than the stock ones most of the time but every dog has its day.
Cheers
Bubba

 

[roche1982]

I know a lot of folks on here get a kick out of "slagging" Remington,
but my personal experience does not support their claims of poor performance at all.

I have owned a lot of 700's over the years, and by far the vast majority would shoot right with any other production rifle out there.

Even a couple 700's of recent manufacture left little to be desired in the accuracy department.

Sure, there are "duds" out there, but that is not the exclusive territory of Remington...all of them, including European made ones,
lay the egg at some time or other. [A number of years ago, a buddy had a HB Sako in 308 that was, at best, a 1½ moa rifle ]

¾ moa is a realistic expectation from a factory barrel on a 700. some even do better....I have at least 3 factory 700 rifles that will better that quite consistently.

On your scale of 0 - 10, I would give the Remington a solid 6½, possibly even a 7. Some custom barrels I would not give a 10 to, lol.

Regards, Dave.

I would rate my CDL 30-06 in the 7.5 range. I bought this in July of 2014, was right out of the factory post recall so it didn't even make it out of the factory to be recalled. I don't see anything wrong with it. Thanks to you Dave I made a pretty good choice going with the Walnut and Blued barrel. With everything 100% original and a Bushnell 3-9 40mm I can shoot under 1" with 180 gr core lokt rounds fairly consistently. The odd time I am a little over that, but its shooter error, as I get better that will go away. I have seen some SPS with some funky/bad finishes on them, some even rusted, but I haven't seen anything bad out of mine.

Cheers

 

[Mystic Precision]

We are truly in a great time for factory rifles that shoot "decent". Or in 1970's term, pretty freaking unbelievably good.

Modern manf pretty much ensures a rifle can shoot MOA or better with decent handloads as long as the metal is not allowed to get too hot.

I went on a plastic fantastic binge a little while back to find how "bad" these new dirt cheap rifles were. WOW, was I surprised. I even tried to destroy a Savage axis by beating on it. Well, not only did it survived, it thrived. Got videos of the abuse on my dealer forum or just google mystic precision on youtube.

If you judge quality of barrel by how much it shines or lack of fouling, modern barrels will dissappoint - say a 3 to 4. If you judge a factory barrel by holes in paper, limit to 3rds at a time AND take the time to handload, bed the action properly, with the goal of MOA or better accuracy, I think you will be very pleased with your results - say 7

yes, there are factory brands and rifles what will shoot at or near 1/2 min but that is far from the norm.

But the norm will exceed the needs of the average consumer looking for a bang stick to put meat in the freezer... Good times.

Jerry