New Varmint Rifle

[jdvass]

So I drove to the city with my wife yesterday so she could get her hair cut. Well she got her hair done and I came home with this. Remington 700 Varmint chambered for 223, Nikon Monarch 5-20 x 44 scope, and Leupold base and rings. Haven't had a chance to shoot her yet, woke up to about 3 inches of snow and roads are pretty crappy so I'm just going to lay low for the day and then off to work tomorrow. I guess I'll have to wait for next weekend. its gonna be a long week.



I have run into one problem though. I had bought dual dovetail mounts and when I had them mounted the scope couldn't be bore sighted. The scope couldn't be adjusted enough to the right. The shop doing the mounting for me said it looked like the rear base holes were drilled and tapped slightly off. They put a set of Leupold bases with a windage adjustment and that got everything into alignment. This was only about an hour after I purchased the rifle so I contacted the store I purchased the rifle from to see if they would exchange it for one with properly drilled and tapped mounting holes. They were not interested in helping me at all. One of them tried to feed me a line that it was against the law in Saskatchewan to take a sold gun back even for exchange. I called him on it and mentioned that Cabellas has a 30 day exchange policy. When he saw his line of crap wasn't working he just said "Sorry that's our policy. If you want we will send it away for repair". I told them to forget it, if I want it repaired I would send it to Remington myself. Lesson learned. No more guns from there

Anyway what I'm looking for is a little advice. If this was your rifle would you send it back to Remington for repair or replacement or would you live with it since the bases with the windage adjustment has the scope lined up?

 

[Kevan]

Only you can answer that question because regardless of what you do its your rifle and you have to live with it.
Personally I think that I would live with it as I've run across a couple rifles ( other brands ) with the same problem and as in your case the windage adjustable mount solved the problem.
However since the store was so unwilling to help I would make it known to all and in doing so perhaps they will be a bit more helpfull in the future.
I have dealt with several shops that would bend over backwards for a customer, especially considering the amount of money that you obviously spent there.

 

[Juan For All]

It would be nice to know which store.

As for your question, have you sent an email to Remmy explaining what happened and what store you bought the rifle from? That might be a good start in your decision making.

J

 

[blasted_saber]

I just sold one of those. It LOVED Hornady steel match 55gr HPs. Cloverleaf groups easily.

 

[sobo4303]

In your picture, I notice you have a rifle work station. An old gunsmith showed me this trick. You need to have a nice long straightedge (15") and good eyeballs.

Affix your rifle into the workstation and make sure it is sitting as close to vertical as possible. Next boresight some fixed object or fixed reference point a good distance away. Screw the farthest rear and farthest front mounting screws into the tapped holes on the rifle until a little snug (don't put too tight or torque 'em down). Just so they don't wiggle. Put the back of the straight edge on the two screws and see where it is aiming. They should be aiming at the same reference point as through the barrel. You may also see an obvious cant in relation to the barrel if the holes are really bad. Next put the other two screws in and using the straightedge, check the alignment of the four screws. The should all touch the straightedge with no noticeable gaps.

The Remington bases for that rifle have a curvature on them. if the holes are too far out of alignment, it will be difficult to mount the scope withour the rings being slightly out of alignment as well. In that case, the person installing should have used a reamer and scope aligning tools.

If everything is in order, then nothing wrong with the rifle, it is very likely the person mounting the scope did not know what they were doing. If the holes are too far out of alignment, then send the rifle back for a new one. Remington has a return policy for warranty repairs and they do honour it. In Canada, it is through Gravels in Quebec.