Poor Remington 700 5r Crown? (Big Pics)

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abms1

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Hello all,

I have some decisions to make regarding my remington 700 5r. I purchased this rifle new from a retailer over the phone, and due to my lack of attention, did not notice the slight defect on the crown of the rifle until after I put a bunch of rounds down the tube.

I've shot approximately 200 rounds of different ammo (.308 Win) over 7-10 range sessions. Best 5 shot groups I've achieved are consistent ~.95 MOA with confident trigger pulls on sand bags.

At this point I really am not interested in sending it to Remington (or their warranty service provider in Canada) for warranty service (only to get it back 4 months later). If it is an issue, a competent gunsmith will re-crown the rifle (or maybe install a break while he's at it).

There are multiple accounts of similar rifles posting .50-.75 MOA groups with factory loads.
So judging by the pictures posted below, do you think the crown is holding the accuracy potential of this rifle back, or is 1 MOA all I should expect from factory loads?

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Also, the ding on the top of the barrel came from Remington.
 
There does look to be a burr there for sure , how much it truly effects accuracy is hard to say but it wouldn't surprise me if your groups tighten up a big with it being dealt with properly . If it were me I'd have a smith recrown it ..
 
I would get it recrowned but remember factory ammo has its limits and every batch/rifle is a little different. What shoots good in Joe Bob's rifle might not do so well in Leroy's rifle. That being said I would be confident in saying a recrown would improve groups to some degree. Get it done, retest and tell us the results!
 
It's got a good gouge on the outside as well. If you didn't drop it, someone did in that barrels lifetime.
 
What factory ammo did you try in it? They don't shoot all factory ammo like that. Only the match grade factory ammo and with mine the Fusion hunting stuff shoots about 3/4 moa. With the 5R milspec 168 Federal gold should be your accuracy benchmark. Also did you torque down the stock/receiver screws? I would try that first and if you're still having problems then get a smith to fix it. I would try to take care of the cheap solutions first then spend the money. At least that way you won't spend the money and still be trouble shooting if it wasn't the issue. Also torque down the base/rings to the proper specs.
 
So the different loads were 168gr FGMM, 175gr FGMM, winchester whitebox, Sellier & bellot 147gr fmj (which were surprisingly accurate for the price), 168gr amax. The 175s were best. I'd like to try those fusion hunting loads as well. Heard good things about them. I will definitely be getting into hand loading that's for sure.

The scope base and rings are steel and have been all tourqued down. I don't think wandering zero is an issue here. I never tried messing with the action screws.

I think in the end ill get it reamed with one of those PTG piloted reamers. Worst case it needs to be recrowned. Itll be in the back of my mind if i dont. Either way intuition is telling me to remove the crown from the equation and see how she shoots after its fixed.

Thanks y'all for the advice.

And axorc, clearly somebody at remington was either too lazy to toss the dropped barrel in a no-go bin, or more than likely they thought no one would notice. Seems like a general trend these days that companies don't have any pride or attention to detail. It's all about the profits.
 
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If it were my rifle I would touch up the crown regardless of whether that slight defect had any effect on performance.
The rifle seems to shoot quite well. Many half minute factory rifles are found on the 'net. I suppose that some are found on shooting ranges, as well.
 
The barrel has clearly been damaged...looks like it took a good hit to the muzzle both at the shoulder of the barrel and the muzzle crown.
Once you accepted the rifle you forfeited a warranty or refusal claim IMO as you could never disprove it wasn't you.
This was likely a shipping or ...ohh lets have a look at that sort of thang....even with Remington's current QA the 5R prolly wouldn't have left the factory like that??

Too bad as the 5R typically shoots great outa the box and doesn't need a gunsmith to address it from new.

Oh well....like posted here a competent gunsmith can likely remedy the factory crown quickly/easy.....the barrel shoulder is just cosmetic.
If that doesn't do the trick then a cut/crown sure will with the benefit of chossing a custom approach to the crown and muzzle treatment.

Persoanlly I feel the 5R is a lil long to begin with for balance so lopping it off to suit would be my choice regardless.
Threading it for a a break or whatever muzzle attachment is desireable too.
A 5R is certainly worth the effort/expense of sorting it out if the rest of the rifle is satisfactory.
 
I had a similar issue with a .243 that shot fine for years and then gradually went belly up. I bedded, free floated and retuned my loads. Even the factory load that shot well for decades(before I started handloading) was way off.

It still shot outside historic groups(30 years old) and the last range session was really bad 2-3"@100 out of a DFT sled.
Got the jewelers loup out and checked the crown-yikes,....... pitting due to years of storage muzzle down on carpet.

Turned a pin out of tool steel, mounted barrel and action in lathe, dialed in the bore and put a target crown on it last Saturday.
Haven't checked it yet but it has to be better with the crown damage repaired on the lathe.

I would have the crown repaired, if only for confidence and piece of mind. It will as mentioned earlier, remove a variable and a cheaper one at that.

Hope it turns it into a even better shooter.
 
tiriaq said:
If it were my rifle I would touch up the crown regardless of whether that slight defect had any effect on performance.
The rifle seems to shoot quite well. Many half minute factory rifles are found on the 'net. I suppose that some are found on shooting ranges, as well.
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I've shot a few 5R rifles and out of the box they have Been true sub .5 moa rifles. I own a couple of them. They shoot very well.

To the OP. I'm on a cell phone but from what you've said and others have posted it needs to be recrowned. A buddy of mine had his recrowned by guntech who posted here. Great job. I would send my rifle to him. Make sure the action is trued and get the trigger weight adjusted at the same time.

First I would go back to the store I bought the rifle from. Because that is crap. If they screw around then it won't take much to get it right and it's worth it for these rifles.
 
Epoxy7 said:
I've shot a few 5R rifles and out of the box they have Been true sub .5 moa rifles. I own a couple of them. They shoot very well.

To the OP. I'm on a cell phone but from what you've said and others have posted it needs to be recrowned. A buddy of mine had his recrowned by guntech who posted here. Great job. I would send my rifle to him. Make sure the action is trued and get the trigger weight adjusted at the same time.

First I would go back to the store I bought the rifle from. Because that is crap. If they screw around then it won't take much to get it right and it's worth it for these rifles.
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I will definitely get it fixed up. I plan on replacing the trigger if fixing the crown shows promise. In regards to your 5r 700's, is that .5 moa with factory ammo or handloads?
 
abms1 said:
I will definitely get it fixed up. I plan on replacing the trigger if fixing the crown shows promise. In regards to your 5r 700's, is that .5 moa with factory ammo or handloads?
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My buddies has shot .25MOA 5 shot groups with FGMM.

I haven't shot that well, but I've gotten down below .5MOA. It's me though, not the gun. My sissy pad on my B&C I think is the culprit. (I have to blame something right?)

When most custom rifle builders only gaurantee a .5MOA gun, it makes the 5R seem like a gem when they come that way from the factory.
 
abms1 said:
I will definitely get it fixed up. I plan on replacing the trigger if fixing the crown shows promise. In regards to your 5r 700's, is that .5 moa with factory ammo or handloads?
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Federal Gold 168. Off the shelf match ammo. Have some 175 SMK reloads to try out too. But the 168 federal gold sure shoots nicely in the ones I've shot.

I have heard some prefer 175 some 168. I can give first hand experience with 168. With a couple of examples sub .5 moa with Federal gold 168.
 
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