Remington 700 BDL... talk to me.

Silverado

Silverado

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When I first got the idea that I wanted to try rifle shooting and hunting (having not grown up in a shooting family), I remember buying all the gun magazine buyer's guides, and pouring over them for weeks. The rifle that really spoke to me was the 700 BDL. It just had a classic look about it that I couldn't ignore.

Sadly, it was a little spendy for me at the time, so I ended up with a Savage package rifle instead.

Since that day, I've owned, shot, sold and traded quite a few rifles, including no less than 9 or 10 Rem 700's. Oddly, I've still never even handled the one that I lusted after in the beginning. That blued, walnut stocked, iron sighted, skipline checkered 70's looking beauty.

rem_700_bdl1.jpg


I have two questions for you BDL owners: are the factory iron sights any good, and how do you like the shape of the stock?

Any other input about that particular model of 700 is welcome too!
 
I have 2 BDL's and they're nice guns, though both are old models, probably from the 70's. One is in 222 Rem, the other in 30-06. Both have open sights and they're OK, though I wouldn't say they're on par with some of the European sights out there, in other words I don't find them the greatest for quick shooting. I'm also not a fan of sight hoods, so that came off. The stock is nice, good fit.
If you're looking at getting one, I'd suggest scouring the EE for a mint old one rather than a new one, however of the Remington 700's I've looked at in the last 5 years or so, the BDL and other more expensive ones do have nicer finishes, but not like they were years ago. Most guys that bash Remington as of late are referrring to the SPS line, but they were always crude and rough and priced as such.
 
Have several and like the fit & feel of the BDL stock.

Iron are pretty good although I usually pull them off right away and mount a scope.
 
i have one in .270 that i bought new about 24 years ago.My first new rifle.It has always been my favorite and i own several rifles. I remember that i got gouged at my local shop when i bought it.Taxes in,it cost me $1055. i was quite young and easy prey at the time lol.
 
I had 2 or 3 Mountain Rifles, a stainless synthetic DM or two, one CDL, an LTR, and a couple of others. All were good rifles... just never had the old school BDL!

bearkilr said:
If you're looking at getting one, I'd suggest scouring the EE for a mint old one rather than a new one, however of the Remington 700's I've looked at in the last 5 years or so, the BDL and other more expensive ones do have nicer finishes, but not like they were years ago.
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Agreed. The last 700 I owned was made around 2005... it was alright, but I've heard that more recent examples have gone downhill.

What is the blued finish like on older specimens? Polished, or matte? The blued Mountain Rifle I had of '90's vintage was fairly matte.
 
nomad 68 said:
i have one in .270 that i bought new about 24 years ago.My first new rifle.It has always been my favorite and i own several rifles. I remember that i got gouged at my local shop when i bought it.Taxes in,it cost me $1055. i was quite young and easy prey at the time lol.
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You sure did get gouged.

I still have the receipt for a new 700 BDL in 300 Win Mag I bought from Wholesale Sports in 1992......paid $529 plus tax.....
 
I like the BDL fine, but prefer the "Classic" stock over all others.
Second in line would be the CDL stock, which is very similar to the Mountain Rifle lumber.
Regards, Dave.
 
Silverado said:
What is the blued finish like on older specimens? Polished, or matte? The blued Mountain Rifle I had of '90's vintage was fairly matte.
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It's a polished blue. I don't recall any guns prior to the mid 90's having a matte blue. Manufacturers started doing that for the "tactical" look or they advertised it as having less glare, where in reality it's just a cheaper method. My opinion has always been that wood needs polished blue.
 
The Remington 700 stocks had a nice feel to them. But the early 70s version was too slender in the forend, and without glass bedding was prone to cracking under recoil. I had one in .350 magnum that spit from the forward action screw to the front swivel and from behind the tang back into the pistol grip. When Remington changed the stock design in the late 70s to one with a wider forend, like the one in your pic, that helped, although to me the wider forend didn't have as nice a feel.

I can live with the factory Remington sights. They are the same sights as on their 870 slug guns, and they aren't bad as far as open sights go. They are easy to zero, and once zeroed tend to stay put. IMHO, if you want irons, a ghost ring and post is better than an open V rear sight and bead front. The bead provides no index of elevation, and the open rear sight must be lined up with the front sight. The advantage the open sights have is that they are always on the rifle, even with the scope in place. The disadvantage the ghost ring has is that in most cases it must be removed while a conventional scope is mounted, although there are hard to find examples of base mounts with built in pop-up peep sights.

The ghost ring is fast because you look through it, rather than at it. As long as you're looking through it, there is nothing to do but put the front sight on the target, shift your focus from the target back to the front sight, and press the trigger. A wide, flat topped front sight is treated like a cross hair. The flat top is like the horizontal wire of a cross hair, while the eye quickly finds the center of the post (something the human eye is very good at) which acts as the cross hair's vertical wire, so its not only fast, but its also precise.
 
Eagleye said:
I like the BDL fine, but prefer the "Classic" stock over all others.
Second in line would be the CDL stock, which is very similar to the Mountain Rifle lumber.
Regards, Dave.
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I'm a +1 with Dave on this. I too prefer the "Classic" stock over the "BDL" stock.

However, my first ever centerfire rifle was a used/exc Rem 700 BDL in .308 Win.

And up until recently had this pair of BDL's, both in .30-06 Springfield [top one had the site removed of the barrel]:

2Rem2BDL06B.jpg


2Rem2BDL06BLcu.jpg


2RemBDL06Lc-1.jpg


Still have my .308 Win and one of the .30-06's these days.

:canadaFlag:
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NAA.
 
The first bolt gun I purchased was a 700 bdl with a detachable mag in 300wm. The barrel was not free-floating, with very little work that problem was solved, and accuracy improved by a large margin. The trigger was great and needed no work at all. Overall it served me well. Years later I cycled the bolt on a Sako75 and a TikkaM-595 and realized just what I'd been missing out on.
 
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