Remington 700 Mountain Rifle Problem

A

ALFREDS

Regular
Rating - 100%
67   0   0
I bought a Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in 280 some years ago. I mounted a Vari-X III 3.5-10X on it with Leupold mounts. This rig remained silent in my safe for approximately seven years before I fired it, which I finally did last summer. I was to be sadly disappointed.

The rifle was bore-sited and hit the paper at 100 meters on the first three rounds. The pattern would repeat several times that day. One bullet impacted in the center of the target. The following two bullets shot into a tight group, impacting approximately five inches to the right of center. I recall firing approximately twenty rounds, and every group printed the same. I passed my rifle to my friend and he printed two groups, identical to my own.

My friend commented that the pencil-thin barrel of the Mountain Rifle is to blame. I am told that it heats very quickly and the shot group migrates across the target. I have no idea if this is true, but something is certainly wrong.

Is this type of performance inherent in the design, or is there something I can do to fix it?
 
ALFREDS said:
I bought a Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in 280 some years ago. I mounted a Vari-X III 3.5-10X on it with Leupold mounts. This rig remained silent in my safe for approximately seven years before I fired it, which I finally did last summer. I was to be sadly disappointed.

The rifle was bore-sited and hit the paper at 100 meters on the first three rounds. The pattern would repeat several times that day. One bullet impacted in the center of the target. The following two bullets shot into a tight group, impacting approximately five inches to the right of center. I recall firing approximately twenty rounds, and every group printed the same. I passed my rifle to my friend and he printed two groups, identical to my own.

My friend commented that the pencil-thin barrel of the Mountain Rifle is to blame. I am told that it heats very quickly and the shot group migrates across the target. I have no idea if this is true, but something is certainly wrong.

Is this type of performance inherent in the design, or is there something I can do to fix it?
Click to expand...

If this has a wood stock I believe glass bedding and making the pressure point more positive in centering the barrel may help. Plus a trigger job getting it crisp just under 3 pounds. I would not recommend you try and do this yourself.
 
I have had a few of these mountain rifles.
When the barrel heats up the group will open up.
I had a 30-06 that would shoot sub 1" until the 4th shot.
then it would open up to 1.5 - 3"
These are a great hunting gun though.
I like mine!
 
I had the older model Remington Titanium that turned out groupings as large as 12". First shot would be within the centre ring, second shot was high right, third shot way left, and a fourth could go anywhere. Played with tip pressure, bedding, and a better stock without much improvement. Had to rebarrel to something a bit heavier. The light barrels really heat up and expand quickly.
 
I have the same gun, Remington 700 Mountain rifle, walnut stock, in 280 Remington. It shoots the first two in a nice little 1/2" group, third shot is at least 1.5-2" away, high and right. Mine just will not shoot three shot groups. Thats okay with me because I doubt any game animal will give me three shots anyhow. Mine has been glass bedded and has a Timney trigger installed.

I love the light weight of it, really nice for long walks.
 
mountain rifle

My 2 sons and I each have a remington mountin rifle, in 270, 280 ands 3006. The 270 and 280 each group into an inch for four shots. The 3006 , has a free floating barrel and shoots into one and a half to two inches. They are stock except for the 3006 with the free floating barrell.
 
I've had two of them that were great. In my experience the tip humps can be good or bad. If the gun won't shoot and the usual suspects mounts, scope, trigger etc are Ok bed it and free float the barrel.
 
The Model 700 Mountain Rifle I had in 7mm-08 shot great.
IMGP0203.jpg
[/IMG]
 
I have a Mountain Rifle in .280 that I bought in 1985. I adjusted the trigger pull to 2.5#, reduced the creep a bit and free-floated the barrel. It has not changed POI in 15 years. I recently shot a 5-shot group with 3 different loads (160 grain Speer Spitzer with 55.5 grains of IMR 4831, 160 grain Nosler partition with the same load of powder and a factory (Federal) 160 grain Accu-Bond. Total group size is just under 1 MOA.
 
I had a Rem. Model 7 stainless synthetic in .243. Every time, 3rd shot ~3" towards the 2o'clock position (from zero). Barrel heated up quickly. Traded it for a Tikka 595, .222. This rifle can shoot!
 
Sounds like the issue, whatever it is, is very repeatable. As a guess, I would say that it is from some sort of contact between the barrell and the stock. Its either that or the scope is loose or out of whack somehow. More likely it is the barrell/stock contact. So you could try to bubba-job it and sand out the barrell channell, then see how it shoots. Or you could take it to a gunsmith and have him bed and free-float it. I find with the lighter barrells you need that forend pressure, but there's always exceptions.
No easy answers. Sorry. Just try different things that may or may not work.
 
I shoot a CDL SF in 7 Rem Mag. Same story for mine - after two shots it starts to migrate high and right unless I let it cool down. One nice thing about the fluting is it seems to cool faster than some.

After reading above I'm very tempted to try and bubba the fore end contact. My alternative is to take it to Corlanes, or maybe send it to ATRS. Anyone have any experience/advice on any of the three options?

Don't think this counts as a hijack... If it does - apologies.

7m7
 
re mtn rifle

I had this same problem with my 260 mtn rifle so i glass bedded it. it still was not great so I glass bedded a pressure point about i inch back from the tip and this solved the problem. It is still not a target rifle but it keeps my 125 and 140 grain partitions shooting between .75 and one inch which is plenty good enough for hunting. This is for three shot groups only after that it starts to wander. I think the pencil thin diameter of these barrells allows any flaws in the barrell steel or rifling process to be amplified at a faster rate as they heat rapidly and whip around more violently during firing. Please note that this is the only rem 700 of many that I have fooled with that a good glass bedding and barrell floating job did not bring out its potential. I can also get .5 three shot goups now with the 120 grain sierra hpbtm bullit. Also a lot of these rifles with very light barrells seem to shoot better off the bench if you hold on to the fore end firmly while firing. if you put light sideways pressure on the barrell of most of the rem 700,s you will find the factory pressure point allows the barrel to move back and forth thus shooting from a slightly different point on each shot.

Duckshoot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom