Remington M700
- Thread starter 3-charlie
- Start date
Order the barrel blank in the twist, contour and length that you want from a barrel maker. Have a smith fit and chamber the barrel to your spec. I would go with a 1:8" or a 1:7" myself, but I like to shoot 80 gr bullets at long range.
Check out JC Custom Barrels. He makes blanks for a shouldered fit and
chambered for a Remage style. I have a similar barrel that should be here any day now. But a remage 223 AI.
They are all SS though. But could get it cerakoated.
chambered for a Remage style. I have a similar barrel that should be here any day now. But a remage 223 AI.
They are all SS though. But could get it cerakoated.
This makes the most sense...
1:9 is too in between for .223...the only thing it shoots better than a 1:12 are bullets in the 60-70 range, but too slow for a much better class of 70 grain and up...
If you want to start with 1:9, buy a 700 Police or Mil-Spec as they shout well in factory form up to 69’s..
1:9 is too in between for .223...the only thing it shoots better than a 1:12 are bullets in the 60-70 range, but too slow for a much better class of 70 grain and up...
If you want to start with 1:9, buy a 700 Police or Mil-Spec as they shout well in factory form up to 69’s..
I already have a USMC Scout/Sniper M40 and a Quasi M40A1 (Rem Police beefed up). Both are 308 M40 is 1-12(?) and police is 1-9. Why I wanted a all around twist was because Turdo & Wino Billy, is stealing my AR's. So I have plenty of .223Rem/5.56NATO from 55gr to 65gr some 68gr?(green tip). I currently have a .223Rem M700 Varmint in 1-12 but as I said thought if I changed the barrel to 1-9 I could use more variety of ammo. Is that assumption wrong? My other thought was sell/trade all the ammo over 55gr and just keep the rifle as is. Or get rid of all the .223/5.56 and the rifle and give up on the thought getting my AR's back. Because that is the only reason I want to keep the .223/5.56 and have the .223 700. And because it is a cheaper round to fire then 308.
1-9 is probably fine for up to 68-69 but if you're swapping on a new barrel anyways, you might as well go 1-7 as there is no downside to it and maybe you'll want to shoot some heavies at some point. When you run out of 55s, 62s, 68s, etc you might want to shoot 75/77s (think mk262). I've put thousands of hand loaded 75s (and some of the Hornady steel match) through a couple 1-7 and 1-7.7tw .223 barrels and they shoot great and the higher bc (even of the less expensive bthp) makes them viable way further out than any of the 55s or 62s (think 600+ yard effective range). If you choose to run something like a 75gr ELDM or something in the 80gr class you have an even more effective round. No reason to limit yourself with a 1-9tw as there is no cost difference.
My experience with a 9 twist .223 is that it will stabilize a Hornady 75 grain bthp, but the slightly longer AMAX is a no go. Shotgun pattern at 100 yards. If you foresee any situation where you want better than a 75 grain bthp, go with the 7 twist everyone is recommending. My personal preference would also be the 26" length.
I run 26" barrels as well. Had a 7tw Bartlein that hammered and replaced it at 7600 rds as it was started to get flyers here and there (group size including flyers was still sub-moa but it was 1/2moa or better before). Have a 7.7tw Krieger on now and it hammers. Didn't even bother to do load dev, took some ammo from the last barrel and it grouped sub-1/2 moa in the Krieger so I said, "good enough for me" and just rolled with that load. 75gr BTHPs at 2950fps is the perfect balance of cost/performance for me as I use my .223 barrels as trainers on my PRS match rifles (that have other barrels chambered in 6 Creed). 75gr ELDMs at 2950 is actually quite impressive performance, just not worth the added cost for my application. Never bothered to try 80s or other heavies.
Another option is to buy another rifle. The 700 Varmint is entry level so replacing it with pretty much any other R700 223 heavy bbl will get you a 9" twist. Everything from the 16.5" AAC-SD, 5R Milspec, 20" SPS Tactical, the 24" bbl'd actions etc all have a 1 in 9. There's lots more options outside of the R700 as well. Tikka uses a 1 in 8 for most of their 223's if I'm not mistaken. It would be cheaper than a rebarrel and easier to sell down the road if/when we overturn this dog and pony show. Just my 2 cents.
