New to building 700 platform actions and need some advise

[LRkid92]

And now this 300wm Rem 700 which will only group 1-1.5moa too, right? That is, until you ream the action, buy a heavy duty recoil lug and one piece bolt, replace the ugly plastic stock with a Boyd’s stock, and set the barrel back one thread, right?

What country are you planning to take this rifle to? What will you be hunting? Sounds very exciting.

It 7mm rem mag- 300 win mag is my match rifle based on a Mauser platform which is the only action I have any real experience working on and know for sure what it takes to get certain levels of accuracy. British Columbia Is where I like to go, I try to go once every 2-3 years (been 3 time). But because of major life changes I haven’t went since 2015 so If I can’t afford it in 2020 like I’ve planned too Im going to hopefully just go to Oregon for Roosevelt elk because they interest me very much I greatly enjoy the color of their cape. Ive gone ahead and kept the factory recoil since it was already pretty flat according to my mic. I went and set the barrel back one tread now since my retal reamer came in it’s only has a tiny bit of jump at saami specs factory ammo see my measurements - the factory throat was stupid long.

7mm rem mag note
Before and After set back and reaming

7mm rem mag notes

Measurements taken with Fowler brand caliper

Hornady 162 BTSP

3.389 with 162 btsp on over all

2.809 from ogive to lands


162 eld-x

3.494 oal

2.823ogive


hornady 7mm 162 BTSP
On the land @

3.285 with 162 btsp on over all

2.705 from ogive to base


Hornady 162 eld-x
On the lands at@
3.390 oal

2.719 ogive to base

I feel from everyone’s statements I fell like this was the best decision and shoot her and see what happens square the action and bolt face would be some what a waste for marginal gains in hunting situations. I’m going to try to go out this weekend on Sunday and see if my decision where correct if not this weekend I will post an update because I will be out the following weekend.

 

[LRkid92]

What's going on here is very simple- LRkid92 wants his 7mm Remington Magnum to consistently shoot 1 MOA or less with factory ammo. Why? Because during one trip to Canada, he forgot the handloaded ammo for his 30-06 Ackley Improved and had to resort to using factory 30-06 Springfield ammunition. his resulted in degraded precision.

His gunsmith has suggested improvements that LRkid92 has questions as to whether or not they are needed to achieve his goal of a three shot group of 1 MOA or less with factory ammo. He has set this goal to be confident in making clean, humane kills at ranges he's comfortable taking a shot at large game at.

LRkid92 has experience working on Mauser control round type actions, but not Remington actions. He will be doing the work himself and wants to know if he should go to such extremes or of there are simpler improvements he should try first. He has many years of experience shooting and knows his limitations.

LRkid92, I don't think you need to go to such extremes as your gunsmith friend proscribes to get your Remington 700 to shoot 1 MOA three shot groups at hunting ranges with factory ammo.

Just want to add- As you will not be tailoring your ammo to your barrel, you may have to take steps to tailor your barrel to the ammo.

This is exactly what I really was looking for I committed on Monday though. decided on setting the barrel back, I only have 5-60 thous of jump now from ogive to base measurements over the common factory ammo, Ill report my testing results from the work I did soon, I have everything from old Sliver 140’s loads from Nosler to 175 ammo factory to try, even if I’ve only avg 1.25-.75 moa I think that will be realistically fine considering I have some some of the cheapest ammo’s to some of the really high end stuff to test and see.

 

[Picher]

It's not likely that 30-06 factory ammo will shoot sub-moa in a 30-06 Ackley Impr. Remington Core-Loct has been quite accurate in most '06 rifles we've shot it in, but don't know how it would shoot in an Ackley chambered rifle.

I agree with his gunsmith that it's not necessary to shoot MOA to kill game very well, unless shooting at extreme ranges, over 500 yards, for instance. A 2 MOA rifle will put every shot within 1" of aim point at 100 yards, and 66% of shots within 6/10". It's doubtful that the hunter, under field conditions, can do half as well as that with 1 MOA rifle/ammo combo under most field conditions.

If a deer (for instance) stood sideways at 200 yards, the "average" hunter with 1 MOA rifle/ammo combo could probably not group 3 shots inside 4 inches on the beast, and one with a 2 MOA rifle may do equally well under such field shooting conditions. (You and I would probably shoot 1/2 MOA at that distance with a 2 MOA rifle, but we're not typical, are we?) LOL

 

[LRkid92]

It's not likely that 30-06 factory ammo will shoot sub-moa in a 30-06 Ackley Impr. Remington Core-Loct has been quite accurate in most '06 rifles we've shot it in, but don't know how it would shoot in an Ackley chambered rifle.

I agree with his gunsmith that it's not necessary to shoot MOA to kill game very well, unless shooting at extreme ranges, over 500 yards, for instance. A 2 MOA rifle will put every shot within 1" of aim point at 100 yards, and 66% of shots within 6/10". It's doubtful that the hunter, under field conditions, can do half as well as that with 1 MOA rifle/ammo combo under most field conditions.

If a deer (for instance) stood sideways at 200 yards, the "average" hunter with 1 MOA rifle/ammo combo could probably not group 3 shots inside 4 inches on the beast, and one with a 2 MOA rifle may do equally well under such field shooting conditions. (You and I would probably shoot 1/2 MOA at that distance with a 2 MOA rifle, but we're not typical, are we?) LOL

Lol doing the standing 1/2 moa shots are with match rifles that can do 1/2 moa or better. I originally did it for laughs for my 100 yards fouling shots for when I get to shoot really long range at a friends cattle ranch.

I went a head a put together some hand loads also to see what it will do at it best and I checked the cases to see how concentric they are with just a plan Jane custom die from hornady. They did better then expected, my rcbs rock chucker supreme does a pretty good job at keeep sh*t straight with my Forster match dies. It stays within 1-1.5 thous on run out on the 300 wm and it kept the hornady custom dies loads for the 7mm At 1.5-2 thous on run out. I went ahead and checked the factory hunting ammo and it all 2-3.5 thous on run outs, I’m only going to do 3 shot groups with all the ammo so long as there is not a user error. Just picked the gun up from the local shop in town to have them repark’d where I took the finish off the action and barrel when I took it apart and it looks good. Now I just need to get a nice padded cobra style sling instead of the freebie I got when I bought my m77 in 338rcm lol.

 

[LRkid92]

Got it done about .5moa at 100 with factory hornady ammo. Then everything else stayed 1moa or better on 3 shot groups. Thanks for the help on this.

 

[lightman]

I have made several Remington 700's that shot 1.5 MOA into less than MOA shooters by free floating the barrel, bedding the action and recrowning the barrel. A few of the recrowning jobs were done with a round headed brass screw and valve grinding compound. Adjusting the trigger makes the rifle easier to shoot.

I also have several 700's that I have had rebarreled that shoot .25 to .5 MOA without doing any other action work. If I could do the necessary work required to blueprint an action myself I probably would. But for the cost of that level of work plus the cost of the action I've chosen to go the custom route.

I also handload for all of these rifles. This includes some case prep and seating bullets with a competition seater. Sometimes a Wilson.

 

[Picher]

What's going on here is very simple- LRkid92 wants his 7mm Remington Magnum to consistently shoot 1 MOA or less with factory ammo. Why? Because during one trip to Canada, he forgot the handloaded ammo for his 30-06 Ackley Improved and had to resort to using factory 30-06 Springfield ammunition. his resulted in degraded precision.

His gunsmith has suggested improvements that LRkid92 has questions as to whether or not they are needed to achieve his goal of a three shot group of 1 MOA or less with factory ammo. He has set this goal to be confident in making clean, humane kills at ranges he's comfortable taking a shot at large game at.

LRkid92 has experience working on Mauser control round type actions, but not Remington actions. He will be doing the work himself and wants to know if he should go to such extremes or of there are simpler improvements he should try first. He has many years of experience shooting and knows his limitations.

LRkid92, I don't think you need to go to such extremes as your gunsmith friend proscribes to get your Remington 700 to shoot 1 MOA three shot groups at hunting ranges with factory ammo.

Just want to add- As you will not be tailoring your ammo to your barrel, you may have to take steps to tailor your barrel to the ammo.

 

[Picher]

From what I read and personal observations from sighting-in many customer's rifles over the years, it seems highly unlikely that a 7mm Rem. Mag will ever shoot factory ammo at less than 1 MOA. Surely, it's been done, but there are very few examples that I've read/heard. High velocity/high-pressure magnum factory rounds in factory hunting rifles that are not carefully built for target accuracy could be "one-in-a-thousand" situation.

I've handloaded rounds for 7mm mag, shot in a really nice rifle, but was disappointed in the results. True, I didn't go through an extensive custom handloading process, using various seating depths/bullet types, etc., but used once-fired brass from that rifle and I'd bedded the action in that stock. (I think the barrel was the problem.)

 

[d2wing]

Well I am a lucky guy, I have a 700 BDL stainless in a synthetic stock that consistently shoot .75 MOA. Sometimes better sometimes worse, That's with Federal factory ammo. I gave it to me son so I did not have to shoot it anymore. So guess what happened at deer camp. He didn't have time to go to a ranch so old dad was asked to sight it in. It still shoots great. Then I was asked to sight in a couple more rifles.
I asked a gunsmith about accurizing a 700, he said if it doesn't shoot better than MOA, sell it and get another one. Some do some don't.