Jenrick
Member
Weather: 50 degrees, no wind
Lighting: Direct over head at the 25, 50, 75 and 100 yd lines (yeah I was indoors)
Rifle: Remington 700P w/ BSA 6x24x44 and Harris Bi-Pod
I had acquired this fine specimen of rifle about two weeks ago here on THR from Bernie, who I will say is a stand up guy who gave me a great deal. The rifle as I got it had the BSA scope mounted on Leupold rings, with no bi-pod. I took it out to the range last week to get a rough zero with some cheap American Eagle .308. I’ll get into that in a bit. First the rifle itself.
To quote from Remington’s website: “The standard Model 700P features an H-S Precision® composite stock reinforced with DuPont Kevlar and fiberglass. They'll stay dimensionally stable in any weather and under the worst tactical situations. The stock is laid up around an aircraft-grade aluminum bedding block that runs up the entire length of the receiver. It has a textured, black, non-reflective finish and comes with sling swivel studs.” The rifle is a fairly weighty beast, weighing probably a pound or two more then my Garand. The weight is well distributed, but lets be clear, this sucker does not “point” well, nor does it “snap to the shoulder.” What it does do very well is shoot.
The trigger on my rifle felt to be around 3-3.5lbs; I don’t have a trigger scale, but that’s my guess. The trigger is fairly wide and serrated. The bolt was not jeweled, and featured the factory finish. A little CLP had it moving very smoothly. Stock safety for those not aware is a simple fore-aft “on-off,” (fire/safe) arrangement.
The HS stock is a very substantial stock, that no one in their right mind would call “flimsy,” as I have heard several folks refer to other synthetic stocks. The finish is a rubbery pebble finish that offers good grip and cheek weld. The stock is capped with a rubber recoil pad that seems to work rather well, though the .308 isn’t exactly a hard kicking cartridge.
The scope mounted on my specimen is not a particularly high end piece of glass. It is however much nicer then I was expecting for the listed retail. Light transmission in the 6-14x power range is very good, once you start getting higher, the sight picture darkens noticeably. The reticule is superfine with a center dot. This makes precision aiming easy, though I’m not sure how well it would work in the field. The power dial is located just forward of the eye piece, and smoothly rotates through all power settings. The objective focus is located at the far end of the scope and is marked with range increments which work pretty well for my eyes. The windage and elevation knobs were equipped with target knobs, and are 1/8th MOA adjustable. For target work and slow pace shooting this works very well. The only issue I have is the scope sits about ½” high for me. I’ll need to add something to get a better cheek weld.
The bi-pod I choose is a Harris LM bi-pod. It attaches to a sling swivel via a rather ingenious set of clamping fingers that tighten and loosen via a single screw. The legs are spring loaded to extend approximately 7”, and can lock at roughly one inch increments. The bipod has no traverse or tilt to it, so it’s best for positioned shots on level terrain. I’ll be upgrading to something with at least traverse in the future.
I picked up my rifle, took it home, and ran several patches down the bore to ensure it was obstruction free and clean. From there it was time to load up and head to the range, I found that the rifle case I had for my Garand, will not fit a scoped rifle. That has made transporting it a bit of a problem, but I’ve made it work. My neighbors are used to seeing my wandering around with a rifle to or from my car or in my garage anyway, and in Texas driving with a rifle in the back seat is not actually illegal (though I can assure you we police officers will ask some questions, including when are you planning to go shooting again as I enjoy company at the range).
For the first day of shooting I used the ranges cheap .308, American Eagle 150gr FMJ BT. I was less then pleased to see that they were selling the AR ammo for $2 a box more then I had seen Federal Gold Medal Match at another local store. I loaded the magazine to capacity and then put the fifth round into the chamber. I ran the target out to 100yds scope on 10x, nestled the rifle down in the rest, and touched off the first round. Bolt cycled smoothly, brass ejected nice and energetically. Only problem was there wasn’t a hole in the target. Hmm, waitt there’s a hole, no that’s the guy the next lane over with a 9mm.
I brought the target back to 25yds, and started to zero. The second round was about 9” right and 7” low. A lot of knob spinning later (hmm ¼ MOA knobs might be a good idea…) I had a rough zero. The best group of the day was about .9-1MOA. This was off only a front rest, with definitely non-match ammo.
A good cleaning revealed that the barrel did not foul badly at all from 20 rounds (no major surprise), and the bolt looked relatively pristine as well. I went out and acquired the Harris bi-pod, and a couple boxes of 175gr Fed Gold Medal, and back to the range today.
The bipod seemed to provide a little more stability then just the front rest. Maybe it’s just psychological, but the folks at Harris say the rubber feet and springs in the legs soak up a little wobble. I had again forgotten my sand sock, so I was shooting only off the bipod. The first round was an 1” low at 100 yards compared to the zero I had established with the AE. So a bit of dial turning, second round is now 2” low. Hmm this way for up… that way for down… if I turn the knob the correct direction this time it should work. Stupidity corrected, I was on zero. I fired several groups front rest only, keeping them all around .7-.8 MOA. A kind soul loaned me their sand sock, when they realized I was without.
The last group I shot was a five shot group, first three measured right around .375 center to center. The fourth I called a flyer and opened it up to about .8. The last was back in close bringing it around .5 with the first three. So even with my poor shooting on the fourth round, less then a MOA for sure. The .375 MOA group is a very nice surprise, especially since I wouldn’t call myself a great shot.
Future plans include a new bi-pod, and a different scope with a mill-dot reticule and ¼ MOA adjustments. Other then that I really don’t see a reason to change anything.
-Jenrick
Lighting: Direct over head at the 25, 50, 75 and 100 yd lines (yeah I was indoors)
Rifle: Remington 700P w/ BSA 6x24x44 and Harris Bi-Pod
I had acquired this fine specimen of rifle about two weeks ago here on THR from Bernie, who I will say is a stand up guy who gave me a great deal. The rifle as I got it had the BSA scope mounted on Leupold rings, with no bi-pod. I took it out to the range last week to get a rough zero with some cheap American Eagle .308. I’ll get into that in a bit. First the rifle itself.
To quote from Remington’s website: “The standard Model 700P features an H-S Precision® composite stock reinforced with DuPont Kevlar and fiberglass. They'll stay dimensionally stable in any weather and under the worst tactical situations. The stock is laid up around an aircraft-grade aluminum bedding block that runs up the entire length of the receiver. It has a textured, black, non-reflective finish and comes with sling swivel studs.” The rifle is a fairly weighty beast, weighing probably a pound or two more then my Garand. The weight is well distributed, but lets be clear, this sucker does not “point” well, nor does it “snap to the shoulder.” What it does do very well is shoot.
The trigger on my rifle felt to be around 3-3.5lbs; I don’t have a trigger scale, but that’s my guess. The trigger is fairly wide and serrated. The bolt was not jeweled, and featured the factory finish. A little CLP had it moving very smoothly. Stock safety for those not aware is a simple fore-aft “on-off,” (fire/safe) arrangement.
The HS stock is a very substantial stock, that no one in their right mind would call “flimsy,” as I have heard several folks refer to other synthetic stocks. The finish is a rubbery pebble finish that offers good grip and cheek weld. The stock is capped with a rubber recoil pad that seems to work rather well, though the .308 isn’t exactly a hard kicking cartridge.
The scope mounted on my specimen is not a particularly high end piece of glass. It is however much nicer then I was expecting for the listed retail. Light transmission in the 6-14x power range is very good, once you start getting higher, the sight picture darkens noticeably. The reticule is superfine with a center dot. This makes precision aiming easy, though I’m not sure how well it would work in the field. The power dial is located just forward of the eye piece, and smoothly rotates through all power settings. The objective focus is located at the far end of the scope and is marked with range increments which work pretty well for my eyes. The windage and elevation knobs were equipped with target knobs, and are 1/8th MOA adjustable. For target work and slow pace shooting this works very well. The only issue I have is the scope sits about ½” high for me. I’ll need to add something to get a better cheek weld.
The bi-pod I choose is a Harris LM bi-pod. It attaches to a sling swivel via a rather ingenious set of clamping fingers that tighten and loosen via a single screw. The legs are spring loaded to extend approximately 7”, and can lock at roughly one inch increments. The bipod has no traverse or tilt to it, so it’s best for positioned shots on level terrain. I’ll be upgrading to something with at least traverse in the future.
I picked up my rifle, took it home, and ran several patches down the bore to ensure it was obstruction free and clean. From there it was time to load up and head to the range, I found that the rifle case I had for my Garand, will not fit a scoped rifle. That has made transporting it a bit of a problem, but I’ve made it work. My neighbors are used to seeing my wandering around with a rifle to or from my car or in my garage anyway, and in Texas driving with a rifle in the back seat is not actually illegal (though I can assure you we police officers will ask some questions, including when are you planning to go shooting again as I enjoy company at the range).
For the first day of shooting I used the ranges cheap .308, American Eagle 150gr FMJ BT. I was less then pleased to see that they were selling the AR ammo for $2 a box more then I had seen Federal Gold Medal Match at another local store. I loaded the magazine to capacity and then put the fifth round into the chamber. I ran the target out to 100yds scope on 10x, nestled the rifle down in the rest, and touched off the first round. Bolt cycled smoothly, brass ejected nice and energetically. Only problem was there wasn’t a hole in the target. Hmm, waitt there’s a hole, no that’s the guy the next lane over with a 9mm.
I brought the target back to 25yds, and started to zero. The second round was about 9” right and 7” low. A lot of knob spinning later (hmm ¼ MOA knobs might be a good idea…) I had a rough zero. The best group of the day was about .9-1MOA. This was off only a front rest, with definitely non-match ammo.
A good cleaning revealed that the barrel did not foul badly at all from 20 rounds (no major surprise), and the bolt looked relatively pristine as well. I went out and acquired the Harris bi-pod, and a couple boxes of 175gr Fed Gold Medal, and back to the range today.
The bipod seemed to provide a little more stability then just the front rest. Maybe it’s just psychological, but the folks at Harris say the rubber feet and springs in the legs soak up a little wobble. I had again forgotten my sand sock, so I was shooting only off the bipod. The first round was an 1” low at 100 yards compared to the zero I had established with the AE. So a bit of dial turning, second round is now 2” low. Hmm this way for up… that way for down… if I turn the knob the correct direction this time it should work. Stupidity corrected, I was on zero. I fired several groups front rest only, keeping them all around .7-.8 MOA. A kind soul loaned me their sand sock, when they realized I was without.
The last group I shot was a five shot group, first three measured right around .375 center to center. The fourth I called a flyer and opened it up to about .8. The last was back in close bringing it around .5 with the first three. So even with my poor shooting on the fourth round, less then a MOA for sure. The .375 MOA group is a very nice surprise, especially since I wouldn’t call myself a great shot.
Future plans include a new bi-pod, and a different scope with a mill-dot reticule and ¼ MOA adjustments. Other then that I really don’t see a reason to change anything.
-Jenrick
