[bravo_sniper]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting a Rem. 700 but I just don't know which one!
There is so many different 700 models out there so I need a little help.
My only demand is that it must have an heavy barrel, so can you please name some Rem. 700 with heavy barrels?

Thanks,

 

[CM2k]

Most remingtons will have a decently heavy barrel. If not, it's best you get either the BDL (Magazine with a floor plate) or BDL DM (Detachable Magazine) and slap on a new barrel. Most people here seem to swear by the 700 P ( www.remingtonle.com ). Best bet is yes, a 700 P. It'll have better machining. It's up to you if you want either a Long action, or a Short action. I myself would want a long, incase I ever decide to go with a new magnum caliber. But i'm just a frugal old prude, as most people just buy a new rifle for the new caliber.

After you buy it, you'll want to get it off to a gunsmith. Get the action squared, the bolt trued and lapped, get it glass pillar bedded, adjust the trigger to 3 pounds, and, if you want to, get a larger bolt knob (Some people are not comfortable with the small bolt size. Makes it hard to work the action with gloves). Pretty well all Remington 700s come tapped and drilled for a scope, so you're pretty well set from there.

(How'd I do, after reading for so many months?)

 

[Jeffvn]

CM2k hits the nail on the head. Although there are other options, like the VS, I got the 700P (actually the 700PSS - but its no longer sold). A friend of mine got the VS (they do not make a left handed 700P), and they were basically identical - both shot about the same - 1/2 to 3/4 MOA straight from the box.

The 700P runs between $700-$1,300 (not joking - some people will pay over $1,200 for a standard 700P) on Guns America. The VS is maybe $50 less.

 

[Jeff_850]

well like C2Mk said people here swear by thier Remington 700Ps and im one of those who do
700 Police is the way to go
mine came out of the box perfectly done, havnt had any modifications to it and its a solid 1/4 moa shooter
not all Remington 700Ps are going to give you that accuracy but they all tend to be well below 1 moa in the 1/2 moa area or atleast the other ones i fired.. i just got a bit lucky

 

[bravo_sniper]

Thanks for the answers!

But, you see, I'm from Sweden and in Sweden a Rem. 700 VS cost about $1200 and a VS Composite is $2600, so it is a bit exspensive I think.
But maybe a VS is affordable.

I want the cheapest Rem. 700 with a heavy barrel...
So you say all Rem. 700 have heavy barrels?

 

[Jeff_850]

no not all Remington 700s have heavy barrels
go with the Remington 700 Police if available if not the 700 VS is a very nice gun in .308 i believe its the same guns just no palm swells?
someone confirm this please

 

[CM2k]

If you are in Sweden, you might want to take a look at Sako ( http://www.sako.fi/ ). Nekekami seems to like the 75 action quite a bit, so, go for a 75 (According to him, the action is a bit smoother than a 700 action, if I recall correctly that is. Or, a more precise quote; SAKO makes excellent actions that can take a lot of punishment and still work smoothly. They tolerate cold and heat very well, and are extremely popular in hunting and competition rifles over here.). You should probably buy a Sako 75 Synthetic Stainless action in whatever size, and buy a new barrel and stock for it. Sako has some odd ideas for barrel lengths, and seem to never want to go over 25 inches. McMillan and Winchester seem to make nice stocks. On the other hand, you could merely buy a Sako 75 Synthetic Stainless and add on a new barrel. On the other hand, you could always keep the barrel that it comes with.

Alternatively, you could buy a Sako TRG 22. It all really depends on what exactly you are pricing the 700 VS in. American dollars? Because if you are, then you'd probably be better off with the 75 Stainless Steel action.

 

[Nekekami]

bravo_sniper:

If you're considering a nice rifle that is somewhat inexpensive here in Sweden, you might want to check out the Tikka T3 series. A Tikka T3 Lite Stainless(glass fiber reinforced polymer stock and stainless barrel) without a scope would cost you around $1096. Without a stainless barrel, you can get it for around $939

The Tikka rifles are extremely nice, and Tikka's policy for their T3 rifles is that they don't leave the factory unless they shoot 1MOA or better(The T3 Tactical has much higher demands on it, obviously). The action is fully comparable to the SAKO actions, it's just a matter of taste.

Here's a link to a store that has some examples:
http://www.delsbovapen.se/vapen/nya/

 

[mele]

To answer the question that was posted about the P and VS

The 700VS uses the SAME barreled action as the 700P, there is NO difference. The Stock is the only difference on these rifles (AND barrel twist rates on a few of the calibers). The VS stock does not have the palm swells and is thinner all the way around and only has 2 swivel studs, not 3. Thats about it.

MEL

 

[Dan]

Amen

Couldn't of said it better Mel.

Bravo,

In my opinion, the Remington 700 VS or VSSF are the best Remington heavy barrels to buy. Not everyone wants to be a sniper with a matte black 700P, though in this forum it seems many do. Why not save some money as well and spend it on cleaning supplies or a bipod.

I've been looking at a Sako 75 Varmint Stainless. It's offered in the caliber you want and already comes with a heavy barrel, eliminating the need for a rebarreling job right away. You might have seen it if you visited Sako's website per CM2k's suggestion. Once again, guaranteed 1 MOA from the Sako factory.

Hope it helps.

 

[bravo_sniper]

thanks for the answers!

But I still have got some questions, why is the 700 VS Composite almost twice as exspensive as the 700 VS?

Btw, I think the 700 VS seems as a very nice rifle. But do it also have a
HS precision stock as the 700P? And is it fully aluminium bedded?

And if I do buy this rifle, what scope do you think I should get?

 

[Dan]

Bravo 2

Bravo,

The VS Composite has a full composite barrel as opposed to the carbon steel of the VS or P. This greatly reduces weight and aids in the dissipation of heat. It's expensive because of the material and the cost to mold/machine it. I don't have any first hand experience with the VS Composite, but I'd expect it to be a great gun with what I've seen/heard about composite materials.

The stock on the VS is indeed an HS Precision with an aluminum bedding block. The stock is similar to the 700P, and Mel has pointed out the differences above.

Pertaining to your scope question, it depends what kind of shooting you intend to do with the rifle. My VS was my first bolt gun so I put a modest Leupold Vari-X II 3-9x40mm on it with Leupold rings and base. I've since bought two Leupold Vari-X III 6.5-20x40mm's for other rifles, but the smaller Leupold remains on my VS because it's functional. When you get to high power scopes, you lose that quick sight picture and peace of mind that comes with a less powerful scope. Again, the nature of your shooting should determine what's best for you. I (and fellow members) would be glad to help you if you specify what it is the rilfe's for.

 

[Jeff_850]

i think you will be perfectly happy with either a Remington 700P or 700 VS
if your going for a .308 it shoudlnt matter between 700 VS or P
if you are going for a .223 the VS and i think VS SF will give you a 1:12 twist while the P will give you a 1:9 twist...
if you want a .22-250 you can only go for the VS/VS SF
if you want to go heavier than .308 to .300 WM or Rum or 7mm mag you can go either Remington 700P or check out the 700 Sendero SF

 

[Kamatz]

There were two things I was advised to consider when I started thinking about buying a rifle. How much I wanted to spend on the initial purchase - and how far would I want to go in the future.

"Everyone" knows the Rem700. Meaning, if you buy a 700 VS now, you can have it rebarreled, restocked, tuned and everything you can imagine. And virtually any gun smith can and will do the job. It's not the best action in the world - but it's damned versatile.

Tikka was bought by Sako a couple of years ago - if I remember correctly. So many Tikka rifles are made by the same guys that make the TRG familiy. But buying parts for a Sako is not cheap. I would suspect it's much the same with Tikka. At least here there aren't that many gun smiths working with Sako and Tikka actions, either... you might want to look around a bit before you decide what to buy.

 

[bravo_sniper]

Sorry, forgot to mention

I will be using it alot on the shooting range (but it's mostly just 300 meters ranges around here) and for a little bit of hunting of course, however I don't like hunting like elk, so from the scope point of view I don't need a low magnification in the bottom. I have looked at the Leupold Mark 4 LR/T M3 10X which seems as a very nice scope (which it is) :wink: .

So in the end I think it will be: (note that the US$ prices is just transformed from Swedish kronor.)

Remington 700 VS (.308W) $1400 US (11 000 Swedish kronor)
Leupold Mark 4 LR/T M3 10X $1950 US (15 000 Swedish kronor)

+ maybe Harris bipod, sling etc.

 

[Kamatz]

You can get a Schmidt & Bender PM/II 3-12x50 with mil-dots for a little less than the Leupold. And it is a better scope.

I would've imported one from Sweden if I hadn't already bought my NXS.... But I'm afraid I don't remember the url...

 

[Nekekami]

bravo_sniper: In Sweden, the decent weaponsmiths all know Sako and Tikka(I wouldn't be surprised if there are more who know how to work with Sako and Tikka than there are who know how to work with Remington rifles). Another advantage with Tikka that I mentioned(And the same thing for Sako), is that they have a stricter baseline accuracy for their rifles, while Remingtons rifles are a bit of a lottery, it seems. Go to the local rifle range and talk to the various hunters and sports shooters and see what they think.

And yes, there are scopes equal or even better than the Leupold that can be had far cheaper here in Sweden. And you won't support the ridiculous export restrictions of the current US administration. IThe sale of Zeiss and S&B scopes has increased enormously here in Sweden because of that. Another popular brand is Zwarowski.

 

[Nekekami]

Btw, another manufacturer you could take a look at is Steyr-Mannlicher.

Their rifles are generally of very high quality, and with good starting accuracy, and can easily be made to achieve superb accuracy. The action takes some getting used to though.

 

[Kamatz]

...and it's hell changing barrel on the damned thing. Granted, I've heard of people putting nearly 8000 rounds before noticing any serious drop in accuracy.

You really have that many smiths working with Sako and Tikka actions? Here basically everyone work with Rem700, a few with Win70 and quite a few with the M98. But hardly anyone dare say they're "experts" on Sako. That's the big, jagged, suppository with buying - say, a TRG-22 here. That's why I switched to a custom built Rem700...thinking it'd be a bit cheaper..then I realised that there was so many neat gadgets and such I wanted :roll: Now it's at least as expensive as a new TRG-22

 

[Nekekami]

Kamatz:

Yes, there are quite a few. If you read the Robsoft forums, you'll see that the TRG-22 isn't exactly uncommon in Sweden =) And yeah, we definitely have our share of people working with M98 actions.

As for Remington rifles, they are more costly over here than people think, especially when you have to start throwing in upgrades. As mentioned, Tikka and Sako guarantee 1MOA on all their rifles, including their short-barreled wooden stock hunting rifles, while Remington offers no such guarantee, making it a lottery, where one rifle can achieve ½MOA, while another only achieves 2MOA. Sure, you can go to another armourer making rifles based on the Rem700 action, but then the costs start to increase.