The word Remage comes from taking Remington and Savage, and combining the words together.
Where did this start? Without getting into a lot of detail, Remington barrels have a shoulder that is machined to achieve the proper headspace while Savages use a barrel nut. As long as you have a headspace gauge and a wrench, you can simply loosen the barrel nut on a Savage and uninstall the original barrel, then screw in the new barrel until the headspace is correct, and tighten the barrel nut. On a Remington you either have to machine the chamber or the barrel shoulder to set headspace. I am not sure who came up with the concept but someone decided to try applying the Savage barrel nut concept to the Remington and that is where the Remage term came from. You can see the barrel nut in the pictures below, and it clears the Magpul stock without any issues.
This project started when I wanted to build a 223 bolt gun with a fast twist, at least 1:8 or faster. There are some factory rifles that offer a 1:8 twist, but I kind of wanted to see what I could do with a Remington action now that Magpul is offering a stock, bottom "metal", and magazines for it, and play around with the Remage concept. End goal of this rifle is to be for something fun to use as a trainer in long range shooting and the occasional varmint slayer.
I started off with purchasing a Remington 223 action and contacted Barrel Brothers in Sparks, NV. John was very helpful in answering all of my questions about the barrels and offers competitive pricing on the barrels and nuts. I ordered a 22" stainless, light varmint profile barrel in 1:7 twist with a standard 223 Remington chamber and threaded muzzle. It took about 3 weeks to get the barrel in hand. The barrel started out as a Wilson Arms blank.
This is the result after Mrs. Claus decided I was a good boy this year and gifted the Magpul stock to me:
Parts list:
Remington 223 action with Xmark trigger
Remington pre-Xmark trigger tuned to 3.5lbs.
22" Wilson Arms 1:7 SS barrel machined by Barrel Brothers, Remington thread protector from another rifle
Magpul Precision Hunter stock and bottom metal
AI 223 Magazine
Cabelas Covenant 6-24X FFP scope
Leupold QD rings
Nightforce 20MOA base
Bipod and mount are a Chinese knockoff of the Atlas bipod with a few improvements.
Some final notes on the build-
Round count is approaching 250 and the gun is shooting well. Barrel break-in was shoot it a bunch, clean it, and shoot more 5-shot groups on paper(off a bipod and rear bag) are ranging from .55-.81 MOA using Hornady 53 Vmax and 75 Amax, Nosler 70 RDF, and Berger 82 Target. I am really happy with how well it shoots the Amax and am hoping it will shoot the new Hornady 75 ELD as that will makes those trips to 1000 yards a little easier. The accuracy has really impressed me considering the cost of the barrel and the use of a factory action that has had zero truing done to it.
While I have had some success with tuning the Remington X-mark trigger, I swapped it out almost immediately after breaking the MIM trigger shoe off when I bumped it putting it in the stock. I am going to see if Remington will warranty it as I feel I didn't hit it that hard
The grip angle on the Magpul stock has taken a little time to learn as most of my other precision rifles have a more vertical grip. My guess is that Magpul will make this part interchangeable in Gen 2 One spacer was removed from the butt, which is super easy to do, to make the rifle fit me better and it feels really nice. The bottom metal works as advertised and there have been zero issues with feeding from the AI magazine. My understanding is that AI no longer makes this magazine but MDT makes one and there are others. A friend is using the MDT mag on his Magpul setup and it works well, and am hoping that Magpul will offer one in the near future.
For the price point, I am very impressed with the scope. It isn't a Nightforce, Vortex Razor, etc. but the reticle is clear and not too busy, and I can see 223 holes in paper at 200 yards. I am not a dial-for-distance guy and would rather use holds so I am not certain I would trust the knobs as that is where most of these scopes lose their precision. While I prefer mil adjustments/grids, this one is in MOA and works well.
Picture taken of a steel coyote at 550 yards on 16x magnification, on a cloudy day.