RFI: Remington M-700 Hunting Upgrades

[okie john]

A couple of years ago, I inherited my uncle’s early M-700 BDL in 7mm Remington Magnum. It hasn’t been used much lately and the original stock is long gone. He was a West Texas rancher, so I’d like to update it (lightly) and shoot a big whitetail with it in his honor. Upgrades I have in mind are
1. Sako extractor
2. Non-Walker trigger
3. McMillan Remington Classic stock

What am I overlooking?

Thanks,


Okie John

[Alpha Sierra]

Personally I would leave it alone and replace the stock with something classic in walnut, but have it pillar bedded.

The extractor is just fine and the trigger, if you must replace, has lots of options. For your desired use a simple Timney will do just fine.

[Gearqueer]

Okie,

Let me know how it goes. I was used to heavy accurized .308 rifles in the old job, but I bought a Remington 700 BDL in 30.06 recently for deer hunting. As it turns out, I noticed a huge difference in recoil and accuracy. A supported wood stocked sporter (1987 manufacture date with no recoil pad) acts a lot different than a free-floated heavy barreled rifle with glass bedded action. Since I like to shoot a lot I found myself getting beat up by recoil and frustrated with my group walking around after the barrel heated.

I am considering either putting on a nice recoil pad to keep it classic looking, or going the fiberglass stock route with free float barrel and glass bedded action. I can possibly see a money pit coming. Let me know how yours turns out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Poconnor]

My father bought a Remington 700 in 7 mag back in the sixties. He updated it ten years ago with an H&S stock because it was half the price of a McMillan. It has a sporter barrel but is a little heavy with the H&S stock. Not a bad thing with a 7 mag. Today I would get a grayboe outlander and a timney trigger and go hunt. Grayboe was started by Ryan McMillan

[Alpha Sierra]

Be aware that free floating thin, sporter contour barrels doesn't always work for the best. There's a reason many come with in contact with the stock near the front of the forearm channel.

If you float it and it doesn't improve, add increasing amount of upwards force at the front via shimming to see where it wants to be, then bed that location to the noted thickness.

Laminated wood stocks, properly finished and bedded, can shoot as well as any fiberglass stock, be as stable, look better, and add some weight to the rifle. They are also much easier to modify (compared to fiberglass) in terms of changing their contours and adding stock adjustment hardware if you want.