Early 700ADL 222 question/problem

B

BenKeith

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Is the throat worn badly or is the following normal. Rifle is over 50 years old but doubt it has ever had 10 boxes of bullets shot through it. However, it did not receive the best TLC during it's life.

I'm loading 50gr Nosler Ballistic tips in an older 222 Remington 700ADL. Seating them .010" off the lands I have on overall length of 2.285", this is a lot longer than 2.130" advertised max length, and the 2.190" the magazine will hold. I could change the magazine/spacer to a 222 Mag and get enough magazine lenth but I'm wondering if the throat is gone. Since I know of no gunsmith's within 100 miles (probably in Atlanta) that might have a bore scope, I thought I would ask here before trying to find one.

This was my dad rifle and I've never reloaded for it but was going to let my granddaughter use it to practice with and shoot coyotes.
 
I have an as new 700 .222 take off from a f-class build,24" .650 muzzle dia.
Contact me if interested.
Chuck
 
I'm not "worried about it", if the barrel is bad, I would just replace it but if that's normal or if it's just the type bullets, I will make the magazine work with the longer bullets.

It's kinda like driving a car with a skipping engine. Yea, it runs but it will run a hellavalot better if it was running on all cylinders.
 
I don't know about 50 years ago, but when a bunch of us started loading in the late sixties, about everything we owned had longer than "standard" throats. I'm thinking of L461 Sakos, an Anschutz .222, a Remington .270, Husqvarna .243, Parker Hale......

If the barrel looks OK with a bit of reflected light down it, give the bugger a go & change the spacer if it works for you.
 
Ben, I have also have a 700 ADL in 222 Rem except mines about 25 years younger than yours. While I don't have anything loaded with ballistic tips I just measured the OAL of a couple of dummy rounds that I made up with Sierra 52gr bthp just touching the lans and the OAL is 2.260. However, this number could be (and probably is) a little different with the Nozler ballistic tips since the ogive-tip relationship between the two bullets is probalby different. But you get the idea, my loaded rounds are also considerably longer than 2.130 and they also will not fit into the magazine. For me it doesn't matter if they fit in the mag or not since I use a single shot follower in the rifle and feed it one at a time.
For whatever it's worth, I'd find it hard to believe that the throat would be erroded with such a low round count.

Pat
 
how does it shoot? alot of remingtons over the years have had very long throats right out of the box, so if it shoots well dont worry about it.
 
I haven't shot this rifle in over 40 years. I gave him a Redfield wide angle scope for christmas in the late 60's. I installed and zeroed it using factory 50gr loads since that's what he was going to be using and that's what it has had ever since. I'm just going to make a new spacer to go in the back of the magazine that will let it hold bullets .100" longer and see how it does. I will find a gunsmith that has a bore scope and one day when I'm heading their direction I'll take it and have it inspected. I'll find out how it shoots this weekend.
 
BenKeith said:
Is the throat worn badly or is the following normal. Rifle is over 50 years old but doubt it has ever had 10 boxes of bullets shot through it. However, it did not receive the best TLC during it's life.

I'm loading 50gr Nosler Ballistic tips in an older 222 Remington 700ADL. Seating them .010" off the lands I have on overall length of 2.285", this is a lot longer than 2.130" advertised max length, and the 2.190" the magazine will hold. I could change the magazine/spacer to a 222 Mag and get enough magazine lenth but I'm wondering if the throat is gone. Since I know of no gunsmith's within 100 miles (probably in Atlanta) that might have a bore scope, I thought I would ask here before trying to find one.

This was my dad rifle and I've never reloaded for it but was going to let my granddaughter use it to practice with and shoot coyotes.
Click to expand...

Very typical for factory remington chambers, .150 over Max coal with a spitzer type bullet.

Your fortunate to have a magazine spacer to modify. (if necessary)

try some loads that fit in the mag, and some on the lands, before doing anything rash.

See how it shoots.

Ben
 
Ben,

I know how you feel about your granddaughter. There is nothing really good for her in your mind and any gun for her must be positively safe.

However, I agree with the others. If the rifle was safely shooting the last time it was shot, it will safely shoot now. I would clean out the the barrel of dirt dobbers nests and what ever else and shoot a box of factory ammo in it. Find out if you have a problem before you start trying to fixing one.

But that is just me. If you want to have a gunsmith take a look at it with a borescope, by all means find a good one and do it.

Concho Bill
 
Looking at the barrel with my mini LED flex light, other than what looks like a few small rust pits, it looks OK. It only took me three days to get the barrel clean. That was probably the first time it had ever been cleaned.

I made me another spacer for the magazine so the 50gr Nosler Ballistic tips feed fine now. I found six of his old factory rounds I will shot first. Then I seated six of my reloads the same depth. I have 25 seated .010 of the lands with different loads to see which shoots best. If it shoots good, I will pilar post and bed the action, and free float the barrel, shoot a few more groups to see what that does and then bed the barrel to see if it gets better or worse. I also use an old 8X32X44 Tasco on my rifles for building loads sight picture won't be a problem.

I'm hoping it still shoots good enough to make her a good little coyote buster. I'll drop it down to 40gr varmit bullets for that.
 
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