Rem 700 actions

L

LASER

Guest
I read in a forum recently about the differences between a reworked Rem action and the clones. All the guys said that even the best reworked action job can only match the clones for accuracy but they are relatively more difficult to shoot. Bolt lift etc. Makes sense to me, I think.
I am the proud owner of four tricked out ones and two factory oem. My trick ones have the bushed bolts and Sako extractors also. Several years ago I was at the Silhouette Nationals at Ridgeway PA. Got to talking to some belly shooters. Conversation got steered to actions. Guy wanted to sell me a Rem based gun. Told him I had plenty. He then offered to buy (steal) mine. I mentioned a figure which he tried to deflect by obviously trying to hide a smirk. Told me he could get them done all day for one fifty.
Bein’ this started out as a pleasant enough encounter over the local brewery’s product (Straubs Beer in St. Mary’s) I allowed it to end in that fashion. Must be getting’ old.
My guess is that there a bazillion of these actions that you guys did when they were the cats pajamas. Where are they now? What does a body do with his? Do they get turned into hunters and put into the safe with the Mausers? Donate them to charity? They are to me anyhow, a wonderful tribute to a man’s work and seems a damn shame to have them relegated to????
LASER
 
I'll Play

If any of you guys feel ashamed to still shoot and own those old worked Remmy 700 actions I have lots of safe room and promise to give them a new home and love and care for them. :D Maybe we can start a group like the ASPCA and such for old Rem Custom guns.

There is nothing wrong with them I have one I am fixing to get built as we speak. I also have custom actions and the biggest different as you said is bolt lift and maybe I can drive the customs a little hotter pressure than the remingtons.
James NC
 
There is a guy here in Central Pa that comes to local shoots with a reworked 700 in 30BR. He regularly whips our a** with it, and most of use custom actions. There is still plenty of room for a reworked 700. The problem is that they just might not be as "trendy" as others.
 
Early in my benchrest 'career' I shot Hall actions simply because I bought my first custom used from Allan Hall. I was asking Allan about the reworked Remingtons and he admitted to me that a good Remington will shoot with any custom but they had two things against them. One was a mental thing in that you always felt at a disadvantage because you weren't shooting a custom and you couldn't shoot them as fast as you could a custom. I have a sleeved XP that Claude Smith, a veteran benchrester, traded me at the Super Shoot one year when he wanted my Teddy. I ordered a coned bolt for it from Dave Kiff and plan on building a backup rifle on it just as soon as I get around to it.
 
rem 700 actions

Remington actions are just a strong as a custom action maybe more'
Check the pressure tests for blow ups. You'll be surprised.
 
This reminds me of the car stories

I hear old timers, sometimes myself included, talk about how great all the old cars were in the 50's and 60's. We always have fond memories of them for sure. (I am sure I drank my first beer and most other things in one) I used to love changing plugs every 5000 miles, working on god knows what at least once a month, putting up with crappy mileage, poor drivability if it was a hot rod etc. And IF you did real good, you got all the way to 100,000 miles out of it.

Apparently, new technology doesnt really do us any good :rolleyes: I drove my last car 140,000 miles with 2 plug changes and it still didnt burn any oil. Had to sell the damn thing mostly because I was just plain tired of it. My neighbor, just replaced his front pads at 160,000, although he mostly drives highway. Now at 200,000 he is ready for a new truck, another chevy by the way, for about the same reasons. 3 plug and wire changes and 2 fuel pumps is all he ever did to it. Man, I really wish we had those old cars back :rolleyes: (Although, I sure had more fun in them back then)

How does all this apply to this story. The old Rem action is about the same way. It has a fond spot in all our hearts. All the new production technology applied to the new actions has benefit or most the shooters wouldnt be using them. Look down the line at the next big BR match. I will bet you can count the factory actions on one hand. Newer materials, technology and designs are a natural part of the evolution of any product. The shooter part of me wishes all of you would go back to that old Rem, it will just give me a better change of winning. (the business part of me might argue the other side though:))
 
Jerry, I agree

stiller said:
I hear old timers, sometimes myself included, talk about how great all the old cars were in the 50's and 60's. We always have fond memories of them for sure. (I am sure I drank my first beer and most other things in one) I used to love changing plugs every 5000 miles, working on god knows what at least once a month, putting up with crappy mileage, poor drivability if it was a hot rod etc. And IF you did real good, you got all the way to 100,000 miles out of it.

Apparently, new technology doesnt really do us any good :rolleyes: I drove my last car 140,000 miles with 2 plug changes and it still didnt burn any oil. Had to sell the damn thing mostly because I was just plain tired of it. My neighbor, just replaced his front pads at 160,000, although he mostly drives highway. Now at 200,000 he is ready for a new truck, another chevy by the way, for about the same reasons. 3 plug and wire changes and 2 fuel pumps is all he ever did to it. Man, I really wish we had those old cars back :rolleyes: (Although, I sure had more fun in them back then)

How does all this apply to this story. The old Rem action is about the same way. It has a fond spot in all our hearts. All the new production technology applied to the new actions has benefit or most the shooters wouldnt be using them. Look down the line at the next big BR match. I will bet you can count the factory actions on one hand. Newer materials, technology and designs are a natural part of the evolution of any product. The shooter part of me wishes all of you would go back to that old Rem, it will just give me a better change of winning. (the business part of me might argue the other side though:))
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as you know I went to great lengths to get me one of your actions back when you was swamped. I also have a BAT and am fixin' to get me another Stiller drop port. I also make my living working in a cutting edge tech arena. My lament is what does one do with all the Rem's we got? amd Where the!@#$%$# are they? Like I said. all you guys must have been using them. The guy who made me rediculous offers seems to echo the sentiment about thier market value. I just can't seem to bring myself to give one away. Seems disrespectful to the guys who did all the fine work, not to mention the ecconomics of it.
LASER
 
During the winter months I cruise the local gun shows looking for short action 700s'. Don't care what the gun looks like, don't care if the stock is broken in two. As you guessed, all I want is the action. The last couple of years it seems like one can't touch them for less than $450 or so.
 
Remington Actions

Remingtons are probably just as strong as Customs when it comes to ultimate destruction, but any one who dables in "the upper load window" will tell you that with the generous magazine cut-away, that lower locking lug abutment is pretty stretchy. That is why you get that hard bolt lift that most customs do not exibit with the same load. Of course, that is not that big of a problem with the 40x and XP-100 solid bottom actions
The big difference in "now", and the way things used to be done is we have such a wide selection of customs to choose from, at what I think is an affordable price. Right now, I could get on Bruno's site, order an action, (he keeps them in stock), a barrel, a stock, a trigger, etc, and have a Rifle ready to go to the line by next Week End.
Back in the 80's, you simply did not have that wide of a choice.
Granted, there is nothing wrong with a properly trued up Remington if that is what you want. But, as a Competition Shooter, it would be really difficult to take that step back, just for the sake of nostalgia........jackie
 
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The one difference about this game is if you are there to shoot and have a fun time or there to try and win something. You can have all the pretty stuff in the world but if it won't shoot a good agg, who cares what it looks like.

Joe
 
I think one of the main issues with a so called "blueprinted" Rem 700 action is no one except the machinist knows what was done to the action and how true it really is. When you have a custom most of us assume that it is true because it came from the factory that way. It just makes more sense to buy a custom unless possibly you can do your own accurizing work on a Rem 700 and you don't place much value on your time. I own both and I feel they are equally accurate (note the guns w/ Rem 700 actions are sleeved or barrel blocked). The smoothness of running a custom action bolt is not normally attained with a Rem 700 however. So to your question where are these re-worked Rem 700 actions? They could be anywhere. How do you know unless maybe the bolt is sleeved and then again how do you know what else was done to the action and by whom?
 
rem 700 actions

I still use a few of my sleeved rifles. They are very competitive.
a 700 hart sleeved action in 6x47 improved. It shoots right along with my ppc. I like the change from time to time. I also have a few just like it in 222
fun rifles and hard to beat at 100 yds. It makes me go back and take a good look at where i am today with a ppc. They are great to see how far we have gone and where we are going. I also notice that a few benchrest gun smith have copied the design and just tightened the specs up. it's a great design that the military builds sniper rifle on. Of course that's a different story.
 
J. Pendergraft said:
I think one of the main issues with a so called "blueprinted" Rem 700 action is no one except the machinist knows what was done to the action and how true it really is. When you have a custom most of us assume that it is true because it came from the factory that way. It just makes more sense to buy a custom unless possibly you can do your own accurizing work on a Rem 700 and you don't place much value on your time. I own both and I feel they are equally accurate (note the guns w/ Rem 700 actions are sleeved or barrel blocked). The smoothness of running a custom action bolt is not normally attained with a Rem 700 however. So to your question where are these re-worked Rem 700 actions? They could be anywhere. How do you know unless maybe the bolt is sleeved and then again how do you know what else was done to the action and by whom?
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Great post! We have no choice, but to take their word for it! If there's money involved, bull.... walks!
 
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