700 rem ...best book

[mike in co]

well i have started ordering parts for my 300 win mag long range rifle. this will be my first rem 700 bolt gun...
so who has the best gunsmithing book on the 700 ?

i plan on building a few more , so may want to do tooling rather than farm out work.

should i sleeve it ? benefit worth the cost ??

current plan is a heavy 1000(maybe some 600 for practice).

reccomended trigger ??


( dont get carried away...this is all on a budget...a very small budget)

thanks
mike
(managed to pick up full sets of headspace gages in 222 and 300 win magand a go in 30'06 at a gun show today)

 

[Niccolo M.]

Some thoughts

Greetings Mike,
The Remington 700 is sort of like a Small Block Chevy, the body of knowledge and parts to make one work are ubiquitous. Some of the best information is on this very Web Site. I’d go with a Jewell trigger and no sleeve.

The cost of the tooling to do one might give you pause though. I’d give Dave Kiff a call ant P.T.G. and talk to him about some of this tooling and the choices you have to true the action. I do both methods depending on the customer’s requirements and budget. If the receiver is to get a new bolt I align ream it and single point up the face, locking lug abutments and threads. If the Remington bolt is to be used I offer either single point or piloted reaming facing and thread truing. We have bushing pairs in .0005 increments from .699 through .705 and have been using the G.T.R. action align reaming tooling that P.T.G. makes with the carbide inserts. The cost of the reamer is about $300 and the bushings are about $35 each. When we elected to offer the piloted tooling method we only had to purchase the Gen II Reamer and the .010 oversize tap, again around $300 for both. You can make an Action Jig or you can purchase one for around $200. The action bushings work either type of tooling.

We no longer sleeve and true Remington bolts, the cost of the labor is far greater than the cost of a installing a new oversize bolt from P.T.G. By the time you install either a one piece sleeve or a pair of two piece bushings, true up the bolt, bush the firing pin hole, remove the bolt handle and reinstall it to correct the timing you have spent more time and money that you can imagine. When it is pointed out just how generous the clearances are in a Remington action and bolt and the ramifications of the additional clearance most customers, something like 90% elect to replace bolt and have the action single pointed.

There are several good gunsmiths that have purchased advertizing from Wilbur for the support of this site and any one of them will do you an excellent job if you choose to have it done. G. T. R. tooling offers videos on how to do the work and the content is very good, but you must look past the video production methods that Greg used. The new DVDs might be better than the VHS tapes. By better I’m only referring to the slickness of the presentation, the information the Greg offers is very good in either format.

Good Luck,
Nic.

 

[crb]

Buy a custom action and spend all your time refining your bbl fitting skills.

 

[mike in co]

Buy a custom action and spend all your time refining your bbl fitting skills.

aint gonna happen......budget driven project...if i cannot do the work it probably does not happen.
i hear all the talk....but it does not fit my budget,nor my plan.
this is built as a rifle to participate, i do not have the time nor the money to become a top comptetor......just have some fun.

mike in co

 

[crb]

I hear you. I have a 40x and a 700 that I 'play' with. If you are going to make tooling then it's cost effective to 'accurize' them. If you are going to buy tooling you are wasting money for your personal use. I did convert the 40x's bolt to a Savage bolt head. The 700 action came with a PTG bolt [ a cobby PTG bolt ]. Neither has been or will be accurized beyond a good bbl and bedding job.

I bought "The Gunsmith Machinist" from Midway. Overall I think it is way overpriced for the actual content but I have picked up some valuable knowledge so I should not complain. He does have a very good model 700 accurizing chapter that gives different methods for accomplishing the various procedures. One method costs big money and the other method requires more skill with the lathe or mill.

 

[Gunner223]

THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO PRECISION RIFLE BARREL FITTING" By John L Hinnant.

Available from PS Mag.

Don

 

[frwillia]

aint gonna happen......budget driven project...if i cannot do the work it probably does not happen.
i hear all the talk....but it does not fit my budget,nor my plan.
this is built as a rifle to participate, i do not have the time nor the money to become a top comptetor......just have some fun.

mike in co

Your budget situation and mine are similar. I have a suitable lathe and mill, and the desire, but not a lot of money to spend (especially in this economy) but I want to "participate". So I set out to do what you are considering doing. And I'm building my own tooling. It really isn't that hard to do. If you already have a lathe and mill, most of it is just jigs and fixtures - the real precision comes in using it.

I started with little other than curiosity, a thirst for knowledge, and time on my hands (I'm a retired engineer).

My first effort was to search and browse about every thread I could find on chambering and action truing, and follow any leads they had that went to the sites of knowledgable gunsmiths. While I was doing that I cut and pasted discussions, pictures, and other information into a MS-WORD file ending up with over a hundred pages of pictures and discussion as a reference work.

I bought Richard Franklin's very informative and very reasonably priced video "Metal Working for a Rifle Smith", and John L. Hinnant's book "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Precision Rifle Barrel Fitting".

So far I've made a barrel vise,

a spider for the back end of the lathe spindle,

a spider chuck for the front end,

an adaptor to allow using a dial indicator to measure the tail stock ram travel,

two action truing sleeves, one is like the one Richard used in his video, the other is a full length one.

I did buy a .0001" resolution DTI and a holder for it.

I have yet to make the mandrel (which will be a piece of 1/2" drill rod) and bushings to use for aligning the receiver to the bolt bore. I'll also be making some Grizzly rods.

I will be buying the bushings, reamers, and headspace gages.

PM me with your e-mail and I can send you a pdf or word file of my home made reference document. I'll also happily share the dimensions of the sleeves and other tooling if you are interested.

Fitch