Remington 700 - Sleeving Important?

A

AlanF

Guest
A dealer has recommended for my club the purchase of a rifle based on a trued and accurised Remington 700. It would be used in Open F-Class and chambered in 6BR. It needs to shoot 1/3MOA or better to be competitive on our 1/2MOA 10 rings in Australia.

Question: This action is not sleeved - should I prefer something else, or is sleeving something that wouldn't help much for this particular chambering?

Thanks for any advice.

Alan
 
Alan

Whether you sleeve an action or not depends on how much barrel you are going to hang off of the end. I would amagine you will want a 1-8 twist at least 27 inches long for the 6BR , (I asume you will be shooting the bigger bullets). While Remingtons will handle a 6.5 pound barrel with no problems, some like the added bedding and stability that a sleeve will offer. That also means a new stock, most sleeves have a square bottom, like a Panda footprint.
But in todays world of readilly available custom actions, many designed for F-Class, I can't see the logic in spending a lot of money on a Factory Action.
If the Rifle is already assembled, (sounds like someone wants to make a sale), then you will still have to lay out considerable cash for a new stock, the sleeve, and all of the labor involved.
That is, unless the Dealer is going to give you the Rifle. If it is used, how good is the barrel? What kind of trigger does it have??
This is probably not the answer you wanted. But the fact is, F-Class is developing into the same high tech game as Benchrest. Sure, when the class was concieved, that probably was not the intent. But any time competition is involved, a natural evolution of equipment will occur.
Soon, only the best will do. Go over to the 6mmbr.com web site and look at the picture gallery. That gives you an idea as to what you will be up against in F-Class.
While I do not know what your financial status is toward this purchase, I would think that if you are going to spend a lot of money, go with the best option. After all, sooner or later that is what you will end up doing if you get serious about shooting F-Class........jackie
 
Why not ask the dealer to demonstrate the rifle.
Also have the barrel borescoped for wear.
Chuck.
 
It has been my experience that it takes very little accurizing to get a 700 shooting 1/3 minute with a good barrel...
 
You'll get varying replies to this one. Some feel that the only reason to sleeve a 700 is if you're going to hang a heavy barrel on it -- say 7+pounds. Others feel the increased bedding area is helpful.

Winning 17-pound light guns have been built on an unsleeved, unblocked 700. Still, that's a little different than saying it isn't helpful. "Needed" or "necessary" don't allow for exceptions. "Prudent" is another story. You can certainly use a 700 with a 30" Palma contoured barrel & no sleeve, but that's less than 7 pounds for the barrel.

A rifle that will agg 1/3 MOA at 1,000 yards isn't all that easy to build -- or shoot; much harder than a .333 MOA 100 yard rifle. That would be 3.33 inches; a screamer at 1K is anything less than 4 inches. So it all kinda of depends on what your criteria are.
 
Many thanks for the replies. You have answered the question very well. I just needed to know why Remingtons are sleeved and to get a feel for how much difference it would make.

As some more background, my club successfully applied for a Govt. grant for sporting equipment to get a F-Class rifle to give new shooters a try. We already have a club .223 which only goes to about 700yds (has a longish twist so we run 69gn SMKs). So we need something to give them if we're shooting 800, 900 or 1000 on the particular day they drop in to have a look. BTW the little .223 is very accurate and of course very well mannered, and it has been responsible for bringing in several new members - they get instantly hooked! So that is why we think a 6BR will be good too - it has the same advantages.

The particular Rem 700 will have a new (Lawton) barrel. We can spec the barrel for twist, length and contour, and would probably have it optimised for 107 SMKs. Note that the class allows a 22 lb rifle weight, so we could if we wanted have a very heavy barrel. However, because this needs to be pleasant to handle (including for women and kids), we are probably more likely to build it to approx LG weight. It has what is described as a Remington Match Trigger (is there such a thing?), and has been "trued", and is pillar bedded in a laminated tracker type stock.

So we are prepared to accept some compromise against accuracy, and from what you are saying, it sounds like an unsleeved action with a lighter barrel will still go very well, as the 6BRs do!

Alan
 
AlanF

I like your Club involvement (women and kids).

Shoot well
Peter
 
The 700 trigger is a pretty good one for a factory rifle, and a skilled smith can take it down to 1.5 to 2 pounds. But it is still a two-lever trigger; to get into the sub-pound region you need a three-lever trigger.

As for weight, as F-class rifles are shot off a front rest & rear sandbag, I shouldn't thing weigh that big an issue. Harder will be a stock that will accommodate a largish full-grown man to a smallish kid. It has been a long time since I shot off my belly, and I guess some of the newer stocks can adjust that much, but balance too is important, so if such a butt is heavy, there needs to be some corresponding weight out front (but it doesn't have to be in the barrel).
 
There was match trigger on the 40XBR

It was a 3oz 3 lever and worked really well on my first BR rifle.

If it is one of these triggers, you will be very happy with it.

Rob Carnell
Sydney, Australia
 
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