anybody had one of these rifles before

mereside

Well-Known Member
hi guys i am on the look out for a reasonably cheap 300 win mag and found this on gun trader its a remington 700 bdl lux has anybody used a remington 700 and what are they like
the reason i ask is i currently use a parker and hale in .270 and also a bsa stutzen and both have a really nice feel shoot very accurate and have good build qaulity so i want something similar without a big price tag .atb wayne

 
For some reason you will not get a lot of Remington 700 fans on this site, but personally I like them. I have owned amongst other makes probably 6 or 7 and every one was very accurate. Never had a mechanical failure from any of them nor has my mate who has owned about the same number as well. Granted, several of ours went on to be the basis for custom jobs but as a basic rifle I really do rate them.

As for that particular calibre, no idea...
 
I have a Remington 700 in .243 i use for Foxing , The rifle is well built however i am having some accuracy issues i believe to be down to the action fitting in the stock. The stock is not great in my opinion and the rifle would benefit from a new stock , however to to financial constraints i will be having a tinker with the current stock myself to improve it. It is not a floated barrel and is currently touching on side of the stock near the muzzle end which may be causing the issues. This may not be the same for all models but i have heard from a few people that they are generally better when the stock has been upgraded. Unfortunately i have no experience of the .300win mag.
 
I had a Rem700 until very recently (SPS Varmint in .308). For the money their cracking. Lovely trigger, like snapping a glass rod with your finger, and with the right ammo would shoot grapes at 100m all day long, or if you prefer, hit 10 inch v-bulls at 1000 yards. Original SPS varmint stocks are made of tupperware, but replace it with something more suitable (I had an AICS) and you've got a tack driver for a few hundred quid. Only sold it 'cos it was too heavy for mooching about the woods with.
As jamross above, I know nowt about 300Win Mags, though. Sorry.
 
The 300 Win mag is quite a good cartridge and quite versatile too but for some reason a lot of Firearms Licensing officers do not like the word magnum or so it seems :rolleyes:. Some do not like the short neck on the .300 Win Mag but I cannot honestly say it caused me any problems when I was re-loading for mine however i traded mine to swing a deal some 10 years ago and have not played with one since.

As for the Remington 700 .............................................. I am one who would not give one house room. Not even as a gift. I do not like the way they are made and they feel damned awful to me.
 
i wouldn't be to worried about the make. but more so... if the barrel is in good condition for that price.
 
thanks guys for the info i have just been offered a Sako L61 Finnbear so seriously thinking about that .brithunter i havnt held one before it just looked in really good condition with spare stock i am on a budget and just didnt want to make a mistake and not be able to sell it on i am loving my parker hale and bsa stutzen and wont part with those but finding one of those in 300 win mag would be nigh on impossible i think,atb wayne
 
thanks guys for the info i have just been offered a Sako L61 Finnbear so seriously thinking about that .brithunter i havnt held one before it just looked in really good condition with spare stock i am on a budget and just didnt want to make a mistake and not be able to sell it on i am loving my parker hale and bsa stutzen and wont part with those but finding one of those in 300 win mag would be nigh on impossible i think,atb wayne
Don't think about it too long!!!
 
Hmmm I am wondering why it needs a spare stock :-| and why priced to sell quick :-| something smells here on that one methinks.
 
thanks guys for the info i have just been offered a Sako L61 Finnbear so seriously thinking about that .brithunter i havnt held one before it just looked in really good condition with spare stock i am on a budget and just didnt want to make a mistake and not be able to sell it on i am loving my parker hale and bsa stutzen and wont part with those but finding one of those in 300 win mag would be nigh on impossible i think,atb wayne

I am certain that the first centrefire rifle I used was the Sako Finnbear in .270. It was actually given to me by a friend at the time on an unrestricted and indefinite loan. Only payment he wanted was that I shot foxes on his shoot! I shot a lot of stuff with it before buying other rifles a few years later. It was in superb condition for its age and so well built. Had an old Pecar post sight in 6x42 on it.

Thanks for reminding me...
 
My first was also a Finnbear .270...I regret getting rid of it, especially as I was only given about £200 in part exchange by Litts:rolleyes:. A very well made and reliable rifle, which I hope is still being put to good use.
 
My Remington 700 is a cracking rifle.
Are there better rifles out there? Yeah, sure there are!

Mine started as a Remington 700 sps, in .243, it has since had a new barrel, stock and trigger.

Before the transformation took place it shot ok with factory ammo, just ok.

A friend, who is also a rifle smith, developed a load for it and educated me on reloading and it shot very very well, sub .75moa.
With the new barrel, stock and trigger it shoots extremely well, best group size to date is 0.171" @ 100yds


Remmy's are ok, with a bit of work they can become good. They are a good rifle to build on but if it's a factory, out of the box, accurate rifle you require there are better options out there.

Regards
TotalNovice
 
remingtons are like triggers broom, once you have changed the barrel the stock the trigger and the action they are ok, would i buy one? no
would i keep one if someone gave me one? no
 
Have all those who speak against Remington had a problem with one they have owned? Or is the opinion based on what somebody once heard somebody else saying about them?

I am curious as to why they get such bad press on here. As I said, between myself and a friend we have owned about a dozen between us. Some were used in standard form with only trigger work done. Others had an Arnold Jewell fitted only. Never a glitch from any and there is no way the several Sako's, Krico's and the Mannlicher Luxus I have owned over the years shot any better!!! In Fact I ditched the Luxus after a year. Bought on a whim when young and did not know any better.
 
Maybe some remingtons are better than others???
I have a T3 a Sako and a remington 700.
I am thinking of selling the T3 and the Sako.
The Sako is a full blown custom and very accurate but the Sako action has a few mistakes which make
it not as user friendly in the field as the Remington.
T3 has a noisy safety especially when going to safe, 223 can't be single fed and therefore useless for target shoots.

I worked the bolt on my remmy 243 somewhat and it is smoother than the worked bolt on the sako or T3,
fixed the feeding problem via AICS magazine, replaced the x mark trigger with an older remmy factory trigger
which is perfect for stalking. Obviously replaced the plastic sps stock. Chopped sporter barrel to 20" and
managed 1" groups at 300yds.

I don't cuddle my rifles and shoot quite a bit, 2 sika stags last weekend with the sako, 4 fox last night with the T3.

edi
 
Maybe some remingtons are better than others???
I have a T3 a Sako and a remington 700.
I am thinking of selling the T3 and the Sako.
The Sako is a full blown custom and very accurate but the Sako action has a few mistakes which make
it not as user friendly in the field as the Remington.
T3 has a noisy safety especially when going to safe, 223 can't be single fed and therefore useless for target shoots.

I worked the bolt on my remmy 243 somewhat and it is smoother than the worked bolt on the sako or T3,
fixed the feeding problem via AICS magazine, replaced the x mark trigger with an older remmy factory trigger
which is perfect for stalking. Obviously replaced the plastic sps stock. Chopped sporter barrel to 20" and
managed 1" groups at 300yds.

I don't cuddle my rifles and shoot quite a bit, 2 sika stags last weekend with the sako, 4 fox last night with the T3.

edi

So edi what your saying that is you throw away most of the Remington and pay out for bit that are made properly then the 700 Rem makes a good rifle :rolleyes: most of us do not want to spend a fortune replacing bits that should really not need replacing if they were made/designed correctly in the first place. I have shot several Remington 700's and although they were fair to good in grouping all of them felt damned awful and most of them rough in bolt operation.

I decided than which was several decades ago now not to bother with the gas pipe rifle and have ones of better design and manufacture. What you decide to do with your money is of course you choice but please don't try and tell us that we all need to spend extra money replacing bits that should really not need replacing.

It's also rather telling don't you think that the Remington service agent has huge barrel full of new or nearly new Remington take off barrels :-| now if they were were OK then why did they require changing in the first place? I contacted said agent before knowing he was the official Remington agent about a bedding problem and all he was interested in really was selling me on of those Remington take off barrels which he would fit to my rifle then ruin the stock by routing it out to have a huge gap around the barrel and that was over the phone he had not even seen the rifle yet according to him because it was a Parker-Hale it would need one of his crappy take off Remington barrels. Even when I pointed out that the rifle had fired less than 50 rounds from being taken out of the box new he was still saying it would need the tube replaced.

I acquired the rifle from York Guns NIB but it had been stored somewhere damp the protective Youngs 303 saved the metal work but the stock got some mildew on it. These were a special order it seems as it's chambered in 7.92mm.

Oh yes I have never yet had to work on any trigger, bolt or mechanical aspect on a BSA or Parker-Hale even though many of them are decades old. I did have to play with the trigger adjustments on the Midland 2100 to get a decent safe weight of pull as some idiot previously had messed with it so it was only ounces in weight and way below it's design specs and so actually unsafe. Some have required bedding as over the years the wood has compressed or possibly shrunk a little the only one which required a new barrel was though wear.

Congratulations on the beasties ..................................... at the moment I cannot shoot at all but that's not my CHOICE at all. Normally I would be shooting more that quite a bit and stalking/hunting as often as I could.
 
I think the major problem with Remington is they've diluted their brand. Bit like when Merc made the A class. Says Merc on the bonnet and steering wheel, but it just ain't quite there. The high end rem's are serious bits of kit but tarred by the much cheaper SPS range. I had a tactical .223 in an HS Precision stock with a std trigger and it shot very, very well.

Anyway, the BDL lux is actually a well made piece of kit. New, they command the same sort of price as a Tikka.
The jewelled bolts are quite smooth and the metal to wood fit is quite good. As with all yank rifles, they struggle in the trigger department as they come with a lawyer firmly attached.

Mate has one in .243. Got the trigger replaced and it is a dream really.

Personally, I think there are better choices out there but you are unlikely to break a 700 action in your lifetime.
 
Brit,
1)Customers chose Remington world wide not Parker Hale!
2)If you go into a custom rifle workshop you'll find take off barrels from
any manufacturer. Plenty new T3 barrels on the net too, not
only Howa or Remington. Just depends on what action one chooses for
a custom rifle. Plenty take off stocks lying around too, maybe a few more from
Remington because there are more of them out there. Just about all plastic
injection moulded stocks are not really fit for purpose. Remmy, tikka, howa, steyr etc.

Maybe I was just lucky with my remington, I have it in the same stock as my sako
and can therefore compare the handling well. Sako L579 (~1969) vs 2009 sps stainless.
the sps has a much lighter up stroke on the bolt, with the sako one must grab the bolt
fairly hard vs one finger with remmy. Safety is very slippery sucker on the sako which
is not great in our wet climate, remmy has a larger lever which is a bit quieter to. Also easier
to see/feel in which position it actually is.
Ejection, sako very patchy sometimes needs two whacks back. Remmy 100% reliable.
Generally the Sako action has an integrated recoil lug and is a better design than the remmy
but one doesn't really notice it when out stalking.
One thing I'm also a bit worried about is the steel quality of older rifles. Quality standards
are higher nowadays.

If you want good service from a rifle manufacturer....Blaser might be the best bet.
I wouldn't want one though.

In the last year I'm noticing that for affordable custom builds the trend seems to be
going strong towards Tikka T3 and Remington 700. Remmy clone actions are on the increase too.

You are right that especially a remmy sps is quite awfull out of the box, but it is cheap and
with little work one can make a very useable rifle out of it, better than some others.

By the way I also took the barrel off my Remmy and replaced it with a border barrel, not because
of accuracy, just because I need a heavy barreled remmy for a project.
My old barrel will be going on another rifle soon, it shot under 1/2" and only has 400 rounds done.

Get your self sorted and out stalking again. Sika rut is in full swing here.
edi
 
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