New to rifles

[Sonney]

I keep hearing about free floating barrels. I have been looking at the Remington 700 SPS Varmint and the first thing people do is to change the stock to be able to free float the action. Now the 700 Police has Alumn. bedding and the barrel floats. How important is it to float the barrel I would like to shoot in the 400 plus range with some degree of accuracy maybe 2 to 3 inch groups. Really don't know if this would be a good rifle to buy or not I am in the range of 600 to 800 dollars for the weapon.

Sonney

 

[Leo]

The aluminum bedding block stocks made life a lot easier for people who like accurate rifles. A good rigid stock with the aluminum block is all you need as long as the stock is shaped right for your use and fits you. The next quality is the barrel. Most of the better Remington barrels are at least good. I have a bull barrel .308 that really struggles to get under 1 MOA no matter how good the quality of ammo. These days a quality barrel like a douglas ultra match or a HART barrel easily bumps the 1/2 MOA range.

If you look at Varmint hunter magazine, they regularly have a contest of box stock rifles. Even though the action design of the Savage is not as refined as the Remington, the Savage take almost every spot in the top 10 winners. Savage has an edge on barrel precision at least in varmint calibers.

If you feel like building a precision repeater, get a top grade HART barrel blank and have a good gunsmith fit it to a Model 70 action. Fit a Davies trigger to it and install in an H&S precision (aluminum block) stock. Top grade barrel, on a superior action with a top grade trigger in a great stock, is a great combination.

 

[Leo]

Floating the barrel from the stock has been successful for years. Pretty much any rifle barrel can be floated from a factory stock with little more than sandpaper and time. I recommend it.

 

[dhamby]

The aluminum bedding block stocks made lif a lot easier for people who like accurate rifles. A good rigid stock with the aluminum block is all you need as long as the stock is shaped right for your use and fits you. The next quality is the barrel. Most of the better Remington barrels are at least good. I have a bull barrel .308 that really struggles to get under 1 MOA no matter how good the quality of ammo. These days a quality barrel like a douglas ultra match or a HART barrel easily bumps the 1/2 MOA range.

If you look at Varmint hunter magazine, they regularly have a contest of box stock rifles. Even though the action design of the Savage is not as refined as the Remington, the Savage take almost every spot in the top 10 winners. Savage has an edge on barrel precision at least in varmint calibers.

If you feel like building a precision repeater, get a top grade HART barrel blank and have a good gunsmith fit it to a Model 70 action. Fit a Davies trigger to it and install in an H&S precision (aluminum block) stock. Top grade barrel, on a superior action with a top grade trigger in a great stock, is a great combination.

That's strange because my .308 700 varmint in the factory stock shoots just half MOA at 200 yrds

Personally I am more than happy with my 700. Like stated already you can free float the factory varmint stock with some sandpaper and a little time. If you decide to upgrade the stock there are plenty of options for decent prices( ie: bell and carsons, H&S). I have heard some complaints about the xmark PRO trigger. The standard xmark trigger is adjustable as well just no without removing the action and barrel from the stock. Personally I like the standard over the pro version.

 

[Leo]

dhamby, I didn't say that they are all bad. Production rifle barrels are a crap shoot. Some are great, some are ok, some are poor. Glad you got a good one.

 

[Manatee]

The best bang for the buck for a new shooter is a Savage. Excellent barrels, good trigger, unbelievably good price.

The Rem 700P also has an excellent barrel, but you're going to pay for it.

There is no cheap way to get to great accuracy. A good rifle will get you half way there. But, practice...a lot of practice...is necessary.