Rem 700 for under $1000

General Firearms Precision Rifle - Bolt Gun
1

Rem 700 under $1000. Please critique this build

From Bud’s Gun Shop:
Remington 700 SPS Tactical .308 - $578.00
Bushnell Elite 3200 10x - $182.00
Harris 6"-9" Bipod- $65.00

From Optics Planet:
EGW picatinny base 20MOA - $39.99
Burris Xtreme Tactical 1" rings - $57.99

Grand total of $922.28 before shipping, and also figure in $25 for ffl transfer.
Please let me know what you would change. Keep in mind that this will be my first precision rifle and I will more than likely upgrade it as years go by. My only concern is the scope rings i picked out. I like that they have 6 screws per ring as opposed to 2 or 4, but I don’t know if it would actually gain me anything over a $30 pair of rings. Also, I like the idea of getting the 1/4" low mount set, but am not sure if that will elevate the Bushnell enough to clear the barrel, so I put the 1/2" rise set in the cart. Please post your thoughts and let me know if I’m going in the right direction.

2

The Remington for under $600 is a good price. I assume, for that price, that it does not come with the H and S stock. The H and S stock is worth at least a $100 more. But the best thing about the Remington 700 is that it is easy to upgrade, as it has the most aftermarket stuff of any rifle out there other than the AR 15.

The rings are fine. Overkill, probably. Burris Z rings with only two screws would also be fine. :wink:

I would look for a better scope. SWFA has a Super Sniper scope for $300. Or you might get a Leupold M8 (in either 6x or 10x) for under $250, used.

http://swfa.com/
http://swfa.com/SWFA-SS-10x42-Tactical-Riflescope-P499.aspx

The FN PBR (at CDNN) is in the same price category for a 20" rifle, and is also good.

I would recommend at least a 20" barrel in .308. For a “precision” rifle, the 18" barrel short changes the cartridge.

3

The SPS is a great rifle. I upgraded mine with a take off HS 700 stock from a Rem 700 PSS. If you look there are some good deals to be found with take off stocks, I paid $50 for mine from a LE dealer. They go online for about $150-250 depending upon condition. I just called my LE dealer and asked and they said they just upgraded a gun to a McMillan stock, might be worth a shot.

My SPS shoots great, with Fed GMM or Win Supreme 1/2 MOA is pretty common if I do my part, my best 3 shot group measured .339 center to center at 100 yards. 1 MOA is generally no problem what so ever. I was hitting a 3" steel at 300 yards pretty easily.

The factory Houge stock is very flexy though so I would look to upgrade pretty fast. Mine flexed enough on the rest to change POA/POI as much as a couple of inches at 100 yards.

I am very happy with mine for the price, another guy has an issued LTR and my rifle shoots just as good if not better than his. I sold an older PSS with a 26" barrel after I got my SPS as the SPS shot better and was lighter weight.

I think you’ll like it.
Dave

4

You could also try for a few more coin to get a custom build from Mel Ewing over at Sniper central. He has a few package deals with upgrades available in different categories.

https://www.snipercentral.com/rementrypack.phtml

5

Go with a variable power scope, no power setting is ideal for every scenario, you’ll be constantly compromising by going with a fixed 10x. A 3200 Tactical 5-15x40 is a better plan while sticking relatively close to your posted budget.

-matt

6

Thank you for the input. I read somewhere in this section that a good thing to do on a budget gun is to, at first, put a basic fixed 10x Bushnell on it until I can afford a better one since it is a relatively inexpensive decent quality scope. I think that if I dropped the extra $100 for a 5-15x, I would be straying away from the idea of keeping it as simple and affordable as possible until I can swing the better quality gear. What is the lowest price you have found on that 5-15x, by the way?

7

Everyone’s needs/wants vary…for me it’s worth a little more money to get a variable. Then a new stock.

8

Any thoughts on the new Redfield Revolution 4-12x40?

9

I’d look at leupold or vortex for optics. A used leupy can be had on the cheap.

10

Leopold recently bought Redfield and is now producing scopes under their name in the Unites States. Their scopes supposedly meet th shock and waterproofing standards that Leupold scopes are held to. Redfields are also covered by the same “forever” warranty as Leupolds, and for servicing, they are sent to Leupold, which tells me they are made in the same facility. The 4-12x40 runs $219 at my local shop. Just thinkin out loud here…

11

Make sure you get the swivel model Harris with the notched legs. It’s well worth the extra $.

12

I thought about which bipod to get too. I think I will go with a 9-13 rather than the 6-9 like i had origionally planned. I have no bipod experience, but was planning on getting the plain jane model with no swivel. I dont know how much i would even utilize a swivel bipod. This gun will be an all around long range gun, so I will be going after white tails and cyotes with it ( I know, overkill for the cyotes). Would it help me that much?

13

What’s the intended use of the rifle?

What distance will you shoot at the most?

What kind of shooting will you do (fixed distances, varying but known distances, unknown distances, hunting, prone, bench, etc…)?

14

Well, I would heve to say a little bit of everything. A long range gun is really the only thing I am missing from my stable. I guess you could say that when I buy a gun, it fills as many roles as it possibly can. This rifle will see alot of paper punching range time, quite a bit of cyote hunting, maybe some white-tail action if I ever decide to venture out of Indiana on a hunt. I will definately zero for 100 yards, but it would be cool to be able to go out to 600-800 yards as well, even though I currently lack the skill level to achieve anything at those ranges anyhow. The scope I am looking at is here: http://www.redfield.com/riflescopes/
I am looking at the 4-12x40mm. I think that this scope will offer me plenty of magnification settings for anything I will need to do. If you scroll to the bottom of that page, you will see the reticle options. I am leaning towards the accu-range reticle with the holdover reference points. My source can get it to me for about $185. Is there anything else in the $200-$250 range that I need to look at?

15

Well - if you plan on shooting unknown distances, I’d look at something with a mil-based or MOA-based reticle and learn to range-find (this is, in my opinion, the most fun you can have with a long-range rifle).

I use my mil-based reticle for hold-overs/wind as well as measuring/range-finding (I’m still sort of new to long-range shooting).

If you just need to dope the rifle to a specific ammo and you’ll always know the distance you’re shooting at before you shoot it (like on a range with marked positions), then just calculate come-ups in 1/4 MOA (or .1 MIL depending on your knobs), and you can get away with whatever reticle you want.

If you’re re-zeroing and just making groups at a specific distance like some of the bench-rest shooters, then again, you don’t need to worry about reticle.

This means you can get into a much cheaper optic than one with a precision reticle and you’ll save some cash there, but the joys of long-range shooting (for me anyways) are in estimating how far the target is and then putting your guess to the test by firing at it.

If you need a Mil-based reticle, I think the Bushnell Elite 3200 is an awesome scope. The SWFA SS series is also good for that price-range and the Millet TRS-1 is another choice (Vortex Optics seem to have a lot of good things said about them).

I’m running a TRS-1 on my son’s rifle and a Falcon Menace on the other (little higher than the others, but not an expensive scope by any means).

The reason I run cheaper optics is because when I was optic shopping, my oldest son said he wanted a bolt-gun - so I spent the money I was going to spend on an upgraded stock/optic on his gun - it still gets the job done and I’ve run into no issues with them other than the clarity on the Millet is less than that of the Falcon (the Falcon is amazingly bright and clear).

FYI, 800yds is hard to spot your holes on paper with a 22x NightForce (I shot a class with a couple of folks who had 22x NF scopes and they started having difficulty seeing the .308-sized holes at about 800yds), so you’ll probably be looking at a spotting scope in your future if you want to shoot those distances.

16

May I suggest that you consider spending your money on Good Glass and rings.

In the world a bipod is really only a “kick stand” for a rifle. There’s so much stuff out there to purchase. It’s difficult to muddle thru. What’s cool, what’s practical.

In the end what’s really important is the rifle, the glass and the bullets.

Best of luck on your new purchase.

D Williams

17

I know, it would be nice to put some high end glass on this rifle, but it is simply not in the cards right now. I am only 19 and am just wanting something to toy with for now, nothing serious. I am thinking that the Redfield should suit me fine until I can afford something fancier a little further down the road, in which case the scope I decide to put on this rifle now will find it’s way on top of my 10/22. My main concern is accumulating the guns that I will have practical uses for throughout my lifetime. This one should be the icing on the cake, as I already have pretty much everything else a fella would ever really need. And as far as the bipod, I really would get alot of use out of it.

18

One last piece of advice on optics - I detest ballistic-drop reticles made by most companies (Nikon, Redfield, Leupold, etc…) since they’re almost useless unless you’ve found a load in that particular caliber that matches exactly with the reticle (and your rifle’s factory barrel/chamber happens to like that particular load).

If you want a reticle for hold-overs, then I’d get something based on Mils or MOA and do the groundwork to use it, otherwise, you’ll get little use out of the ballist-drop-calculating-bullet-drop reticles out there (IMHO).

19

Hi guys, new guy here.

I have just been working on a .308 myself. I picked up a Remington Model 700 SPS with the intentions of modifying it. The first thing I did was to shorten the 24" Barrel to 20". From everything I have been reading there isn’t enough velocity loss from 24" to 20" with the .308. It also made a much better handling rifle.

I then free floated the factory systhetic stock (I may eventually either have it pillar / glass bedded or replace it). For Rings and Bases I used Steel Leupold Cross Slot Weaver Style Scope Bases and Warne Steel Cross Slot Scope Rings. This made for a very sturdy mount.

Lastly I mounted up a 3x9x40mm Bushnell Elite 3200 Firefly Riflescope as it is what I had sitting here on the shelf.

This will be my light tactical rifle when working as well as seeing duty hunting Whitetail Deer.

I just finished breaking in the barrel, and have been shooting Winchester Super X 150gr. Power Point Ammo. So far my 100 yard groups are 1 1/2" from the bench. I haven’t started working up a handload as yet but hope to get to it in the next few weeks.

One thing I might add is Remington’s new X Mark Pro Trigger. I have been shooting / tinkering with Rifles for more years than I care to count. This new Remington has to have the smoothest, crispest out of the box trigger I have every fired. I simply backed the pull weight adjustment screw out 2 1/2 turns and ended up with a super crisp, super smooth 3 pound trigger. If all of the Remington X Mark Pro Triggers are like this one Remington done good with this new trigger.

If there is anything to complain about it would be when backing out the pull weight screw it protrudes down away from the upper curve of the trigger and I feel the screw when I pull the trigger. Haven’t quite figured out how I am going to fix that at this point, but for such a great feeling trigger I will figure something out.

Larry

PS even with what I paid for the Bushnell Elite 3200 Firefly Riflescope, shortening and recrowning the barrel I have less than $1000.00 invested.

20

Welcome Larry!

If I were to get an X-mark, it would have to feel pretty close to what I want, due to that issue.

IMHO removing stock material to float the barrel won’t help much without stiffening the stock, which is easily done with good epoxy. I used Marine Tex and some bits of aluminum and carbon fiber arrow shaft.