Rem 700 barrel recommendations

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DixonFive0

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Greetings,

I purchased a used Remington 700 BDL 7mm Rem mag on Gunbroker several months ago. I'm making this one of my primary hunting rifles, and I've modified it a little. I have no idea how many rounds the previous owner had through it, but it was fairly clean upon arrival.

I replaced the worn Bell & Carlson it came with, and installed an AG Composites Carbon All Terrain stock. I also replaced the factory trigger with a Timney Hunter Elite set @ 2.8lbs. I've tried various factory offerings from Accubonds, Sciroccos, Federal trophy bonded tip, and Federal Terminal Ascent. From a lead sled the best I can average is around 1.5" moa @ 100yrds.

It still has the Remington factory 24" magnum sporter contour barrel. I'm thinking of just going all the way with blueprinting the action, and replacing the barrel. This will mostly be a tree stand hunting rifle with occasional bench shooting for fun. What recommendations can you give on barrels? What company is known for a good value barrel that won't cost a fortune? Also any recommendations on twist rate?

Sorry for the lengthy post! Thanks.
 
Bartlein, Broughton, Hawk Hill, Shilen, and Krieger have all shot under 1/2 MOA for me but none were in 7 mag. For a hunting rifle you may want to look at a carbon fiber setup. You could also do a remage setup but the action threads would need to remain factory.

Twist rate is going to depend on the weight of the bullet you want to use.
 
troy fairweather said:
Mcgowen for stainless, Shaw for cm, but I'm cheap what's your budget, do you reload?
Click to expand...

I don't reload, but I may in the future. Obviously there's better accuracy potential with reloads. I dont have a barrel vise or go/no go gauges so I was planning on letting a smith do it. So I would say no more than $400 for the barrel itself.
 
DixonFive0 said:
I don't reload, but I may in the future. Obviously there's better accuracy potential with reloads. I dont have a barrel vise or go/no go gauges so I was planning on letting a smith do it. So I would say no more than $400 for the barrel itself.
Click to expand...
If you get it blueprinted you can't use the remage barrels, these use a barrel but like a savage and you can change the barrel from you cough if you want. For a deer rifle it probably a waste to blueprint.
 
I use a lot of Shaw barrels, and generally they are accurate and cost effective. If going stainless I'd do like Troy says and step up to McGowan. After that your kinda out of your 400 dollar range except for a few smaller suppliers, ebay etc. I think the last shilen I ordered ran 500 landed.
 
Bartlein’s at $355 for stainless blanks. Won’t be threaded (barrel nut) like you could get from McGowen, but if you’re having the smith install, it’s a killer barrel.

For a 7RM, I’d be tempted to spend extra and buy one of the new 400ModBB steel, just for the extra barrel life.
 
Well before you go and get your action blueprinted/trued consider the cost vs picking up a quality custom action. Not saying your Remington is “bad” but depending on what the machine work and labor to correct it costs it might not be worth your time and money.

Also if you’re going to put a new barrel on and you’re not heavily invested in 7mm Remington this is also the time to consider a caliber change if desired.

On barrels there’s a ton of choices that are good quality, what’s your budget?
 
It’s a HUNTING rifle!
Match the bullet to the game, confirm zero, GO HUNT!
My Rem Mod7 in 7mm08, on a good day is 1.5moa for 3-shots. However, it’s a lucky rifle and has taken an assortment of deer, pigs and elk.
I’d try some Remington Corlokts before condemning the barrel. Likewise, it often takes 200 or so rounds for a barrel to settle down.
Also, try some Federal Premium with Sierra GameKings. In my experience, many good rifles aren’t happy with some of the uber premium trick bullets.
 
ALL of my rifles (except a few rim fire) have Krieger Barrels on them. Bartlein on my Bench Rest Rim Fires. I own my own reamers too so any time I need to replace one the chamber will be identical.

Bob
 
I recommend that you do a little more research before you spend a lot of money on a re-barrel. Find someone who can use a bore-scope to determine the existing barrel's condition. I've used JB bore paste to restore a rifle or two. If you still have the original stock that came with it try it again & see if it improves or accuracy the same. As mentioned, reloading normally can improve your accuracy.
 
I agree with "pert near" above, but would add, "If not already pillar-bedded - do it yourself. It's not all that hard and can improve accuracy in most magnum rifles." However, a magnum rifle that shoots 1.5 MOA isn't going to be improved much. Don't fail to remember that every shot in a 1.5 MOA group will only be .75 MOA from center of the intended impact point. If that's not going to be good enough, maybe you should think about getting a bit closer to the animal, but it won't make a bit of difference to the animal!!!
 
Thanks for the replies. I have shot it from sandbags and the best I could average is around 2 MOA @ 100 yrds. I decided to move to the sled to take most of the human error out, and that brought it to 1.5 MOA. Call me crazy, but I believe with gun should be capable of better accuracy especially with the Timney trigger, and AG stock (which is pillar bedded). Shoot, my bone stock Browning AB3 .270 Win ($499 new) groups better.

I know its primarily a hunting rifle, but I plan to taking this gun out west on a couple hunts. The opportunity to take a 400 yrd shot may present it self.

I may have misspoke on the "blueprinting the action". I meant just having the receiver squared and trued if I'm going to do a barrel. I figure I could leave it the way it is and try some different ammo, but I know it would bother me. Guess its just my personality! My goal is to have it ready by the end of November. Does anyone have anymore recommendations for places with reasonable lead times?

Thanks for the input!
 
Although you were asking about barrels, I agree with the two above posts, the first things to do with a Remington 700 is, bed the action and float the barrel followed by replacing the trigger. At to that reloading to come up with the most accurate load and with all these things I have yet to see a Remington 700 that will not shoot sub 1 moa groups.

Make sure you know what twist your current barrel is and use the correct weight projectiles appropriate to the twist.

Bob
 
DixonFive0 said:
Thanks for the replies. I have shot it from sandbags and the best I could average is around 2 MOA @ 100 yrds. I decided to move to the sled to take most of the human error out, and that brought it to 1.5 MOA. Call me crazy, but I believe with gun should be capable of better accuracy especially with the Timney trigger, and AG stock (which is pillar bedded). Shoot, my bone stock Browning AB3 .270 Win ($499 new) groups better.

I know its primarily a hunting rifle, but I plan to taking this gun out west on a couple hunts. The opportunity to take a 400 yrd shot may present it self.

I may have misspoke on the "blueprinting the action". I meant just having the receiver squared and trued if I'm going to do a barrel. I figure I could leave it the way it is and try some different ammo, but I know it would bother me. Guess its just my personality! My goal is to have it ready by the end of November. Does anyone have anymore recommendations for places with reasonable lead times?

Thanks for the input!
Click to expand...
Are you staying 7mag, or other factory round? If so maybe look for a new Remington take off, and have a local smith fit it. In doing so they can set the shoulder back, and give it a clean chamber, which has been where I've seen the most issues with modern Remington barrels.
The other fast option is to buy an in stock remage barrel, if you can find one, and do the install yourself.

I do most of my own rebarrels, so usually just order short chambered barrels. Those are pretty quick normally, but take more effort to install.
 
Picher said:
However, a magnum rifle that shoots 1.5 MOA isn't going to be improved much. Don't fail to remember that every shot in a 1.5 MOA group will only be .75 MOA from center of the intended impact point
Click to expand...

DixonFive0 said:
I know its primarily a hunting rifle, but I plan to taking this gun out west on a couple hunts. The opportunity to take a 400 yrd shot may present it self
Click to expand...

Confidence in your tools is important. Besides, it's yours and any updates or modifications are perfectly good if they make you happy.

That said, in the real world a sub 2 moa rifle is honestly more than sufficient for deer, antelope, and elk out to 400 yards. A bullet landing within 4 inches up/down/sideways of where you have the crosshairs will be just as effective as one hitting within 1 inch (a 1/2 moa rifle).
 
When about 15yrs, I hunted varmints with a scoped, .22LR semi-auto Stevens and don't remember missing many at distances to 50 yards or so, killing hundreds of rats, red squirrels, etc.. Except for sighting it in, I'd never shot a group with it, but had all the confidence in the world I could kill a gnat off the back of a running squirrel with it. That all ended when I took it to a range and fired a 4-inch+/- group at 50 yards or so. That wonderful killing-machine was GONE that afternoon and I had a very accurate 39A Marlin Mountie with a receiver sight to hunt with. What was the difference? CONFIDENCE! I probably didn't kill a higher percentage of critters, but expected to every time I squeezed the trigger.
 
I've considered switching calibers to a 300 win mag. I found a new factory Remington 700 BDL take off in 300 win mag. The seller is asking $200. Is that a deal or no?
 
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