Remington 783 Varmint

Not sure about exactly when the term started? Generally, beaver tail is a wider,flatter forend.... more for "rest" shooting than,"offhand".

I will say though,am building a R700 "varmint" 22-250 with a wide forend plastic factory stock.... fluted sendero barrel. 3 1/2 -10 scope. It's for cast bullets so ranges are inside 300...... and mostly <150yds. I scaled it right at 9 lbs. and holds pretty good offhand.So a beaver tail can be used off of the bench.

A rifle's balance on or off a rest is a very important function to the usability. Good luck with your project.

Once upon a time..... when we didn't have as many powders available.....

A longer barrel was needed to get velocity. That statement still holds water,just not quite as much as it used to. "If" you are handloading and trying to squeeze every bit of velocity out of high intensity rounds..... the extra barrel length can make sense.

Everyone loves to argue about the physics and strength of fluted vs non fluted barrels. What's missing is how it holds and balances.... in the hunting fields. I mainly shoot sporter barrels of the 24" variety. I can get the velocity, rig is carry'able.....and it balances well for fast shots on varmints.

Got a safe full of heavy,non fluted varmint barreled rigs. I'm 5'10... 200 lbs,retired builder so am in pretty decent shape but carrying anything much over 9.... maybe 10lbs? Heck give me a std R700 CDL stainless fluted.

Skinny barrels generally have a much smaller tuning "window"..... so if you aren't handloading,it's a challenge to find a super accurate factory load.....

Fat barrels are much easier to tune.

Next,and this is a little more complicated but the gist is..... given the same chambering, a "varmint" rig will have noticeably less torque than it's lighter,sporter brethren. This is not a small matter if you are shooting off a bench looking for a new world record group.

I had a blued fluted 700 VS in .22-250 w fixed 12X Leupold varmint.
It flipped at the shot, as much as my 700 ADL synth w 3-9X Leupold Tactical.
12X vs 9X.
It had the 26" bbl.............which I just thought a little too long for my tastes
Was hunting chucks, various farms, in and out of the Jeep.............bipods or field positions, nothing off a bench or pedestal (or tripod that seems to be the rage these days).
Reg old sporter for me (was a half inch rig at 100 w handloads). My Tupperware stock was stiffened, so had a little added weight to it, fwd............which I think helps and since a varminter (in role)........thought it fine.

Had a Contender Carbine for deer, it was super light and twitchy as hell.
Had to add weight to it (#8 shot in epoxy)......filled hollows of synth forend.
Made that gun easy to shoot well, maybe 8 oz total added.

Gun weight, balance and scope mount............many people don't really pay attention to all of that.
I don't get fighting one's rifle.
Like my rigs decent so I can make sure I'm doing my job right.

That 783 Varmint aint too bad.
Wonder who makes a decent trigger guard for that poor thing.

As for true varminting........... I hate the Ruger #1 V.
But gimme a B model...........26" bbl, but no real action length
That in a .243 win.
I blasted a lot of chucks with one. Pretty darn sweet.
Unofrtunately, no chucks around these days.
So my varminting is for yotes........and that means moving around a bunch.
700 in plastic stock gets the nod.