Remington 700 BDL experience?

[saboteur]

Hello,
I am looking for opinions on the Remington 700 BDL in .308. I am leaning towards this model of 700 because of the iron sights. Any comments?

 

[texagun]

I have 3 of them....2 of recent purchase. One in .270, one in .243 and one in .223. All have been excellent rifles...they all have Leupold scopes mounted on them and after a 15 minute trigger job (very easy to do, just be sure you do all the safety checks afterwards) they will all shoot 1 m.o.a. if I will do my part. I did use the iron sights prior to mounting the scopes, and they worked great. I sighted them in intitially at 50 yards to put them on the paper, then fine-tuned them at 100 yards. I like the iron sights but at my age the scopes are so much easier and accurate to shoot.

 

[shell70634]

I just picked up 700 BDL in 35 Whelen. First I've owned. Really enjoy the gun and looking forward to hunting with it next fall. I have many other bolt guns and this one is as good as any.

 

[Lonestar.45]

I got a new .270 BDL in 1987. Shoots great, looks great, it's my go-to deer rifle. I wouldn't trade or sell it for anything really. If you're the type that beats the heck out of their rifle, you might want something a little less refined or go with synthetic, but if you take care of your rifle I'd say go for the BDL. Mine looks nearly as good as the day I bought it, with just a few minor scratches here and there. It's held up well. Mainly, though, the fact that it can put 3 rounds touching or almost touching at 100 yds is it's main attribute.

 

[dakotasin]

i have a dozen or so 700 bdl's. very happy w/ them.

as a side note, the first thing i do w/ all of them is yank the open sights - even before cleaning or trigger work.

 

[CrazyIrishman]

I bought a new 700 BDL in 30-06 back in 1981. The scope was a Leupold Vari-X II 3 x 9. I didn't do anything to it like trigger work but I did reload for it. I don't recall the exact powder used but the brass was made by Federal and the bullets were Sierra 168 grain HPBT's . The accuracy was outstanding to say the least especially for a production rifle that wasn't tweaked, right from the box.

I've never shot a 700 in 308 but I doubt that you'll be unhappy with it! If you do your part the rifle won't let you down!

 

[BusMaster007]

I prefer the Remington 700 rifles, enjoy the ones I own, and have never had a failure of any kind with them.
Lately, I've yanked the sights off of my 2 BDL's and my 7400...in 7mm Rem.Mag.; .375 ULTRA MAG; and .30-06 Carbine, respectively.
My 700 POLICE in .308 and the XP-100R in .223 don't have sights on them, but the XP has the holes for mounting them.

If you want open sights, you'll need to pick a QD mount of some kind and make sure the scope you use doesn't interfere with the rear sight or need to be mounted too high to clear it.
Avoid using 'see-thru' ringmounts...

Enjoy your new Remington 700!

 

[Sleeping Dog]

If you like a rifle model that doesn't have sights, it shouldn't be a real big job to install some iron sights (or have a smith do it). The irons that are on my wife's BDL are not my favorite. I prefer a rear-mounted aperture, like a M1 Garand or a rear-mounted notch like the FR8 Spanish Mauser.

Regards.

 

[BBstacker]

I have 2 BDL's 7MM mag and a 8MM mag.I also have a ADL in 243 and a model 7 in 7MM08. I love them all. BusMaster007 is right about see-thru mounts.

 

[OneFireStick]

I've had one in .300 Ultra for a few years now and I have no compaints. I changed the recoil pad and swapped out the J-lock on it. It shoots .5 when I do my part.

 

[saboteur]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm sold on the Remington 700 line for sure now. Sleeping Dog, I'll take your info into account re: adding sights to any of the variations before I make a final decision as to exactly which variation I choose.