What to do with Rem 700 short action .308

[johnnylawn]

Newbie here - I have been reading some of the great feedback people have been getting on this site. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for me.

Here is my issue:

I have a Rem 700. in .308 with the 5r mil spec. Sent it out for threading for a suppressor. I started loading my own subsonic ammo. Needless to say the learning curve caught up real quick. Stuck bullet and stuck cleaning rod. I sent the barrel to Rock Creek. It is in the best hands that I can think of. Chances are the barrel might not be salvageable.

Now, I have another Rem 700 in .308 that I can shoot suppressed.

Here is the question.

What should I do with the action????? I want to build off of it instead of putting a new barrel for .308 on it.

I want versatility, accuracy and suppression on a budget.

Any Ideas?????

Thank you all!!

 

[johnnylawn]

I forgot - I want to go to a large caliber - .338 lap or norma. Maybe bigger. Just need to know what to do to the action

 

[Chawbaccer]

Since you mention budget, I heartily suggest you stick with the 308 parent case.

 

[Pokyman]

When you say 308 I assume you mean 308 Winchester. The action is most likely too short for the cartridges you are considering rebarreling to. The bolt face will need to be modified as well.

 

[johnnylawn]

yes, its a .308 win short action. I have been searching high and low. So far i know i can install a different extractor on the bolt to handle the larger case dia. The trick is a barrel to thread on the action and any work that needs to be done to the action.

At this point i am up for any suggestions. The cheap route is to re-barrel and have a coke and a smile. But, who wants to do that???

 

[Sunray]

"...to handle the larger case dia..." Hi. It's not the case diameter that is the issue. It's the length. A .338 Lapua is too long for the receiver(there's no lengthening a receiver). OAL is 3.66". The case alone is 729 thou longer than a .308 case. A .338 Win is 485 longer. Its OAL is 3.340". A .308 case is 2.015". OAL is 2.800".
You certainly won't be shooting .338 Lapua on a budget either. Loaded ammo starts around $75 per 20 for Hornady ammo.
If you want a .338, you can have a .338 Federal or .338 Marlin Express, but none of the magnums. They won't cycle through the receiver and won't fit in the mag.

 

[Mike Sr.]

Actually what you shood do is just get the whole thing back from Rock and send that R5 junk to me....you got junk...a stuck bullet in the barrel...a freaking horrible mess...might take me all of 5 minutes to get it out..well okay maybe 7 minutes between ice-tea-sips or jack-daniel-swallows....I am sure I can scrap out that HS stock...and that action all that sub-sonic gas ...horrible, horrible .... yup send it to me...I might be able to bring it back to like...


come on you mean you could not spend time on the net finding info how to remove a bullet from a barrel...really....!!!!!

Johnny just FUNN'N YA...R5 are highly sought after, doubt you did any damage to the rifle...

 

[788Ham]

johnnylawn,

I truly mean nothing disrespectful, but if "the learning curve" on reloading for a .308 caught up with you in a hurry, bullet stuck in barrel, what to do with an action needing a barrel....... I think your learning curve has already caught you big time! So, my honest opinion? If you're having those problems with a .308, you'd best take a year or so and have someone help you with your understanding of reloading, before you even give the .338 Lapua another glance, you may have slipped by with the .308, but those .338's are a very unforgiving SOB when you have an UH OH! Reloading isn't hard to do, IF you understand what you're doing, removing fingers, hands and eyes are a one shot deal, no puns intended, they won't grow back, get someone to help you, you won't regret it!

 

[wsm]

The action of your 700 short action cannot be modified to handle a magnum round. Too short and not strong enough. Be safe and shoot a lot.

 

[johnnylawn]

Thank you all for the comments!! without getting pushed to another forum, ill touch on the loading briefly. The big issue and the one that caused this mess is the neck sizing. I read that new brass does need to be sized, i also read it does not. So i did not resize it. I have lapua brass and 200gr flat base lapua bullets. Some of the cases were slightly larger. When i would seat the bullet, i could almost pull it out with my fingers. I read that crimping was not a good idea. So, i figured - this is the way is should be..... or not.

My experimentation involved my stupidity and some useful net research. Now that I am sizing all brass before, i am eliminating one issue. I have tried using both magnum rifle primers and reg rifle primers. Didnt see a difference. I also loaded rounds with the standard flash hole and rounds with a 9/64 hole. No real difference. My current load is lapua brass, cci 250 primer, 200gr. lapua boolit and 11gr. of trail boss. 200 rounds through my 700 aac and not a bad one in the bunch.

Got to get to work, ill reply to the the action info in a bit.

thanks,

 

[johnnylawn]

Ok - I guess what i am trying to figure out is --- What is the largest caliber i can safely run subsonic through my short action? As much as I would love to buy a new custom barreled action, i hate to turn down the opportunity to do something new and fun.

I was shooting my REM 700 AAC last night with my HVT. I got to say, the sound of a suppressed subsonic .30 cal bullet is one of the more satisfying sounds ever.

 

[johnnylawn]

.510 whisper???

 

[johnnylawn]

Ok - I think my eyes are about to pop out of my head. Based on wiki I have learned that the short action is only good for o.a.l. under 2.8"

That leaves me to choose from the WSM line as well as a couple others. Largest caliber is .358 win and .325wsm - Now i will look through brass avail, bullet weights, dies and subsonic load data.

Any thoughts o either of the two over .308?

 

[Pokyman]

I did a job for a guy that wanted to exactly what you are talking about. Subsonic suppressed 30 caliber. Built him a 300 whisper. He lives in an area that has midsized acreages. Neighbors about 1/8 mile apart. Loves shooting magpies out of his back window. Neighbors are non the wiser. He says magpies get all kinda upset when a buddy tips over in a puff of feathers.

 

[johnnylawn]

@ pokyman - that is the same situation i am in.

So to chamber up to a larger caliber I would need the new barrel and reamer for the action? Right?

 

[blanket]

johnylawn, the 300 whisper is a 221 fireball necked up to 30 cal. Your sa remington would need a different bolt with a small bolt face, the feed lips in your action is too wide to feed the smaller case and the bolt would need to be one made for the fireball as the eject plunger is rotated to eject properly in a 700. You will need a lathe, reamer, barrel blank and a whole lot of knowledge to do it right. Send it off to the gunsmith of your choice. Also why do you want to go to the bigger boomers when you are shooting goat loads suppressed? Russ

 

[johnnylawn]

@ blanket -- thanks for the info. I have the equipment to do the work - just no experience. I guess my reasoning for this thread starts with the fact that I have 2 700's in .308. Now that one of them is most likely a parts gun I figured on taking advantage of the situation and having another suppressed weapon.

Overall i thought that going bigger would make any kind of modifications a little easier.

thank you!!!

 

[natman]

1) Any decent gunsmith should be able to remove a stuck bullet without damaging the barrel, unless it was buggered up by attempts to remove it before he got it.

2) No offense intended, but your ambitions are bigger than your experience. This is a normal stage in learning a new field, but you seem to have an especially strong case. I would suggest that you learn to consistently reload 308 cartridges successfully before you try to tackle 308=>300 WSM conversions.

3) If you do end up needing a new barrel and don't want a 308, a cartridge based on the 308 case would be the easiest by far. Think 243, 260, 7mm-08, 338 Fed, 358 Win. Let a gunsmith install the new barrel.

 

[Jim K]

I have never used Trail Boss, but it is a fast burning pistol powder. In a rifle 11 grains behind a 200 grain bullet is almost a guarantee of a stuck bullet as the powder is fully burned and the gas cooled long before the bullet reaches the muzzle.

Also, if you go to a .338, the can will have to be changed and (assuming you are in the US) I am not sure what the regulations are on that; you would certainly lose the advantage of having a suppressor you can swap from one rifle to another.

As others have said, I think there is a lot of learning needed here.

Jim

 

[Clark]

I usually do not work on Rem700 actions [I like M98s and Ruger #1s], but
last year I put together some parts:
1) Rem700 22-250 for $180 at gunshow, took off the stock and barrel.
2) Krieger 6mmBRX 1 in 8" twist barrel with Harrell brake $100 at a forum
3) Choate Ultimate Sniper stock $40 at gun show
4) IOR 2.5x10x42, illuminated, second focal plane, MP-8 Dot reticule, 1/2
mil hatch, 1/2 moa target turrets $600 on a forum
5) IOR tactical steel rings came with the scope
6) Harris swivel bi-pod mounted on the rifle, lying around my house
7) B-Square Weaver Bubble Bore Level $14 SWFA
8) EGW Picatinny Rail 1 Piece Scope Mount $40 SWFA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
$374 rifle + $600 scope = $974 in materials

I took it to the range once, and shot 5 groups with it.

 

[johnnylawn]

Thanks all - I got all of the load data off of some different threads and pages. The recommendations for the powder are very similar across the board. Trailboss seems to be the most popular followed by red dot. The fast burn and high volume is the key to a safe load. My issue was I was seating too deep and the cases I was using needed to be neck sized before loading. 90% of the lapua brass (new) was fine but there were some that would allow the bullet to be pushed back into the brass with light pressure from my thumb. Now that I have corrected that issue, i have loaded anywhere from 9.5 - 12 grains and run them just fine. Once i get a clear day I can set my chrony up and get some additional data.

Can wise, I would submit a form 1 and just build one or look at the ones on the market for the .338 cal.

I will be letting a gunsmith do the work. I just want to know what i am talking about as well as get some ideas on some possible builds. From the sound of things, there is not much of a difference in subsonic ballistics and energy in my choices of caliber change. If I cant go bigger Ill go home and stick with the .308.

Time to start saving my dough for a custom build.

Thanks for all of the info!!!