Remington 700 not grouping

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Remington 700 not grouping

Post by AndyZ » 23 Jun 2018, 6:05 pm

I recently bought a Remington 700 SPS synthetic in .308 with a Terminator T2 brake. I’ve spent a little time on the range with varying ammo and I can’t seem to get a decent group (3 inch) 2 will be close and the third a flyer. In the same session my Tikka .223 will easily group 3 rounds almost touching so I assume not my shooting. The question I have is the stock does not appear to be free floating. I can’t get a bank note barely an inch under the barrel without binding. Do you think this could be the issue. Cheers
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Howa 1500 GRS 6.5mm CM
Remington 700 .308 Win
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by marksman » 23 Jun 2018, 7:01 pm

yes :thumbsup:

IMHO get a better stock

the problem with these stocks is they are the budget of the budget
they are made to touch at the fore end, if you wanted to float your barrel using this stock
you first have to bed the action, then stiffen the forend with fibre glass bog and then you can relive the barrel channel floating the barrel
it is still a stock with flex after doing this work but your groups should shrink and at least be consistant
a boyd's would be a better fix IMHO :drinks:

the early tikka synthetics were the same
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by eddahenry » 23 Jun 2018, 7:21 pm

yep ditch the stock
i did it on my rem and it made a huge difference
actually have a magpul 700 if you are interested lol just steeped up to a KRG chassis lol
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by Wm.Traynor » 23 Jun 2018, 7:45 pm

I had a 700 with a synthetic stock which I bedded and floated myself. It would put 3 shots under 1 MOA. I forget now, the exact order in which I went about the various procedures.
To give you an idea of somewhere to start, check the fit of action to stock. The tang of the action should be neither above or below the synthetic stock. In other words; flush with the stock :) No, I'm not tryin' ta Goldilocks ya mate :thumbsup:
The front receiver ring should sit so that the uppermost part of the stock is level with the centre of the bore. Remove the bolt and look at the chamber/leade and the stock in that area. The top of the stock [the beginning of the fore end] either side of the chamber, should be level with the centre of the bore. Adjustments might have to be made to the stock material to give effect to this condition.
When satisfied, begin work on the clearance in the barrel channel. More than a bank note's thickness will be required, especially Under the barrel. Work from action to fore end tip, leaving the tip til last. You might want to try leaving a "banknote" of clearance at the top sides of the fore end. Do not bolt the action to the stock during this process. Simply clamp the barrel in a well padded vice a few inches back from the muzzle and fit the stock to the metal from underneath. The action-area of the stock could be relieved at the same time as the barrel channel, so that there is only contact at the tang and fore end tip.
Then bed the action. When the bedding compound is cured, relieve stock material at the fore end tip to the desired degree, clean away excess compound and test.
Good luck mate and Go The Wallabies :thumbsup: :D
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by SCJ429 » 23 Jun 2018, 11:06 pm

Remington barrels can be a bit hit and miss. If you got a rough one it may never shoot. You will have to spend some money at your gunsmith to sort it out. Or two tikkas in the gunsafe would fix the problem.
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by Rod_outbak » 24 Jun 2018, 10:31 am

I re-sighted my (2012) Rem 700 VSF .308 yesterday, as I have a target drum currently installed exactly 100 metres from the front door.
[Joys of living on a property in the middle of nowhere...]
Mine is the 26" varmint barrel, and the rifle was placed into an MDT TAC-21 chassis just after I bought it.
Scope is a Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x50.
Using 150gn Ballistic Tip reloads at present.

Sighting it in reminded me how much I love this rifle. Once I'd dialed it in, I was choosing which corner of the 1" square bullseye that I placed my shot...

I had a lot of similar troubles to what the OP describes with my Tikka T3 Hunter(7mm-08), when I bought it in 2014. We couldnt get the damn thing to group very well until we swapped out the stock. My mate drove himself crazy trying to dial in a load for it, but couldnt get a group below 2.5 inches. The original stock was even bedded by a gunsmith for us, but no joy.
As luck would have it, my mate ended up with a spare Varmint (synthetic) stock for his T3, as he had bought a MacMillan.
We also swapped out the crappy Weaver 6x38 scope at the time, but I keep coming back to the stock being the main issue.
Once we dropped it into a better stock, it now shoots well under MOA. One of the nicest hunting rifles I've ever used, and reaches out & touches stuff with gusto.
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by sungazer » 24 Jun 2018, 10:57 am

Swap out the stock dont wast time and money trying to fix it. Boyds are just OK in my book. You could do better getting a Hatchers stock in real wood and finishing it yourself. Or buy a second hand wood stock that someone has taken off a rifle to fit a chassis. If you like Chassis the MDT have a few nice ones my favorite is the LSS-XL gen 2 is even better. then you can fit a magpul butt to your liking.
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by AndyZ » 24 Jun 2018, 11:28 am

Thanks for your replies. Think starting with the stock will be my starting point. I like the look of those Boyds. I also like the Southfort Labs Carbon stocks ( or just trade on a Sako 85 lol)
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Howa 1500 GRS 6.5mm CM
Remington 700 .308 Win
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by marksman » 24 Jun 2018, 11:37 am

the sako 85 is a good option :drinks:
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by eddahenry » 24 Jun 2018, 11:43 am

Mate if you shoot at waneroo , i would be happy to bring it and a torque wrench out and stick it in the Magpul will straight up tell you if its the barrel or stock
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by Stix » 24 Jun 2018, 12:36 pm

Rod_outbak wrote:I re-sighted my (2012) Rem 700 VSF .308 yesterday, as I have a target drum currently installed exactly 100 metres from the front door.
[Joys of living on a property in the middle of nowhere...]
Mine is the 26" varmint barrel, and the rifle was placed into an MDT TAC-21 chassis just after I bought it.
Scope is a Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x50.
Using 150gn Ballistic Tip reloads at present.

Sighting it in reminded me how much I love this rifle. Once I'd dialed it in, I was choosing which corner of the 1" square bullseye that I placed my shot...

I had a lot of similar troubles to what the OP describes with my Tikka T3 Hunter(7mm-08), when I bought it in 2014. We couldnt get the damn thing to group very well until we swapped out the stock. My mate drove himself crazy trying to dial in a load for it, but couldnt get a group below 2.5 inches. The original stock was even bedded by a gunsmith for us, but no joy.
As luck would have it, my mate ended up with a spare Varmint (synthetic) stock for his T3, as he had bought a MacMillan.
We also swapped out the crappy Weaver 6x38 scope at the time, but I keep coming back to the stock being the main issue.
Once we dropped it into a better stock, it now shoots well under MOA. One of the nicest hunting rifles I've ever used, and reaches out & touches stuff with gusto.


Hi rod...
With regard to your tikka-can i ask what you specifically did with the tikka varmint stock you dropped your sporter barrel into...?
& was the new/replacement stock a timber or synth...?

I just ask as i have trouble getting tight groups with 2 of mine, so im considering the bedding option, but i dont want to give up how light they are...!
The man who knows everything, doesnt really know everything...he's just stopped learning...
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by Rod_outbak » 24 Jun 2018, 4:08 pm

Stix,

The rifle as I bought it new(2014) was a Tikka T3 Hunter Stainless Fluted.

Original stock was a timber stock, and that was the one we tried bedding with slight success. It did reduce the groupings slightly, but at that point, the rifle was something of a disappointment.

Tried one of those Boyd's composite thumbhole stocks, but we found that stock would need some work to get it any better.
The Boyd's seemed to have something wrong with the front mounting; when we torqued it down properly, we found it was deforming the mag-well. We tried inserting some washers to stop the binding issue, but we ran out of ideas.

To my recollection, we hadn't been able to get the groups any better than 27mm from either stock at this stage, despite plenty of literature that suggested we should be getting close to half that.

At that stage, my mate had just dropped his T3 .260 into a new MacMillan stock, and gave me his varmint synthetic stock.
[Not the super-varmint; mine doesn't have adjustable cheek-piece rest on the stock]

Pretty sure the rifle now shoots roughly 20mm groups all day long, and thats with my crap shooting skills.

We didn't have to do anything further to the rifle; just torqued the stock down to the recommended values.
We did swap out the Weaver 6x38 fixed power for a Nightforce SHV 5-20x56, but given my mate was using his own target scope when developing the loads, I doubt the scope was the issue.

Thats about all I can remember.
Sorry; not overly helpful.
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by SCJ429 » 24 Jun 2018, 4:53 pm

Stix, the T3 sometimes has issues with the free floating recoil lug. It should be tight is the lug well, if you can pull yours out easily it might be the problem. A company in Australia were selling Titanium recoil lugs that were slightly oversize, HSS perhaps. I got one of these and bingo, it shoot 1/4 Moa. I have a spare Super Varmint stock which you could try if you were a bit closer.
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by AndyZ » 26 Jun 2018, 10:43 am

eddahenry wrote:Mate if you shoot at waneroo , i would be happy to bring it and a torque wrench out and stick it in the Magpul will straight up tell you if its the barrel or stock

Thank for the offer Ed I do shoot at Wanneroo, I have decided to put a new stock on her anyway, after a bit of research I've fallen in love with the sexy looking full Carbon Stock from Southfort Labs. After seeing it I couldn't help myself lol
Tikka T3X .223 Rem
Howa 1500 GRS 6.5mm CM
Remington 700 .308 Win
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by Jon79 » 26 Jun 2018, 11:04 am

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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by Elmer » 26 Jun 2018, 1:34 pm

AndyZ wrote:I recently bought a Remington 700 SPS synthetic in .308 with a Terminator T2 brake. I’ve spent a little time on the range with varying ammo and I can’t seem to get a decent group (3 inch) 2 will be close and the third a flyer. In the same session my Tikka .223 will easily group 3 rounds almost touching so I assume not my shooting. The question I have is the stock does not appear to be free floating. I can’t get a bank note barely an inch under the barrel without binding. Do you think this could be the issue. Cheers

Thats why I buy sakos, I cant be f....d spending extra $ just to make them shoot well...a gunsmith I know is always recrowning Rems. :roll:
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by SCJ429 » 26 Jun 2018, 5:22 pm

I was hoping he would buy a Sako TRG.

Good thing about Remingtons is there are always plenty of new stocks to put them into. You may have to replace the trigger, barrel, stock, true the action and bed it but you get a good shooting rifle at the end.
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by sungazer » 26 Jun 2018, 5:24 pm

Dont forget bushing the bolt to stop primer cratering.
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Re: Remington 700 not grouping

Post by straightshooter » 28 Jun 2018, 8:15 am

Reading this and many other Rem700 threads over the years I am reminded of a description from the 80's of how you prepare a Chevvy small block motor for serious drag racing.
1. Put the complete motor on an engine stand with a garbage bin nearby.
2. Remove all the parts from the block and throw them in the bin.
3. Replace the block with an after market block.
4. Rebuild the motor with all after market parts.

My apologies to Chevvy lovers and Rem700 lovers.
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