Always heard you have to have a 700 in your collection they are one of the best bolt guns you can get. I don't like remington products so I stayed away for them for years until recently I came across a good deal on a 700 SPS tactical bull barrel with hogue stock. I really like the feel of the gun and the stock, smooth action and decent trigger for factory. When it comes down to groups I'm not impressed , it may just be I have not found the right ammo but so far I can't get a group smaller than 1.25" @ 100 yards. Years ago I purchased a cheap Mossberg ATR for $260 and I got .75" groups out of it.

I had one and it was the most accurate gun I had. I did change the stock and trigger the first day. It shot 165-168 gr anything super super well with the 168 grain TAP being the best. The TAP bullet was an amax. I only shot federal and hornady

Welcome Remington owners, lack of consistency is the norm IMO. Some shoot great while others are just so-so. Most can be made to shoot well but it might take a new barrel/stock/trigger/action job... Or you might get lucky nd have one that shoots great right out of the box.

Just from my experience, your mileage may vary.

How were you shooting? The hogue stocks are notoriously flexible and can cause poor groups if allowed to touch the barrel.

^^^

Are you interested in selling? I may be in the market for one soon and I plan to change out stock, bottom metal.

Off bags on the bench like always.

I just set one up for a guy a few months ago and now I'm putting one together for his friend. Really good rifles. Sounds like you bought the 20" barrel model. It has a 1:12 twist that I prefer over their 1:10 twists. I have him shooting 155 grain Hornady A-max with 44 grains of IMR 4064. He is shooting 3/4" groups at 100 yards. I typically recommend getting the rifle and a bipod then the best glass they can afford. Next in the list is to update the stock. Bell & Carlson make some very nice drop-ins with aluminum bedding blocks. If you didn't set the rifle up yourself, it could be that the scope placement isn't adjusted for your particular hold and that will throw off your shots.

Have you tried different loads? They can be picky.

Tried about 6 different loads. I do reload but havnt started for rifle yet and will most likely just shoot factory loads out of it for a while. I don't need a .5" group so not interested in changing stock ,barrel and so on I just expected more out of a 700 out of the box. Thinking of trying the Ruger American or a savage and see if I have any better luck.

I have several Remington's and with some upgrading and tinkering they can be made to hang with a Savage.

The Ruger American is a piece of junk. One of my students showed up with it in 308. the rifle bore was bad and was scraping the cartridge. The bolt broke on the 3rd round as a piece flew off, round would not eject without being pushed out with a cleaning rod to free the bolt. Ruger has it now and is sending him a brand new rifle instead of fixing the old one. If you would like, I can get him to sell it to you cheap! Instead he bought a Remington 700 SPS tactical 20" barrel in 308 and I am setting it up for him over the next week. Try a factory round in the 155 grain weight or as close to 155 as you can find. The Remington would be much better than a Savage in my opinion.

Maybe he just got a bad Ruger, I spend a lot of time hanging around my buddy's gun shop and everyone he has sold one to comes back saying they love it.

Try a Tikka. I like mine. And I also like the various Ruger 77's and my Hawkeye. I no longer have any Remingtons.

Did you try federal gold medal match?

No I havnt but I will thank you.

Ditto with me. I had one, about 10-15yrs ago, and it shot way better than I did. I had a Lep 4 on it (most I ever paid for a scope), and I could shoot 1/2-3/4" inch, without breaking out much of a sweat. And I'm not the kind of guy that says that very often. Really, I rarely shot over an inch. Only gun I've owned that shot close to that, oddly enough was a 6mm BDL... that little gun was a fluke, but still averaged 1/4" more than my 700 sps. The model I had was supposed to be "LE Sniper kit", or something like that? Bought it at a gun show, with the glass on it. I'm pretty sure that it was the most accurate gun I've ever owned in my life, by ~1/4 MOA.

I no doubt now own several guns that are sub-MOA (hey, I own over 50), but I have to try to obtain that. With my rem 700 LE setup, it just seemed to happen.

Maybe you got a fluke?

One of the most accurate factory rigs I've ever fired was an SPS Tactical. That thing dropped 168 Nosler Custom Competition bullets (with Varget) into tiny little 5 shot clusters. STUPID accurate. Keep working on the loads.

This^^^ Mine is crazy accurate with 168 Fed. GMM, 168 TAP, and my handloads of 168 SMK over IMR4064.

love mine, shoots 168gr. great

I can get clover leafs all day long out of mine

The one I had was very accurate with 168gr match ammo.

Mine is bone stock. All I did was adjust the trigger pull.
Here is a 100 yard 3 shot group using factory 150gr. Winchester soft point ammo. It will scatter 180gr. to 2" groups.
Each square is on the target is 1/2".
I feel like the rifle is capable of better groups in the hands of a better shooter.
I'm very pleased with it.

I really like the Hogue stock so don't want to change it , is there anyway to stiffen it up so it doesn't flex and touch the barrel? I know some about glass bedding but don't think it would help on that but I may be wrong. I would like to put a bipod on it and don't want the stock to flex.

I have heard about the Hogue "problem" for years. Have had 2 of them and never had an issue, when installing one there was a little extra material along one side of the barrel channel but that was removed with a sharp pocket knife. it was very little material. As far as the stock flexing try it yourself. With it holding a Remington 700 in 350 Rem Mag I would expect it to flex under recoil. YMMV