I will bite on this one-
A good friend had a M700 300 win mag, the long range model, it was purchased right before they folded up for a while. It had 300 or so rounds through it, and he kept complaining of his brass looking funny when it was extracted. I finally looked at it, and it was extremely hard to get the bolt open, and did in fact have some odd lines when extracted. I scoped it, and it had a .015" or so deep tool mark spiraling in the chamber. The bolt timing is not great on it either. I assisted him in putting a Mc Gowan remage barrel on it, and the extraction problem went away.

My 700 7mm Rem Mag-
This POS never would shoot under 2 MOA. I bought this in the late 90's. I put it up years ago and just last month took it apart and am using the action for a 300 PRC build. So, I decided to check this thing out and true it up. When I went to put the mandrel in to dial the action in on the lathe, the thing was twisted bad enough I couldn't run the mandrel through both bushings. I ended up reaming the bolt raceway, which then required sleeving the bolt (which I had not planned on doing), and cleaned up the lugs and face. It only had one lug making contact, and the face where the barrel meets the action was right at .003" from being square. I ended up cutting receiver threads .015" larger in order to get them right. Now, the thing is good to go, but there is $500.00 worth of work done to it in order to get it there. Sound like good value and quality?

My 700 VSSF 22-250
The rifle shoots great, and always has. The problem with this one was the poorly bedded stock that HS Precision provided Remington. I have a 300 Ultra with the same stock and it came with the same issue. I glassed both of them in, and they improved from a 1 MOA rifle to a .5 MOA rifle.

On the contrary, I have a 700 VLS in 7-08 and a 700 BDL in 25-06 that have been superb. Bottom line is, you have a 50/50 shot at getting a good one.

Pops will be getting a 20" CTR in the near future when his can comes in. The CTR is the way to go.

My brother was a well known bench rest competitor. He was also a barrel cutter for the BR crowd with a huge lathe in the garage. He bought only top of the line barrels. He told me that only about 60% of the barrel blanks were acceptable for competitive BR shooting.

Over the years I guess I've been lucky never had an issue with a Remington 700.

I have owned 30+ Remington 700’s from various years the old ones pre 90’s were really good, the 90’s slumped a bit and the regular sps line they had prior to bankruptcy were pretty sloppy.

The 5r series is a whole other story, I have never seen one not shoot exceptionally well. I have 2 of them one in 308 and one in 300 win mag and both of them will shoot one hole for 5 shots at 100 yards.

The things many people complain about Remington is things that truly don’t matter much like primary extraction being off, in my opinion thats just something to pry an extra 200 out of your wallet that the gun smiths made up.

Almost every custom action is based off a Remington 700.

I don’t care for the tika action only being a long action with a spacer block making it a short. I also don’t care for the tika trigger as much as say a Jewell or a trigger tech.

The Begara is an excellent rifle that gives room to build off of, the HMR is perfect for the hunter that wants to occasionally shoot long range.

You can ride in my SXS any day. Bought my first Rem 700 in 1969 and as you have had several over the years without issue.

Bone stock CTR in .260 with the 20 inch barrel and a Nightforce SHV. Shooting at 1000 yards with some handloads that I worked up for a different rifle. Had zero dope for this rifle and load. Started at 700, then went to 900, then to 1000 just guessing on adjustments. First round hit at 1000 was the one barely on and my second shot was just above it. I dialed over some and put those 3 just below the bull. Switched to the other .260 that the loads were developed for and put those 3 that are just right of the bull. Bull is about 3 inches for reference. So yes, I'd say that my CTR performs up to expectations.





A view of the target through the spotting scope.

Very nice.

That is a very persuasive argument for the CTR… Thanks for sharing.

CTR is 100% the answer to this question. Mine has shot lights out for over 1000 rounds. I've never seen one that wouldn't shoot.

Ok everybody. Tikka CTR it is. Thank you for all the advice and recommendations.

Now, how about optics? Not going to spend several grand on a scope. Let’s put the ceiling on this on at $1200.

SS 5-20X HD
Burris XTR II 4-20X
Night Force SHV F-1 4-20X

Find a used NXS.

Second focal plane.

Gotta be at maximum magnification for the reticle to be true.

Might have a Zeiss 6-24, NICE choice of rifles !!

https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/us/hunting/riflescopes/conquest-v4/conquest-v4-6-24x50.html