Remington 700

[Ardbeg]

Hi

I am new to F/TR and am trying to work out what to purchase. Apologies if this has been covered previously.

Advice to date has been mostly to go 308. I am looking at a Remington 700 and would be interested on any views. There are a number of models. The "long range" seems good however interested in any thoughts on that or other variants.

Thanks in advance

[GSells]

Hi Mate , I'll be first to say that I don't know anything about ftr ( I did shoot one in a Comp just recently!). But I did do a blog ( as I do!) on developing my Rem 700 . It's under pictures of rifles under Rem 700 from memory!
Maybe something of interest in there .
I will say it's one of my favourite factory actions , with so many custom actions based on the Rem 700.
Regards Graham.

[Gyro]

Ardbeg, the answer to your question is absolutely NOT a short one so I'll try and be brief.

Leaving aside the choice of 308 vs 223 the biggest problem with starting out with an off-the-shelf Remmy 700 is it's not a rifle that's been designed as a 'Target' rifle. Going back a few years lots of shooters ran Remmy 700's as a target rifle, mostly because there didn't use to be so many Purpose-built target type actions around. The first two significant steps that were taken to remedy the shortcomings of the 700 action was to either sleeve the action ( glue it into a bored block ) to stiffen it up and provide a solid perfectly machined block that can now hold a long heavy barrel without a lot of "action flex" OR the gun was set up in a "Barrel Block" which is where the load of a heavy barrel is taken off the action by clamping the barrel in a big block just ahead of the action. Just some brief history.

I still reckon a shooter starting out in FTR would do well to go with a second hand target rifle. Even if it's an old one that's done a lot of work it could still come with a good custom barrel and have a good well shaped stock that will fit you better for shooting from a prone position. The second hand market normally has options here and get someone to have a look in the bore before buying with a bore scope if you need to check the barrels condition. This part of the rifle is VERY important to good accuracy plus it means you won't be stuck with having to continuously clean the bore to keep it shooting well.

And if you're going the 308 way there should be plenty of used TR rifles about that will come with a slow twist ( say 12 to 14 ) barrel that's perfect to run any of the 155 grain range of target bullets. Good luck.

[Tim N]

There is also the Tikka F class from CRM if you look under suppliers section.
Savage may have something suitable to start out too.
Best thing is get to your local club where you should find some friendly shooters willing to help out with advice and maybe a shot of their particular FTR rig.
Be warned it can be addictive

[jasmay]

Apart from savage, there is no main stream manufacturer on the market today that I would recommend anyone starting out buy.

I am also a big believer in buy once cry once.

As the guys have said, get out and talk to as many FTR shooters as you can, see what is commonly used and go from there.

[Jase PTRC]

I used a Rem 700 5r Mil-spec in .308 for my first year of shooting f class std and ftr, shot off a Harris bi-pod and the thing was stock as a rock but had quite impressive accuracy. Was it fun? yeah sure and i could use the rifle for hunting at the same time. However it didn't take long to realise the stock and trigger were limiting my success so they got changed out for better items, I then paid to have the stock bedded and some other things done to the rifle. So i spent $1700 on the rifle, $350 on the trigger, $800 on a stock and $300 in gunsmithing totalling $3150 for something that still had a factory barrel and ended up selling it for $2000 to build a dedicated rifle.

[Ardbeg]

Thanks everyone for the response. Very helpful and appreciated.

Will check out Savage, Tikka and second hand. The temptation is get something so I can just start. However understand better to get the advice and get it right - at least so far as to not be upgrading in twelve months.

Many thanks

[Ardbeg]

Thanks again everyone

Following on from the comments above the Savage 12 F/TR has now caught my eye.

https://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/12FTR

The 30" barrel seems like a plus and the reviews seem generally positive. Combined with a good scope (which I haven't started researching yet) this looks like it could be good option to see if I am any good. I can't blame it all on the equipment!

Cheers

[Gyro]

Cool.

I see it's a "solid bottom receiver" ie. it's a single shot and therefore the action doesn't have a magazine cutout, which compromises both the actions strength and the bedding area, especially with a long heavy barrel hanging off it.