Author Topic: VERY fussy Rem 700 CDL 243 (Read 2322 times)

Muddly · « **on:** February 07, 2011, 05:25:49 AM »

Fussiest rifle I've ever owned! So far it likes 2 bullets ( 95 gr Nosler balistic tip and 95 gr Hornady SST) and 2 powders ( IMR 4064 and RL 19)With other powders and bullets I'm lucky to keep 3 under 2 inches at 100.I had to float the barrel as it had ALOT of up pressure not only from the typical Remington pressure pad, but also from the forend tip. That little bit of work also has her groups overlapping quite nicely. I am looking to upgrade her abit. I got the rifle in a trade with a very dear friend who lusted over my 1980 production 760 .35 Rem. ( he's been very good to me over the years and I couldn't say no). One upgrade I'd like to do is replace the crappy painted potmetal triggerguard/floorplate unit with one of the aftermarket steel ones. I really hate aluminum on a fine rifle. If any of you have done this , what unit did you use? Problems? I also need to adjust the trigger.4 1/2lbs is alittle much for a light rifle. This is my first 243 and my first time loading for a cartridge as high pressured. I found it much easier to develop accurate loads for various 30-30's ,303's,45-70's and 35 Remingtons. Its an expensive , but enjoyable challenge. BTW she's a 2004 model( XY ) with the regular 700 trigger.

deerandduck · « **Reply #1 on:** February 08, 2011, 04:06:18 AM »

I'm no expert on Rems but you stated that you floated the barrel. Did you either pillar bed or full bed the action? Been told that if you remove the upfront pressure points and do not do the bedding, then usually the problems get worse. I've been doing a simple pillar bed and it works pretty good.
On the trigger, there is a website, do a search for "ernie the gunsmith". He sells replacement trigger springs and they work very good to lighten a trigger. He also has some good advice on tweeking guns.
Best of luck,
Deerandduck

Muddly · « **Reply #2 on:** February 08, 2011, 06:44:24 AM »

Just floated the barrel for now. The action inletig is actuall very well done but pillaring it is always an option. one interesting phenominon about small bores; a 1 inch groups looks larger from a 243 than it does from a 30 cal.Its taking some getting used to!I really like the low recoil and the reported terminal performance of the 243 is giving me happy thoughts too. i hope to have her set up and purring along by the time deer season rolls around.

Swampman · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2011, 07:11:22 AM »

My friend has a Savage .243 Varmint rifle is very fussy. It's the only fussy .243 I've ever seen. Free floating a Remington 700 usually results in a rifle that won't group.

I've never seen a fussy Remington 700.

pastorp · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09, 2011, 06:49:18 AM »

Muddly, Swampy wants you to post a picture of your Remington 700. He's never seen one like it. Fussy and all.

Regards,

Swampman · « **Reply #5 on:** February 09, 2011, 09:27:13 AM »

That's because they don't exist.

pastorp · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2011, 11:37:14 AM »

So Swampy, are you saying muddily is telling a lie?

Regards,

Swampman · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2011, 12:03:33 PM »

Not at all.......when a Remington has been modified, anything can happen.

diggler1833 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 10, 2011, 12:39:27 AM »

To the OP:

Just before the "Did not" and "Did too" arguement above, you mentioned the action inletting being done well and the possibility of "pillaring" it as an option.

While it may look good, I'm about 99.9999% sure that the inletting does not exactly match the contours of your action perfectly, therefore pillar bedding and glass bedding would probably only help. Apparently your rifle at least shoots a couple of bullets and powders well enough to assume that there is no other work that needs to be done to bring accuracy to an acceptable level.

Remington 700 triggers are very easy to work on. If it is an older 700 trigger like I'm assuming, you have three screws, one on the back of the trigger (sear engagement), and two on the front (overtravel on top, trigger pull underneath). Quite literally you can get to acceptable big game trigger pull weight of around 3lbs by doing nothing more than just backing out the trigger pull screw a few turns and leaving the other screws alone. Going much less than that requires adjusting the sear engagement and overtravel screws as well. It is a 15-20 minute process to do everything and can run you upwards of $40 or more to have a gunsmith do it, or you can learn to do it yourself. Just make sure you check for safety/reliability of the trigger after you adjust it, and use some sort of sealant (I use blue Loctite) to prevent the screws from backing out after adjusting them. I am of course, assuming you were wanting to know how to do all of this.

diggler1833 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 10, 2011, 12:44:26 AM »

Changing bottom metal will generally require lnletting the stock some for a good fit. There are some quality manufacturers out there that might produce some units that have the same dimensions as factory. I'd get the trigger guard to fit before I bedded the rifle, but that is just me.

Hope some of this helped a little, sorry if I covered anything you already knew.

fastchicken · « **Reply #10 on:** February 10, 2011, 05:48:36 AM »

Was the rifle grouping poorly prior to floating the barrel and that was why you floated it? Or did you float it just to float it? My Mod 7 shoots better without the barrel floated, I found that out by shimming the action just in front of the recoil lug to temporarily float the barrel. That way I wasn't stuck with a floated barrel that didn't shoot well, and if it had shot better, I could then remove the pressure bumps.

Muddly · « **Reply #11 on:** February 10, 2011, 07:53:57 PM »

The rifle shot poorly before floating it. Groups were cut in half by the float job but groups were inconsistent in size and the barrel was a copper mine after 10 shots.However, I took it to the local gunsmith and asked him to bore scope it.Fired cases has a slight bulge on one side( near the web)and when I seated rounds out to find the rifling i noticed marks on one side were fainter than the other.Candle smoking really brought this out. The smith told me that most likely the chamber was not properly cut. Bye bye...

diggler1833 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 10, 2011, 10:08:14 PM »

As are a lot of Remington chambers unfortunately. I had the same on my 700 SS 5R in .308. It was a shooter though.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #13 on:** February 11, 2011, 12:16:26 AM »

I agree with deerandduck. Ive got a pile of rem rifles and all are floated and bedded but you need to do both. Shimming up an action to see if floating it will help is a poor indicator as your actualy making the fit of your recoil lug worse. Like i said ive owned a ton of rem 700s and a couple 7s and ive yet to run into one that shot worse after bedding and floating. ive had a couple that didnt improve much but none that got worse.

Swampman · « **Reply #14 on:** February 11, 2011, 12:49:59 AM »

I've owned and shot a ton of Remington 700s and I've never had to touch one. 1/3 MOA is not uncommon right out of the box with factory ammo and I've never seen one that wouldn't shoot MOA or better with factory ammo. Tinkering, handloads, and/or operator error are alwys the source of accuracy problems with the 700.

If you have an accuracy problem with factory ammo, I'd just send the gun back to the factory.

Never bed or float a Remington until all else has failed.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #15 on:** February 12, 2011, 12:00:00 AM »

I love my reminton rifles to claim 1/3 moa with a sporter weight 700 is common is about rediculous. Some of mine will do moa with a good handload and ive even lucked into a couple shooting moa with factory rounds but 1/3moa is 40x rem territory. Ill also add that if youve never had a reminton that wouldnt shoot moa you havent had enough remintons because they surely all wont do it. I too have shot a lucky group that was very impressive but to do that consistantly with a sporter weighth barrel thats not even bedded let alone not pillar bedded and pulling on a factory trigger that goes at least 4 lbs is about impossible.

Quote from: Swampman700 on February 11, 2011, 12:49:59 AM

I've owned and shot a ton of Remington 700s and I've never had to touch one. 1/3 MOA is not uncommon right out of the box with factory ammo and I've never seen one that wouldn't shoot MOA or better with factory ammo. Tinkering, handloads, and/or operator error are alwys the source of accuracy problems with the 700.

If you have an accuracy problem with factory ammo, I'd just send the gun back to the factory.

Never bed or float a Remington until all else has failed.

Swampman · « **Reply #16 on:** February 12, 2011, 01:55:15 AM »

Quote

to claim 1/3 moa with a sporter weight 700 is common is about rediculous.

I can only report what I have found to be the case with mine. Most of them shoot like varmint rifles. Once in awhile I find one that will only do about 3/4" @ 100 with factory ammo. It's the reason I've given up on other brands.

diggler1833 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 13, 2011, 08:34:16 AM »

Here goes swampy with his one shot, one hole groups again.

And another thread takes a sharp left and heads out off topic..

pastorp · « **Reply #18 on:** February 13, 2011, 01:49:02 PM »

Diggler, now do you under stand my earlier comments. It was not a did not, did too conversation. Swampy make blanket statements that can be taken as acusing posters as the source of the problem. If he just learned to word his posts a little differently it would be much better in my opinion.

He never blames Remington. Every gun company has a certain amount of mistakes. And he make reticules statements. JMO

Regards,

George Foster · « **Reply #19 on:** February 14, 2011, 12:39:44 AM »

I myself own a 243 CDL 700, I wouldn't term it as fussy but as with any rifle there are loads it doesn't like. When I first acquired it I worked up loads for it using the 75HP Sierra and IMR4831 and RL19 and it shot pretty well, less than a MOA. I then had the action glass bedded along with the chamber area and the barrel freefloated, the groups tightened right up with the loads I had worked up, now it will average 1/2" groups for 3 shots and at times 3/8".