Silly is a matter of opinion. Spending 1000+ bucks to build a rifle that's amost as good as a $350.00 Remington 700 from Walmart seems silly. Chambering a cartridge that's almost as good as the .270 or .30-06 for which you cannot buy ammo seems questionable too.
In the end you have a rifle with little resale value, that shoots almost as good as a cheap .270.
Us sheep will just have to spend our extra cash on other stuff I suppose.
The question was about Remington 700 quality. They can't be beat.
In a previous post you suggested we stick to the facts, yet you refuse to do so. Instead you repeatedly offer your opinions and state them as if they were “facts”.
“Silly” is indeed a matter of opinion. You got that one right. “Silly” is an objective determination and as such is a determination every person must make for themselves. The determination of “best” is also something everyone must make for themselves and as a result varies from person to person, a fact you seem unable to admit even though I’m sure you understand it. Although I can’t prove it, I believe you to be either immature, insecure, stupid, ignorant or dishonest – and perhaps all five. That belief is also a personal determination and others are free to come to different conclusions.
In my opinion, your claim that my 6.5mm-06AI will be “amost as good as a $350.00 Remington 700 from Wal-Mart” (your typo, not mine, I just cut and pasted) is foolish in the extreme. First, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Remington M700 for $350 at Wal-Mart. If you find one at that price I suggest you buy one or two. The cheapest I’ve seen M700’s go for lately is $450 and up. Mostly up. Second, the rifle will be trued up with the bolt lugs lapped. The barrel will be a 24” custom, stainless, fluted, match-grade, hand-lapped Kreiger in light or medium varmint contour. The stock will be a pepper laminate, the action will be bedded and the barrel floated. The action will be an Interarms Mark X, one of the better commercial Mauser actions, with a Timney trigger. The bolt handle is welded on so, unlike a Remington M700, I won’t give a second thought to the possibility it might break off. The bolt’s firing pin will be replaced with a Tubb SpeedLock kit which will reduce lock time to approximately that of the M700, although the M700 will still be a bit faster. Third, I’m not building a rifle to suit your tastes, I’m building to suit mine – and I’ve never seen a $350 Remington M700 that comes close to meeting what I want.
As to the chambering, I already have three .30-06’s (one in a Remington M700 which refuses to shoot as well as my Ruger or Savage rifles in .30-06). Contrary to your claim that the 6.5xx-06AI is “almost as good as the .270 or .30-06”, neither the .270 Win nor .30-06 can shoot as flat or provide the same retained energy or velocity at longer ranges (800 yards and beyond) and both add more recoil in attempting to do so. There is a reason the 6.5’s are so popular with the long range shooters.
As to not being able to buy commercial ammo, I have two comments. The first is that 6.5mm-06 ammo IS available and will shoot just fine in the AI version, albeit with some velocity loss. The second is that the availability of commercial ammo is of no concern to me for this project. As a handloader I very rarely shoot commercial ammo except in my .22’s and occasionally in my handguns . When I buy a new rifle I often buy a box of factory ammo as well, but only because I want to shoot it right away. Once I develop handloads for a rifle they usually never see factory ammo again. As to building ammo for the 6.5mm-06AI, running .25-06 brass through a sizer die provides an inexpensive source for brass. Properly headstamped brass is available and .270 Win, .280 Rem and even .30-06 brass can be used to form 6.5mm-06 brass. In terms of bullet, the 6.5mm is blessed with a good selection of high quality, high BC bullets like the Scirocco II (.571) for hunting and Berger VLD’s for targets (130g @ .552 and 140g @ .618). The .270 Win is not nearly so well blessed and the .30-06 bullets can’t match the 6.5mm BCs without going very heavy (180g Scirocco II @ .520 and 210g Berger VLD @ .617).
Resale value will be just fine as there are many shooters who understand the 6.5mm caliber and its capabilities much better than you. Regardless, since 1982 I’ve sold exactly two rifles - one with a shot-out barrel and the other a beat-up WWII Mauser I picked up and resold without shooting. I don’t expect the issue of resale value will be an issue in my lifetime. As to shooting, the proof will be in the pudding. It won’t take all that much to shoot better than the two Remington M700s in .30-06 that I’ve spent time with , both new from the factory and both made since 2005.
You “sheep” can spend your money on whatever you like.
Nothing wrong with Remington M700’s if you like bolt handles that fall off or extractors, ejectors and their springs that break, or scope or rear rifle sights that often have to be removed to add a scope. For durability and reliability, I’ll take a good commercial Mauser action or derivative like a Ruger. For a good, inexpensive shooter, I’ll go with Savage or even a Stevens. For overall value in a mass produced rifle I’ll take a Ruger. But those are personal determinations. Remington M700’s are easy to beat, it just depends on what you want in a rifle.
