Heavy R700 aac-sd. Lighter barrel options?

[James87adams]

I jumped on a deal last Christmas for a R700 aac-sd 16.5" 308. It came in the junky hogue stock. When I got it, I realized the barrel on these is pretty damn heavy (I guess because they know you're going to suppress it). I was hoping to get to something I could learn some prs on, but simple enough to bag some deer with. I dropped the rifle into a whiskey 3, but I just dont like how it handles still. I'm sure this is just a personal preference question, but I'm stuck between selling the whole thing and sticking to my savage, or replacing the barrel with something lighter.

Am I going to find a lighter barrel that isnt going to flex when I suppress it?
Or do I just get a lighter barrel and forget about suppressing it?
Or is the action on these just chunky and I should drop the whole project?

I'm at kind of a loss here, obviously I dont have a lot of experience with working on rifles (lot more on ARs) and dont know what goes in to replacing a 700 barrel.

Thanks!

 

[b6graham]

that barrel is pretty tiny for PRS fyi. in length and girth. going smaller I would not if your serious about precision shooting which i assume you are if you dropped the coin on a whiskey 3

as is it's a good handy deer rifle with the factory stock

it would be fine with a remage barrel nut setup, but now you're at 26" even a medium palma is gonna be 'heavy' for you i think

 

[SRPowah]

Decide if its a hunting rifle or a PRS rifle. Focus on building the rifle to that role and you will be much happier after. Compromises suck, especially when trying to do two things that generally benefit from complete opposite philosophies.

 

[XLR308]

that barrel is pretty tiny for PRS fyi. in length and girth. going smaller I would not if your serious about precision shooting which i assume you are if you dropped the coin on a whiskey 3

as is it's a good handy deer rifle with the factory stock

it would be fine with a remage barrel nut setup, but now you're at 26" even a medium palma is gonna be 'heavy' for you i think

I thought they came with the rem varmint profile ?
That is damn near the exact same as a medium Palma isn't it ?

 

[jcmullis2]

A fluted Remage barrel will lighten it up some but you need to decide what you want it for. IMO Remington 700s are great foundations to build on especially with the availability of remage barrels or anything else you might wanna get.

 

[b6graham]

I thought they came with the rem varmint profile ?
That is damn near the exact same as a medium Palma isn't it ?

close enough...now make it 10" longer for a 26" comp barrel

 

[XLR308]

close enough...now make it 10" longer for a 26" comp barrel

I was just looking, seems the AAC is about .040" over the medium Palma.
Agreed add another 10" to get the most out of it for COMP use.

 

[James87adams]

I think I've just got my rifles set up perfectly opposite. My savage is a FCP-SR (26" fluted) in a standard style stock with a leupold vxr 3-9x40 and the R700 is 16.5" in a chassis with NF 3.5-15x56. The savage shoots a whole lot better than the r700 (better trigger, smoother). Neither rifle can accommodate a clip on nv (no rail on my whiskey 3 yet)

Maybe I will use the 700 to hunt and the savage to play.

I guess I'll see if I even have time to play around with prs style matches and if so break the 700 up and build it into what I need (when I figure out what that is). And offload the savage and replace with an actual lightweight hunting rig.

I am honestly just undecided what I want to do or what would be easiest from where I am now, but I appreciate the advice

 

[b6graham]

sell both and build 2 purpose built rifles

can easily use 2 barrel/stock/scope combos on same action. creedmoor and a 6.5 prc from a bighorn origin for example

 

[jcmullis2]

Sell the Savage and buy a r700 action and remage barrel.