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How smooth is Remington 700 action

jcmullis2

Don’t run you’ll only die tired
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Minuteman
  • May 12, 2020
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    I like Remington rifles so I’m more than a little biased. I hear guys on here all the time saying how much smoother other manufacturers actions are compared to Remington. All of mine are smooth but most are older and from the higher price rifles. I just received a new Remington action from Buds for a build and it cost $349. I wanna hear from others just how smooth theirs are compared to the Remington. Thanks
     
    I cut my teeth on r700s so they’re mothers milk. I’ve been disappointed w my Seekins being sticky but it shoots lights out so I’m happy. My savage is a little sloppy but it shoots well also.

    That’s why I want to get a Tikka and join the Borg.
     
    I’ve ran a few tuned up 700’s that were pretty decent but definitely a step behind the customs I have experience with.
    Never got to fondle a TAC OPs 700 though.
     
    I have one 223 5R that is stock and its broken in, so very smooth. My Bergara LRP was out of the box smooth. My other Remmy's which there are a few, have Pacific Tool and Die oversized bolts installed and shoot like laser beams. You get a trued up Remmy, with PTD bolt and bed the action, Timney Trigger and it will shoot well. Add a nice Kreiger or Bartlein and shoots real good.

    That ends up costing near or more nice Bergara or Tikka guns so....

    Best of luck killing it with your Remmy.

    PB
     
    From my experience, they are generally crunch and gritty until you shoot a couple thousand rounds... Bit of lapping and a lot of shooting, you'll be OK.

    Or, look at a Tikka, they generally start much nicer.
     
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    The chromoly steel actions are bead blasted and a little rough when they're new. The jeweled bolts are much smoother out of the box.

    It will wear in, and be very smooth with a light coat of grease in the raceways. If you live in a very dusty environment bring a rag to wipe the bolt down when it starts to get sticky.

    Screw a good barrel on it and upgrade the trigger, it will be a good, accurate rifle.
     
    The 5R guns have the jeweled bolts and I once had 3. 223, 308 and 300WM. Loved them all. But had to thin the heard.

    PB
     
    I thought folks might wanna see for themselves what Remington is putting out so they won’t have to rely on another person’s opinion. I have a video but I don’t know how to attach it so here’s a few pics. If someone can tell me how I’ll add the video. Until then I’ll just tell you it’s as smooth as anything including my defiance that cost nearly 3 times as much.
     

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    There is a lot of variability in my opinion. I sold it but one of my favorite actions I've had was when LRI first started their "group buys" on SH and I got everything done to a 700 action that could be done to it and they also made sure the trigger played nice with the action and that was one slick feeling action.
    I heard they cnc all their actions now so I got one for a cheap build to compare to a costly custom build I’m doing. My Remingtons have all been better than sub moa without anything other than trigger work or replacement of the exlax triggers on the newer ones. I wanna see if the custom actions are worth the extra money. I’ve got a krg bravo chassis and a criterion remage barrel that I’m gonna swap between the two actions to make it a good comparison. My defiance has a TriggerTech diamond and I’ve got a riflebasix 8-20oz trigger for this Remington action. I’ll set them both as close to the same as possible so that should be close enough. I’m anxious to see the outcome.
     
    This has been brought up multiple times over the last 17 years or so....

     
    I thought folks might wanna see for themselves what Remington is putting out so they won’t have to rely on another person’s opinion. I have a video but I don’t know how to attach it so here’s a few pics. If someone can tell me how I’ll add the video. Until then I’ll just tell you it’s as smooth as anything including my defiance that cost nearly 3 times as much.
    Where did you get this?
     
    Both of my match guns use 700 actions. One is a G prefix, the other is a RR. They are both smooth.

    If you use one of the factory Remington box mag setups, it's a different ballgame, but with an aics based mag system and some wearing in, I don't know what else you could want.
     
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    I thought folks might wanna see for themselves what Remington is putting out so they won’t have to rely on another person’s opinion. I have a video but I don’t know how to attach it so here’s a few pics. If someone can tell me how I’ll add the video. Until then I’ll just tell you it’s as smooth as anything including my defiance that cost nearly 3 times as much.

    Upload the video to YouTube then post the link to it. You will need to create a YouTube account. The whole thing doesn't take long.
     
    For any non-custom factory "production" action, there's a bit of luck involved because the production tolerance margins are wider. You can:
    1) Get "lucky" and get a smooth action that is also accurate with matching tolerances (10% chance?)
    2) or get an "average" par for the course action that if you are handy, you can work the issues and smooth the action over time(80% chance?)
    3) or you can get "unlucky" and be stuck with an action with tolerances so far off that it is not worth trying to fix(10% chance?)

    Folks like TacOps QC every 700 action they get and work hard to make them better - there's skill, time and effort there.
    Lots of folks avoid the production action "lottery" and just pay more to get custom actions so as to eliminate the uncertainty.
     
    My first rifle was a Savage because every Remington action up to $700 rifle was like sandpaper. My Bergara Premier action is smooth as 30 weight, though, and that's a Rem 700 footprint. You can make any 700 action smooth a buttery -- the more money you spend, the better it gets. :)
     
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    I have a pre 1964 code 700 that was trued with a 308 barrel on it. I thought it was smooth until I got my bighorn....no comparison.
     
    Where did you get this?
    I got it online from budsgunshop.com. I lapped the lugs this morning and it took less than 5 minutes. One had about 90% contact and the other about 70%.
    I agree that in production some are gonna be inferior. I just don’t understand why people buy things that aren’t right and bitch. If you order online and it's not right then send it back.
    I wanted people to see what sort of quality Remington has for $349. Instead of just the small percentage of those who got a bad one 20 years ago or their friend did so now they tell everyone that Remington is crap.
     
    For a while there, it wasn't the "one guy" who got "a bad one"... It was walk down the line at Scheels and Cabelas and try to find one that didn't have something completely fucked. Primary extraction, bent barrels, bore damage, canted recoil lugs, scope mount holes... I'd be happy to see them turn it around.

    My first 'built' rifle was on a 700 and it wore in smooth enough, but my Mausingfield started smoother and has only gotten better.
     
    What I don't understand is why people bich about how an action is from somebody like Remington, Winchester, Savage Etc that you can find at a typical big-box store and try to compare it to the custom action that is only sold directly or through Precision Gun Shop.
    Doing so is about as retarded is buying a basic Chevy Camaro and then bitching and complaining that it doesn't match the Precision of a Porsche 911... just fucken retarded. But I guess some people want to bich just to fucking bitch.
     
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    What I don't understand is why people bich about how an action is from somebody like Remington, Winchester, Savage Etc that you can find at a typical big-box store and try to compare it to the custom action that is only sold directly or through Precision Gun Shop.
    Doing so is about as retarded is buying a basic Chevy Camaro and then bitching and complaining that it doesn't match the Precision of a Porsche 911... just fucken retarded. But I guess some people want to bich just to fucking bitch.

    Because I can walk into Cabela's right now, spend $600 on a Howa rifle with an action that is extremely smooth, has a very light bolt lift, and is easily .5 MOA.

    Remington has no damn excuse to make such gritty factory actions. A standard Rem 700 action is like a Savage Axis cheapo gun action. Sucks.
     
    What I don't understand is why people bich about how an action is from somebody like Remington, Winchester, Savage Etc that you can find at a typical big-box store and try to compare it to the custom action that is only sold directly or through Precision Gun Shop.
    Doing so is about as retarded is buying a basic Chevy Camaro and then bitching and complaining that it doesn't match the Precision of a Porsche 911... just fucken retarded. But I guess some people want to bich just to fucking bitch.
    I totally agree and why did they buy the pos? My defiance are much nicer but they should be because that’s what I paid for. Are my groups better? Not as I can tell but that doesn’t make my r700 in the same league. It does mean that they’re a good alternative for someone on a budget.
     
    I have 700 action that was trued by Spinners Fit and Chamber with a xcaliber barrel the action is very smooth and shoots like a laser!
     
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    I Hays Bighorn TL3 and a 700 “no letter prefix “ serial number. Both run about the same.
     
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    What I don't understand is why people bich about how an action is from somebody like Remington, Winchester, Savage Etc that you can find at a typical big-box store and try to compare it to the custom action that is only sold directly or through Precision Gun Shop.
    Doing so is about as retarded is buying a basic Chevy Camaro and then bitching and complaining that it doesn't match the Precision of a Porsche 911... just fucken retarded. But I guess some people want to bich just to fucking bitch.

    There has been many similar responses like this one on this topic over the last 17 years or so.
     
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    Did someone say AI or GTFO yet?

    Been said twice now...

    Reminds me of an old boy who was telling me a story about Remingtons being like "two sandy vaginas rubbing together". Or maybe that was the turrets on a Leupold, or maybe..... I just wanted an excuse to talk about sandy vaginas......
     
    Been said twice now...

    Reminds me of an old boy who was telling me a story about Remingtons being like "two sandy vaginas rubbing together". Or maybe that was the turrets on a Leupold, or maybe..... I just wanted an excuse to talk about sandy vaginas......
    My new Remington action is as pretty as a couple nice big breastisis, and as slick as a hookers vagina after fleet week. Being a sailor I’ve hit a couple of sandy vaginas in my day and they weren’t as bad as you might would think. Definitely better than no vagina at all. Remember “Any port in a storm” and you’ll go far grasshopper.
     
    My R700 SPS 300BLK is absolute garbage and it’s been shot and cycled thousands of rounds. I pretty much ended up replacing every Remington part, just waiting for my anTI action. I will never ever buy a Remington rifle. Why would you in these days of decent semi customs, Tikkas, Howas and Bergeras.
    I’ve had Tikkas that are cheaper and out of the box offers an extremely smooth action, good trigger, good accuracy and an external mag.
    The 300BLK R700 SPS comes with a horrible stock, barrel with the wrong twist rate, light primer strikes, a trigger worst than a USGI AR and no external magazine.
    Kind of reminds of late 80s and early 90s when American car manufacturers operating on past reputations were selling unreliable POS and they got absolutely destroyed by the Japanese.
     
    My R700 SPS 300BLK is absolute garbage and it’s been shot and cycled thousands of rounds. I pretty much ended up replacing every Remington part, just waiting for my anTI action. I will never ever buy a Remington rifle. Why would you in these days of decent semi customs, Tikkas, Howas and Bergeras.
    I’ve had Tikkas that are cheaper and out of the box offers an extremely smooth action, good trigger, good accuracy and an external mag.
    The 300BLK R700 SPS comes with a horrible stock, barrel with the wrong twist rate, light primer strikes, a trigger worst than a USGI AR and no external magazine.
    Kind of reminds of late 80s and early 90s when American car manufacturers operating on past reputations were selling unreliable POS and they got absolutely destroyed by the Japanese.
    For Christ sakes man why did you buy it? It takes less than a minute to examine a bolt rifle. Did you think it would get better on the ride home? When people stopped buying the American cars back then they stopped making that junk.
     
    For Christ sakes man why did you buy it? It takes less than a minute to examine a bolt rifle. Did you think it would get better on the ride home? When people stopped buying the American cars back then they stopped making that junk.
    Bought it online, though it would improve over time or that would find a decent load, or that I had scope issues, etc. Still I’ve seen plenty of 700s crappy out of the box, never seen a Tikka leave the factory like that.
     
    When I buy online they have inspection periods. Usually 3 days and if it doesn’t I don’t buy it. Ive heard stories about bad Remingtons before and never understood why the person accepted such a pos. It’s hard to conceal a problem on a new bolt gun with 2-3 moving parts. Cycle the bolt, dry fire, pop the mag release and eye ball the damn thing. You gotta do your due diligence and if it ain’t right don’t accept it. Sorry about your experience.
     
    The biggest problem I see is insufficient or nonexistent primary extraction.
     
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    The biggest problem I see is insufficient or nonexistent primary extraction.
    In my 40+ years of experience in shooting and reloading I’ve never had a single failure to extract. Not even once. I’ve heard gunsmiths talk about it and seen videos explaining the problem etc. I’ve also heard others explain that it’s not a problem because it takes so little extraction with the relatively small caliber ammo used in the r700.
    Have you ever experienced a round not extracting yourself or is this something you’ve heard to be a problem? I’d love to hear all about the times your r700 didn’t extract a spent cartridge. I’ve done a lot of shooting. Literally thousands of hours of range time with long guns and I’ve never had or seen anyone else have a spent round not extract. Nobody else in this post mentioned having that happen so please expound upon your statement.
     
    In my 40+ years of experience in shooting and reloading I’ve never had a single failure to extract. Not even once. I’ve heard gunsmiths talk about it and seen videos explaining the problem etc. I’ve also heard others explain that it’s not a problem because it takes so little extraction with the relatively small caliber ammo used in the r700.
    Have you ever experienced a round not extracting yourself or is this something you’ve heard to be a problem? I’d love to hear all about the times your r700 didn’t extract a spent cartridge. I’ve done a lot of shooting. Literally thousands of hours of range time with long guns and I’ve never had or seen anyone else have a spent round not extract. Nobody else in this post mentioned having that happen so please expound upon your statement.
    Model 700 Tactical Chassis in 300 Win Mag and continuous issues with extraction. Will not buy another Remington 700. I‘ve written it up in another forum here. If yours are good to go I’m happy for you, not intended as a facetious comment.
     
    Model 700 Tactical Chassis in 300 Win Mag and continuous issues with extraction. Will not buy another Remington 700. I‘ve written it up in another forum here. If yours are good to go I’m happy for you, not intended as a facetious comment.
    If it's a primary extraction problem, that can be fixed.
     
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    If it's a primary extraction problem, that can be fixed.
    Had the bolt re-timed and the chamber Worked on by a gunsmith I trust. It got better but still had 3 or 4 out of 20 that I had to beat the bolt to get it to extract. Bolt lift never an issue. Rifle sold and buyer informed of problem. I replaced it with an AXMC in 300 Win Mag. What a difference in cost and performance.:)
     
    Model 700 Tactical Chassis in 300 Win Mag and continuous issues with extraction. Will not buy another Remington 700. I‘ve written it up in another forum here. If yours are good to go I’m happy for you, not intended as a facetious comment.
    I searched for your write up and it’s not here. However maybe you didn’t mention the type of rifle you were referring to.
    The 700 tactical chassis is one of the most expensive models other than a sws or a custom shop Remington if memory serves. Why haven’t you sent it back to have the problem fixed? If it happens with factory ammunition there’s a problem and Remington needs to know about it. If it’s only happening with reloads then the problem isn’t with the rifle.
    Please post a link so I can see what you had “written up”. Thanks
    I Just read your previous reply. Sounds like a nightmare. I hate mysteries. I would have sold it too. Some shit can’t be fixed. I ran into that on a colt 1911 officer model. Beautiful piece but wouldn’t run a full mag without jamming and I sold it after spending way too much trying to get it right. Sorry about your problem but you should have sent it back but I didn’t so I understand.
     
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    In my 40+ years of experience in shooting and reloading I’ve never had a single failure to extract. Not even once. I’ve heard gunsmiths talk about it and seen videos explaining the problem etc. I’ve also heard others explain that it’s not a problem because it takes so little extraction with the relatively small caliber ammo used in the r700.
    Have you ever experienced a round not extracting yourself or is this something you’ve heard to be a problem? I’d love to hear all about the times your r700 didn’t extract a spent cartridge. I’ve done a lot of shooting. Literally thousands of hours of range time with long guns and I’ve never had or seen anyone else have a spent round not extract. Nobody else in this post mentioned having that happen so please expound upon your statement.

    I‘ve certainly heard about it.
     
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    I think there's too much focus on how "smooth" any action is, yet there's a lot more to a good action than just being smooth.
    The way an action cams, does it cam evenly? Do the bolts lock up evenly? How does it extract? What are the tolerances when locked in battery? Does it work well with aftermarket triggers? Does it provide precise leverage during loading and extraction process?

    Point being, just having the "smoothest" action means nothing if it does not do the rest of above precisely and consistently over time.
     
    I think there's too much focus on how "smooth" any action is, yet there's a lot more to a good action than just being smooth.
    The way an action cams, does it cam evenly? Do the bolts lock up evenly? How does it extract? What are the tolerances when locked in battery? Does it work well with aftermarket triggers? Does it provide precise leverage during loading and extraction process?

    Point being, just having the "smoothest" action means nothing if it does not do the rest of above precisely and consistently over time.
    You summed it up nicely. Like I said in my initial post, I’m biased because I really like Remington. I’d like to add that the Remington 700 is the most cloned action out there for a reason. The basic design of the r700 is awesome. I can’t think of any tikka or howa clones but I could be wrong.
     
    In my 40+ years of experience in shooting and reloading I’ve never had a single failure to extract. Not even once. I’ve heard gunsmiths talk about it and seen videos explaining the problem etc. I’ve also heard others explain that it’s not a problem because it takes so little extraction with the relatively small caliber ammo used in the r700.
    Have you ever experienced a round not extracting yourself or is this something you’ve heard to be a problem? I’d love to hear all about the times your r700 didn’t extract a spent cartridge. I’ve done a lot of shooting. Literally thousands of hours of range time with long guns and I’ve never had or seen anyone else have a spent round not extract. Nobody else in this post mentioned having that happen so please expound upon your statement.

    My R700 300 H&H has broke two extractors. Not all R700s are relatively small caliber ammo. Bloated web will break an extractor. That is on my lazy ass during the reloading process. Instead of putting a brake on it I had a Sako extractor installed, lol.
     
    Last edited by a moderator:
    My R700 300 H&H has broke two extractors. Not all R700s are relatively small caliber ammo. Bloated web will break an extractor. That is on my lazy ass during the reloading process. Instead of putting a brake on it I had a Sako extractor installed, lol.
    I prefaced small caliber with relatively because I agree some aren’t that small. However technically speaking I believe anything under 50 caliber is considered small arms. I could be wrong things change. I agree the 300 h&h and several others aren’t really small.
     
    I like Remington rifles so I’m more than a little biased. I hear guys on here all the time saying how much smoother other manufacturers actions are compared to Remington. All of mine are smooth but most are older and from the higher price rifles. I just received a new Remington action from Buds for a build and it cost $349. I wanna hear from others just how smooth theirs are compared to the Remington. Thanks
    Walk into any gun shop and pick up any tikka and run the bolt. That will answer your question. My tikka’s and Sako’s are smoother than my Defiance Tenacity.
     
    If it's not sold in Walmart, it doesn't count. You have to remember, the 700 is meant for the average Joe not the PRS guy. The 700 is meant for the guy that says where your $3,000 rifle kill a deer more dead than my daddy's thirty-ought-six
     
    For any non-custom factory "production" action, there's a bit of luck involved because the production tolerance margins are wider. You can:
    1) Get "lucky" and get a smooth action that is also accurate with matching tolerances (10% chance?)
    2) or get an "average" par for the course action that if you are handy, you can work the issues and smooth the action over time(80% chance?)
    3) or you can get "unlucky" and be stuck with an action with tolerances so far off that it is not worth trying to fix(10% chance?)
    How do you know what Remington's linear and geometric tolerances are supposed to be for each dimension and feature of the 700 action and bolt? How do you know what the nominal value of each dimension is?

    Don't answer that. I know that you don't know because Remington doesn't let the general public know those things. Neither does any other manufacturer for that matter.

    Most of you don't even know the difference between tolerances and fits. Just typical gun forum bullshit to appear knowledgeable.