- Thread starter cgmaster1
- Start date
Update. I called Remington mid January about the XCR and what we saw through the bore scope. The guy was polite and reassuring that they would take care of it. He emailed a UPS shipping label and I sent the gun in a cheap hardcase, no muss no fuss. About a week later I got an email stating the the gun was received and they gave me some tracking numbers to follow its status online.
To my absolute surprise yesterday UPS arrived with a long brown box... interesting. At best I expected to see a new barrel however I was a bit more pessimistic as I had messed with the stock trigger and bedded the HS stock. As I cut open the box I immediately noticed my hardcase and wished for a new barrel. As I opened the hard case what I found was a brand new model 84463! I quickly pulled the rifle out of the case and noticed all the new tags as the old one once came with. However, something is quite different. The bolt is TIGHT and smooth, similar to a Sako. While I thought my old rifle had the X-Mark Pro trigger it must not have as this one is entirely different and polished, break is glass rod like with zero grittiness. The barrel is different. The fluting is a bit different and it is marked large "338 LAPUA MAGNUM 1-10" TWIST." A quick examination of the crown reveals a very nice cut, comparable to my other guns that shoot sub 1/2 MOA. The nitryl finish is top notch and the bottom metal screws are nice and snug (all my previous Remingtons had been someone loose.) Overall the fit and finish on this rifle is NIGHT and DAY different than the one I bought 18 months ago. The quality is more like a European gun or my older Remington VSSFII 22-250 which I dearly love. Something big has changed over there, Remington did not have to do this and the warranty paperwork said Good Will. Thanks guys I cannot wait to give this girl a ring. Hoping to be smacking clay pigeons at 1000y in the very near future.
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Knife edge, do you have any update and pics of the new rifle?
I believe I have the same rifle and I am having a hard time getting it to group.
I've found that it has an extremely long throat. Which makes it impossible to load mag length and get anywhere near the lands.
I believe I have the same rifle and I am having a hard time getting it to group.
I've found that it has an extremely long throat. Which makes it impossible to load mag length and get anywhere near the lands.
Accuracy wise take a look at the crown. Remington does a horrible job on the MLR. I had a Police 338 LM MLR. I casted mine and same as you have found, it's not that the throats are not all that long. It's the mag box is so darn short. That tacticool mag box is tripping the rifle up. Lighter bullets with less pointy noses should reach the rifling a lot easier. Accuracy wise it was okay with 300 grain Bergers. They are known to shoot with even a long reach to the lands. Don't worry about reaching the lands. The long bearing surface on the 300 helps keep them straight and makes the transition into the bore pretty gently. I would look at the crown first. Overall the MLR was a big disappointment to me for a 338LM. I ended up selling it because it was going to cost too much to correct all it's issues.
Remington 700 Police 338 Lapua rifles
Update 3:
I finally got the replacement XCR to Shooters World for some 100y groups. The 285 loads I started with were developed for the original XCR and when I tried to run them in the Sako (bought to replace the 700) I was jamming the bullets back into the case, some wouldn't even feed. I resized them to the furthest my Redding bullet micrometer would go which resulted in a .08" off the lands in the Sako and managed sub 1/2 MOA groups, happy with that. When I ran these loads in the replacement XCR I forget that I had pushed the bullets back in to feed in the Sako; I can't even imagine how long of a jump that would be in the 700, maybe .2". The groups were around 1.2" with 2" fliers, still better than the old rifle but horrible.
I had some factory Hornady 250 BTHP in the range bag and topped off the mag. I fired the first round and it knocked the red center out of the target. A second round knocked the red out of the center of another, now we were playing. I recalled the target and replaced it with a fresh target and sent it back down range. After ten minutes of letting the barrel go from hot to warm I thought I'd push its buttons and find out it the prior target had been a fluke. I climbed on top, focused, got all the pressures exactly where they should be and started the long increasing trigger pull. No grit, no movement but right at what felt like 10 pounds (2.5 in reality) she barked, the red center was gone, reticle only displaced inches off the target. I cycled he action, took a few breaths and eased into the second shot, nothing. The gun reported but I couldn't see a hit anywhere. I rolled off the gun to the spotter and scanned the large silhouette the Shoot-N-C was attached to, no holes anywhere except the bullseye. I crawled back onto the gun, nervous that the second shot had been a fluke and fired my third and last 250.... It went in the same hole.
To date this XCR is my most accurate rifle, bone stock. I bought it in CA at Turners on sale for $1750 as an entry magnum rifle and the new one shoots like a $6000 custom. The original rifle must have been a fluke and she was problematic. According to a person I talked to at Remington the replacement rifle is their latest production run with barrels tooled in house. A buddy and I spent the better part of an hour bore scoping the rifle before I shot it and he said it is the cleanest production barrel he has ever seen. The throat, crown and rifling were cut perfectly and obviously lapped, by Remington. If this is the tooling that Remington is using on all their long range, police and scendaro button rifled barrels then there will be many more stories like this. The bolt shows signs of machining before finishing and it locks up nice and tight like no other.
Remington, thanks for standing by your product and fixing this. I will run this rifle in local matches and haul it up to Salt Lake for elk end of the year.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Update 3:
I finally got the replacement XCR to Shooters World for some 100y groups. The 285 loads I started with were developed for the original XCR and when I tried to run them in the Sako (bought to replace the 700) I was jamming the bullets back into the case, some wouldn't even feed. I resized them to the furthest my Redding bullet micrometer would go which resulted in a .08" off the lands in the Sako and managed sub 1/2 MOA groups, happy with that. When I ran these loads in the replacement XCR I forget that I had pushed the bullets back in to feed in the Sako; I can't even imagine how long of a jump that would be in the 700, maybe .2". The groups were around 1.2" with 2" fliers, still better than the old rifle but horrible.
I had some factory Hornady 250 BTHP in the range bag and topped off the mag. I fired the first round and it knocked the red center out of the target. A second round knocked the red out of the center of another, now we were playing. I recalled the target and replaced it with a fresh target and sent it back down range. After ten minutes of letting the barrel go from hot to warm I thought I'd push its buttons and find out it the prior target had been a fluke. I climbed on top, focused, got all the pressures exactly where they should be and started the long increasing trigger pull. No grit, no movement but right at what felt like 10 pounds (2.5 in reality) she barked, the red center was gone, reticle only displaced inches off the target. I cycled he action, took a few breaths and eased into the second shot, nothing. The gun reported but I couldn't see a hit anywhere. I rolled off the gun to the spotter and scanned the large silhouette the Shoot-N-C was attached to, no holes anywhere except the bullseye. I crawled back onto the gun, nervous that the second shot had been a fluke and fired my third and last 250.... It went in the same hole.
To date this XCR is my most accurate rifle, bone stock. I bought it in CA at Turners on sale for $1750 as an entry magnum rifle and the new one shoots like a $6000 custom. The original rifle must have been a fluke and she was problematic. According to a person I talked to at Remington the replacement rifle is their latest production run with barrels tooled in house. A buddy and I spent the better part of an hour bore scoping the rifle before I shot it and he said it is the cleanest production barrel he has ever seen. The throat, crown and rifling were cut perfectly and obviously lapped, by Remington. If this is the tooling that Remington is using on all their long range, police and scendaro button rifled barrels then there will be many more stories like this. The bolt shows signs of machining before finishing and it locks up nice and tight like no other.
Remington, thanks for standing by your product and fixing this. I will run this rifle in local matches and haul it up to Salt Lake for elk end of the year.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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All I have to say is "Damn that is sweet!" On another note what extractor does it have in it a half or a full width? Also if you get a chance would you mind taking a picture of the end of your bolt where the extractor and ejector are located. I want to know if they made any changes that are different from my MLR. Thanks and congrads again!
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Well I got my MLR back from the smith and I have a limited bitch at Remington, get your damn quality control under control. My MLR would not eject properly under repetitive speed fire, the empty brass would drop off of the bolt face and lay on top of the magazine. Under slow repetitive fire it would eject fine and then start acting up again once in a while. I know there was a couple guys having the same issue and were looking for a fix. First this is for the MLRs that have the half width extractors, the angle and the swing of the empty case is totally wrong when it is trying to eject out of the ejection port, below is the fix that was used on my rifle and the damn thing works like it is suppose to under repetitive speed fire. Now I know why Remington went away from the full width extractor because the swing angle was worst.
1. Increase ejector spring tension
2. Increase ejector protrusion
3. Shape ejector to allow it to push further out on the casing (Shaved at the 4 o clock position)
4. Relieved the extractor to allow proper extraction
These changes stopped the empty case from rotating up at a high angle when it is starting to swing out on the ejection and the combination of the wrong angle on the extractor caused the empty brass to fall off the bolt face. The mouth of the empty brass upon extraction now rides in the bolt lug cut in front ring upon swing out like it is suppose to instead of tilting up above it like it was. Relieving the outside of the extractor made it so that the empty case would rotate more towards the ejection port like it was suppose to. Funny though I can remember my dads old hunting rifles having that angle cut on the ejector and just took it for being wear over the years instead of the flat face ejector. The bolt is now tight and solid from all of these changes and the ejection can put someone's eye out if they are in range of flying brass,,,lol. If anyone wants pictures let me know and I will get them up. Also because of the weight of a live cartridge you cannot rapidly eject it because it will fall off of the bolt face. If you draw the bolt back slowly like you want to unload the chamber so that the cartridge does not go in the dirt it will stay on the bolt face after these mods.
1. Increase ejector spring tension
2. Increase ejector protrusion
3. Shape ejector to allow it to push further out on the casing (Shaved at the 4 o clock position)
4. Relieved the extractor to allow proper extraction
These changes stopped the empty case from rotating up at a high angle when it is starting to swing out on the ejection and the combination of the wrong angle on the extractor caused the empty brass to fall off the bolt face. The mouth of the empty brass upon extraction now rides in the bolt lug cut in front ring upon swing out like it is suppose to instead of tilting up above it like it was. Relieving the outside of the extractor made it so that the empty case would rotate more towards the ejection port like it was suppose to. Funny though I can remember my dads old hunting rifles having that angle cut on the ejector and just took it for being wear over the years instead of the flat face ejector. The bolt is now tight and solid from all of these changes and the ejection can put someone's eye out if they are in range of flying brass,,,lol. If anyone wants pictures let me know and I will get them up. Also because of the weight of a live cartridge you cannot rapidly eject it because it will fall off of the bolt face. If you draw the bolt back slowly like you want to unload the chamber so that the cartridge does not go in the dirt it will stay on the bolt face after these mods.
I am having no issues with extraction whatsoever. Here is the bolt. 
Spotted a XCR (Green Stock) .338 LM at the local Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine TX just in case anyone is looking for one still. It's got the fluted style barrel like the one in the picture above.
Was chasing some vertical stringing issues today. Down to the last 3 shots and tightened the eye piece lock on the Mark 4. Last three touched at 100y.
300SMK
.015" off lands
88g H-1000
Hornady Brass
Federal Magnum primers.
300SMK
.015" off lands
88g H-1000
Hornady Brass
Federal Magnum primers.
Found the vertical stringing. Make sure the old eye piece lock ring is nice and snug on those Mark 4s.
Shot a one hole 3-shot group with the 300 SMK. I am abandoning the 285 BTHP as I cannot find a load that works.
300 SMK
Hornady once fired brass
Federal 215 primers
89.5g H1000
.015" off the lands
100 yards
Shot a one hole 3-shot group with the 300 SMK. I am abandoning the 285 BTHP as I cannot find a load that works.
300 SMK
Hornady once fired brass
Federal 215 primers
89.5g H1000
.015" off the lands
100 yards
Great shooting knife edge!
Well since H1000 is still in short supply on the shelves here in Colorado, I was able to pick up some Reloader 22 and work on some load data. Boy do I miss H1000, Reloader 22 burns faster then H1000 but the accuracy was good at 84.6grs at 2700 fps but the bolt handle was stiff from the pressure. The accuracy was good at 1/4 moa but you won't be speed firing under time that is for sure. I then tested 80.7grs at 2600 fps and the accuracy staying at 1/4 moa and the bolt was easy to cycle. I was using a Hornady 285gr BTHP with a COL of 3.666 with a CCI magnum primer and HSM case. Total of five rounds of the 80.7grs with suppressor attached, with a heat mirage flyer coming off the can. four rounds all touching through one hole at 100 yards. The holes outside of the circle are bullet shrapnel coming back through the target after striking the backstop. The picture is not the greatest taken off a monitor at Colorado Clays range from my phone.
I'm fitting an aftermarket stock to my .338LM and I wonder if anybody know the length of the pillars to be used so the gun will feed properly?
I've tried measuring the aluminium in the original stock but I don't get any good readings.... anything will help!
BR
Daniel
I've tried measuring the aluminium in the original stock but I don't get any good readings.... anything will help!
BR
Daniel
Is the action a standard long 700 action or is it a beefed up action to support the .338 LM?
Thanks.
Thanks.
It's a standard 700 action. Remington 700 is a 700 .223 to .458 they are all the same diameter. For pillars it varies for each stock and bottom metal configuration. I like to leave them a little long and then mill the bottom off once cured in place to set the height of the bottom metal. Then bed the bottom metal for a perfect fit. On detachable bottom metal like the MLR I like the metal to almost touch the action. A place to start is assemble it without the wood with the screws only finger tight. Then measure the distance where the pillars goes with your calipers. Then add a little to control the show lines on the bottom of the stock. If they are too short the action and bottom will be clamped up tight indicating the pillars are to short. I like mine to move a little when mocked up so there is no stress.
Ok, so the length of the pillars aren't that important it's just an trial and error operation to see when the rifle feeds well and stick with it?
I've seen that the length is about 0.735" for the front and 1.25" for the backend.
And I've noticed that if I line the bottom metal level the backend of the bottom metal seems to have an angle of about 2-3º is that something that one should worried about?
What are these rifles going for these days? I've wanted one ever since the rumors started about them. Looks like they are regularly available now.
I took mine off with a little heat it’s threaded 5/8 24 my can went right on but mine is the 700 P
At least he didn’t burn himself on the barrel! 
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