Remington model 7 .308 or .243

[Duegee krell]

Needing a good truck gun. Pigs and coyotes. On these shortys what is a good bullet with some range. I Went to two different pawn shops today. Both rifles had the same old school bdl set up.l i love in a classic hunting rifle. Irons 20 inch barrels. One had what they were calling a 700 youth .243 i didnt check but it may have been a 7 mislabeled. It was really clean

The other one was for sure a model 7 in .308. Never had a 7 have heard they make great benchrest actions. Thats all anyone ever said about em to me. The .308 is $100 less and looks it. and i have a ton of 30 cal components.

I do have 200 rounds of once fired lapua brass for a .243 and 8lbs of 414. Whats the biggest difference between the 7 and 700 ill be putting a talley 20 moa rail a jewel trigger and vortex 2.5-10 pst ffp. Much more likley the barrel to be shot out on the .243 but i didnt see any erosion in the throat

 

[PBWalsh]

They made/make 700 "youth" rifles... its basically a 700 in a shorter LOP stock for short folks like myself. The difference between the 7 and 700 is the 7 is about .5" shorter than the 700. The 7 is pretty much a mini-700. I see the Model 7 as better suited to the .223 class of cartridges such as the .223/762x39/300BO and the 700 SA left for the standard .473" bolt faced cartridges. The 700 gives you greater COAL. For your stated purpose either will work fine.

I'd caution on using a Jewell for a "truck gun" as there are many documented problems with Jewell triggers and adverse environments. I have never used one, just do a quick search on here and you'll see what I am saying.

 

[fdkay]

+1 on the caution regarding a jewel trigger. I have one jewel, will never have another on a rifle that sees the field.
I'm partial to the 7-08 for your described purpose, that and the model 7 were almost a match made in heaven.
I've been hoping to stumble across a 7 action at the pawn shops to build a .250 savage.

 

[Duegee krell]

So with that model 7 .308 action could i do a grendel conversion with rebarrel at a later date

 

[PBWalsh]

Wrong bolt face, Grendel uses a slightly different bolt face diameter, not sure how that would go over.

 

[Novak77]

I'd lean towards the .243. It should do everything you want and it's easy to shoot.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

I've had a few model 7's and I'm not a big fan. The actions are shorter than the 700's and its taken out of the rear which means less raceway is in contact with the bolt when it's all the way back and that causes them to bind more so than a 700. That was my main complaint in all the ones I had and the sloppy bolt fit just made it worse I think. They also don't feed worth a shit with 223 but 308 sized cases feed fine.

I'd look at a Winchester model 70 Featherweight if that style of gun is what you're after. You can get a brand new one for $700 and there's a $75 rebate going on right now.

I wouldn't touch a pawn shop gun with a 10' pole either, you never know what junk people are dumping off at those places, and they generally want as much or more for a beat up used gun as you can buy it brand new for. Pawn shops are good places to buy used snap on tools, not guns. At least that's been my experience.

 

[mcfred]

I know it's not in line with the thread subject but for inexpensive truck gun that might get converted to a 6.5 grendel you might go with the Howa Mini already chambered in that cartridge. I'm impressed with their metallic hardware quality and there's a growing market to 'fix' any real or perceived issues with the plastic parts.

If you're sold on getting a Model Seven then I'd get the .308 if it's just for killing varmints/vermin. Beware the pawnshop queens too. Caveat emptor.

 

[Duegee krell]

Oh yeah ive been looking at the howas as well. May go that way just these were local and i could get a deal.

 

[Aggie]

I have a Model 7 Laminate in .243 coming as a deer season rifle and a predator buster off season. I’ll eventually provide a range report after I work up some accurate loads with the scope on it.