What can be done to accurize a Remington 700 while keeping the factory barrel.  Basically I want to have a factory Remington 700 disassembled and put back together the way it should be.  Can any action blueprinting be done and still utilize the factory barrel?  I was thinking true the action face and barrel shoulder, surface grind the factory recoil lug, recut the chamber, re crown the barrel, and lap bolt lugs.  I'm new to bolt guns so I don't know if this is something that's possible or not.  Am I missing anything?  Any advice is welcome.  Also recommendations on a shop to do the work.

You can do all of that stuff and add in bushing the firing pin and sleeving the bolt...and none of it will do half what installing a good Bartlein, Brux, Krieger, Schneider, etc. barrel would do.

Look at GA Precision, Gre-Tan, Long Rifles inc, etc.

You absolutely can. The factory barrel isn't great but it's not bad, either.  I did what you're thinking of doing and the rifle does all right.

Adding a new barrel is going to be a better investment if you shoot that particular rifle a lot.

It's absolutely not worth it.  You'd have to rechamber the factory barrel which might help some but it's still a fActory blank.  A good barrel properly chambered is the real heart of any precision rifle. I won't even mess with a 700 action now, let alone a factory barrel. 

Yes, you can.

BUUUUT,

facing and truing the receiver, lapping lugs, etc, is all moving metal, so chances are you will have to clean up the chamber with a reamer to get proper headspace.

And, unless you do it all yourself, it will be fairly expensive, at which point you say to yourself, " Self, why am I sinking many hundreds of dollars into this rifle only to retain the mediocre, mass production factory barrel when for a few hundred more I can add a premium barrel?"

You are already spending the bucks for most of the machining operations, why not have it done to an upgraded barrel.

But it can be done, yes.

I rebarrelled my Remington 600 with a factory barrel , but I have a neighbor with a lathe, surface grinder, and mill, so Mine was done for beer money, and included machining lessons.

Thanks for the replies.  Looks like it's not worth it to keep the factory barrel.  My idea was to build a semi custom rifle but it looks like it's just about all or nothing with bolt guns.  What about using a pre threaded/pre chambered barrel from Shilen and just having the receiver face trued up?  Would that give me a better than factory rifle?

Yep, not my style, but it is an upgrade over factory.

I'll just add in that truing a Remington is a waste of money unless you're doing it yourself.

Since you are new to bolt guns, why not just shoot the rifle the way it is for now before you dump lots of money into something you might not stay with, and might be hard to liquidate later.  If you really like longer range bolt gun shooting you can upgrade later.  Spend your money on ammo and range time.

Dont spend a dime on gunsmithing a 700 action unless it is to put on a quality barrel. You might as well light it on fire for all the difference you will see down range.

With a 700 it is all or nothing. The only thing you can do to a 700 that will have a real impact is put on a good barrel. Chances are you dont even have to mess with truing the action but a lot of smiths push it just to make sure and it makes them money.

The cheapest easiest way to play in the long range game is sell your 700 and buy something like an RPR or Tikka CTR. Building up a 700 is the most expensive biggest pain in the ass way to get into it there is. Ask me how I know.

With the 700 you will spend $350-$380 for a quality blank and $400-$500 for chambering, muzzle threading and cerakote plus shipping each way. Call it $800-$900 all in for a ready to shoot barreled action on your receiver. You can find new RPR's and Tikka CTR's for $1200.  Sell your 700 for $500 buy one of those and you come out $100 ahead with a stock you can use and a detachable mag system.

Are you allready capable of out shooting what you have ? If you can shoot it anywhere near as well as it shoots locked down in a rest then a compleatly custom rifle is in order.

To answer the question: IMO..should you feel the need to tinker.
Better trigger.
Check or re do the crown.
Bed it.
Free float the barrel.
Lap the bolt.

In that order.

I pillar bedded mine using a kit from midway. I have 2 wood stocked for hunting and was pleased with the results. I agree if you are truing the action I would add a new barrel when it is put back together.

Don't waste your money or time. All 700 actions are warped from the factory. Remington does all the machining on soft steel to save money on tooling.  After the action is machined then they heat treat it to bring it up to the proper hardness. The heat treating warps the finished product.  Most new actions that I see are lucky if both bolt lugs make 20% contact.  The majority only make contact on one lug and the other is just swinging in the air. The minimum that I do is to put the action in a mandrel and recut the face  between centers.  Lap the bolt lugs into the receiver till the make 100% contact. I recut the bolt face to match the front of the receiver.  Throw away the factory recoil lug and buy a good surface ground straight one. Anything more is just a waste of money.

I think this is what I will end up doing.  I have already replaced the trigger with a Timney.  The factory crown on this rifle is embarrassing so I've already contacted ADCO about having it recut.  Barrel is already floated.  Stock is an HS Precision with aluminum bedding block but I may skim bed it just because I like to tinker.  I probably won't lap the bolt though for fear of going to far.

This is a 100-yard, ten-shot group using hand loads (44 Varget, 168 Sierra Match Kings) and the Leupold M3LR 10X scope in the above photo:



Stock 700V barrel, cut .25 off the back end and re-chambered.  Action blueprinted and trued.  Bedded in an H-S Varmint (probably an inch and a half forward of the Tubb or Badger lug, I forget which and am too lazy to track down the log book).

Rifle has a CG X-treme trigger.

168s usually shoot tighter than 175 SMKs in my rifles, bolt or semis.

No.

I took my Rem 700 in .243 to Score High in ABQ for a rear site.  I asked the owner a Master Smith what he thought of the 700, he's a custom builder and has built unlimited comp guns on the action.  Guns that win matches.  

I told him what I wanted, a 250-300 yard pack rifle. It came in at 5.8 .lbs. and an RCH.  I asked him about keeping the stock barrel vs. blue printing the action to a custom barrel.  His answer was Rem barrels are not the greatest, but they're good.  I asked him about changing the trigger, rebarrel to .358 and add QD scope mounts.

I think he would have hung up on me at this point except he ordered parts and my thougthts wewre rather dumb for New Mexico.  Long story, he's a really nice person and an old school Master Smith.

When I asked him about accuracy building it on the stock barrel, he said it will shoot a lot better, or a little better, depending on how it shot before.  It shoots better, with irons how much is hard to say.  I have more roads to travel.

On my Rem wood stock, it was a 2x4.  Not as bad as a Ruger M77 but close.

I waited 8 months for a Brown Precision composite blank.  After removing and turning the barrel (sites removed and resoldered on), the receiver turned (bolt nicely grooved, handle hollowed) the blank inletting is fucking perfect on a custom machined rifle.  

So as to your question?  I have a 100% custom rifle built on a 100% stock rifle.  I don't have (nor want) even a magazine.  My .243 is less than the size and weight of many .22  Long Rifle bolt guns.  It's not for everyone, but it is what was created with a man that has doing this his entire life.  When and if you send your rifle to a Master Smith and he says no, listen.  He knows what he's doing.

What matches would those be, and when?

That's a damn fair question.  One I can't answer.  I had some links that could answer that but not anymore.

Charley Robertson is pretty down to earth.  You could call him and ask.Score High

Stuff he builds.  I'm lucky as hell to have a beater Rem 700 his shop made for me.


Obviously that's not my gun.



Call and and ask:

Contact
Score High Gunsmithing
9812-A Cochiti Rd SE
Albuquerque, NM 87123
1-800-326-5632
Monday - Friday 9:00 to 5:00

2016


2015



And a few years back:

I won't repeat what others have said but if you're trying to get away with as little work/investment possible for the biggest amount of improvement, before you start hitting diminishing returns, I have had very good success with Pac-Nor fully machined barrels (short shoulder, move the headspace by facing the shoulder back) on actions with trued receiver faces and bolt lugs (but not re-cut threads).

I'm not claiming the above is the "best" just that it's been successful in building (true) <1 MOA guns for me from 1.5-2 MOA guns.  By "true" I mean 25 shot averages in the .6-.7 range.

Oh, indeed.

My $.02 from a guy who has owned a M700 PSS since 94...
I bought it along with a MK4 -M1 Leupold  with a Premier Mildot reticle.. it was what I thought was the hot set up at that time.

I ran it stock for the first few years and shot Federal Gold Match 168 gr SMK. It shot 1/2MOA-100 yds all day...
Last year I got back into the long range game... I wanted a detachable magazine but did not want to spend $300 on a M5 Badger.
So I bought a PT&G bottom and sent the stock to HS Precision who inletted the stock for $50

This year I felt I wanted a Brake so I could see my hits and lessen the recoil.. but the barrel was not threaded.. so $125 later. I had the barrel threaded.
I picked up a Like new APA Little bastard brake for another $130...

Gun still shoots better then me... decided to start running 175 gr SMK's... replicated the MK316 sniper round.
Using 41.7 grs of IMR 4064... the gun shot a 5 rd cloverleaf at 100 yds...

Now the gun is in getting the bolt handle TiG welded back on the bolt body as the Silver solder finally gave up the ghost...

When I get it back.. I'm going to just shoot it.... no more upgrades... just ammo and range time...

His epoxy is great.

LOL!  I think that was embellishment by Tequila.

A professional pillar bedding job will allow your factory rifle to be all it can be. That alone will set you back $200+. I use Alex Sitman of Master Class Stocks.

I have owned several factory rifles that I had him blueprint and pillar bed.

This is the thing.  Has OP actually shot the rifle with match ammo to see how it groups?  I have had two Remington 700s that shot very tight with the factory barrel.  

Take it from me, i spent over $1k on blueprinting, rebarreling, and bolt upgrading. No way id do that again, which is why i got a Bergara BMP for nearly the same cost as that accuracy work. Id rather just get a Tempest or the like and be done with it from the get go..