Remington 700 SPS-AAC tactical in 6.5 creedmore LNIB - $500
Leupold VX-3i CDS 4.5x14 - $450 plus $50 gift card so net - $400

I’ll shoot this as is and the decide if I want to replace the stock which I imagine I will.

This will be a hunting rifle and an intro into longe range shooting.

It'll get the job done for sure. For a combo hunting/target rig, it'll work very well, but it's probably more on the "hunting" end the of the spectrum than it is target.

Once you get more into shooting LR, you'll be wanting a longer barrel to increase velocities; you'll also want a higher magnification scope, as well as a scope that raises/lowers the turret when you dial in elevation. I have a couple of those CDS VX3is and they're really good glass, but you can lose what rotation you're in pretty easily if you aren't diligent about immediately resetting it.

About the only thing you'll need to replace out of the gate is the trigger; it's almost impossible to get a factory remington trigger low enough, or smooth enough for target work (queue the army of people with 2lb triggers telling me those are good lol.)  I'd personally want to be at the 1.5-1lb range at the highest end.

Go shoot the thing; burn the barrel out. By the time you've done that, you'll of probably figured out exactly what you want, and you can have a gunsmith screw a premium aftermarket tube on there.

Thanks!  Any specific trigger I should look into?

You'll get a ton of different answers to that question; I'm partial to Jewell, Trigger Tech, and Timney.

Just remember, before you spend any $ on custom gun stuff (besides a trigger, because I agree, rem factory triggers suck)....learn to work your gun.

If you are shooting at the extent of your rifle's capability, even if that is only MOA or whatever precision.... you will be a good shooter with a rifle that can put every shot through a ragged hole.

Learn how to work your rifle, your scope, and deal with changes in range, temp and such.

Until you learn to work a rifle, a scope, and how all of those things go together....a high end precision rifle (and all it's costs) are not going to do you much good.

The way I look at it is this:  you got yourself a good rifle for work that doesn't need extreme precision at extreme distances.  That's not a bad thing to have as long as you understand it's limitations.  Once you figure out it's limitations and it's positives (like not having an extremely long barrel......long barrels are great at some things, but suck at others), then think about what you want in your next gun.  What you want it to do, what you want to do with it.

But from my experience shooting a variety of guns in a variety of conditions, until I had time shooting, I didn't truly know what mattered to me in order to get the results I wanted.

Worst case, you shoot the original barrel out and you rework your action into something you want based upon your experiences and your desires.

Best case, you figure out what you want sooner than you burn that rifle's barrel out.  Now you have a hunting gun you understand very well and you can build the rifle you really want.  It will be about as expensive to build a whole new rifle as it will to eek the performance out of the action you have.  And you have 2 rifles instead of just 1.

Solid advice, thanks!

My plan is to “retire” this rifle eventually to hunting only and build a dedicated precision rig.

His advice is spot on.

The good thing is, you've now got a 700 action. So you don't necessarily have to retire it to "just hunting". You can turn it into whatever the hell you want, and it'll shoot with the custom actions provided you spend the money.

I would shoot the piss out of the thing if I were you; go learn *how* to shoot at long range. You'll learn the skill, and like fla556guy said, you'll learn what you want in a rifle.

Set a goal to have the barrel just about burned out (~2500rds) in 9-12 months etc. You'll pick it up fast with that much trigger time.