Thread: Tips to rebuilding an old Remington 700 ADL into a LR rig

Originally Posted by 6x47

Mr Longrun scores the second troll point for the day

it's just a light quip there. Don't be so sensitive. Stop reading cancel culture material and breathe

Mate, just get a 700 take off and swap barrels, job done at bugger all cost, bedding, trigger control and seating depth are the most important considerations, not a thousand dollars worth of barrel, have used take off's lots of times and I would only go "special" brand names barrels to get a twist rate.

@XR500 Here is my advice based on what you have posted: you would like to keep the rifle and make it a project as opposed to selling it.

Start by keeping the barrel and determining the twist rate, then do some handloads with a 168-175gr bullet, the SMK is a good start.

If you can get it grouping within and inch and keep the quality of your hand loads within an SD of 10 and ES under 20 you will be good to at least 800m which is pretty good for the 308 / 7.62.

If your accuracy is not within 1" to start with but ammunition data is consistent (as above) then consider glass bedding the recoil lug at a minimum and torqueing the action screws consistently (you can group test at 30,40,50 inlb and see what it likes).

I'd spend your money on a decent rail and or rings with some cant in them, 20 MOA at least. Make sure the rail is epoxied to the action and your rings are correctly torqued.

Buy a decent scope (clear glass for your eyes) and make sure it tracks true (do a tall target test) or understand the error in the adjustment. Consistent adjustment is more important than the brand.

I'd then purchase a decent trigger: Timney are good, but Trigger Tech are my favourite as you can 'click adjust them'(if you don't know what I mean then google it).

Depending on the ergonomics of your scope size and cheek weld you can then look at spending money on a stock (KRG Bravo and MDT XRS are both great value for $$).

If you are recoil sensitive or shoot alone or you want to spot your own shots then look at a brake or suppressor. Brakes are more efficient at mitigating recoil, but are far less appealing to those shooting with and around you.

LR shooting is a deep rabbit hole and at the end of the day what matters to me is scope adjustment, trigger pull and consistency of the ammunition.

With time you will quickly find that the 308 suffers in the wind but is a great cartridge to learn how to shoot in the wind. The 6.5 and 6mm eat it for breakfast but get lost in the grass when you miss.

Good Luck!

Originally Posted by Longrun

it's just a light quip there. Don't be so sensitive. Stop reading cancel culture material and breathe

Both your posts were rather weak windup comments. Maybe try for some useful or more witty content next time.

You've completely misread my persona. Anyone who knows me is aware of my good sense of humour and -hate- of cancel culture.

Sorry there boss

@300_BLK has hit the nail on the head i think. Do that. Literally just do what he has written down haha

I got a 308 Varmint barreled action with a timney for cheap. Step one, I sent it off to TrueFlite and got it rebarreled to something with a bit more legs than 308 (though 308 is fine for 600-800 with the right ammo/handloads). Got the action trued up at the same time. Worked out not that much more expensive than getting a criterion pre-fit.

Step two is the stock. The cheap plastic jobbies aren't really up to the task if you want a proper LR/competition rig imo. Needs to be stiff so it can be loaded without flexing and heavier to soak up a bit more recoil for help spotting impacts/misses.

Lighten the trigger bed it and shoot it again after a thorough clean and see what it can do as is
Finding a heavy take off barrel might be difficult to find in the same finish as the old Remington blued


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Originally Posted by XR500

Well I have an old (1993) Remington 700 ADL in 308 with a heavy weight 'varmint' style blued barrel, basic synthetic stock, blind mag that the barrel has seen better days. In its day it had a LOT of mil surplus ammo through it at the range, and lots of 125 gn NBT through it at Sika. But it was used as a workhorse, and developed a few small spots of rust midway down the barrel from camping out under a fly a lot and staying wet, etc etc

It'll still do inch - inch and a half groups at 100, but my other wee rifle will do half inch when fed the right stuff, so I am looking at throwing some $ at it to get it up to hitting gongs, and reachout out beyond my self imposed 3 hundy for my other wee rifle.

So....the action itself should be fine to use...but are those new fandangled skeleton stocks the business or are they mostly for looks???

I'll get it rebarreled with a decent length stainless barrel, and I guess pay more for the action to be trued to the new barrel, bolt to the action etc etc. Trigger job or replacement trigger???

And then there will be the better bit of glass on top. Its currently sporting a 1990 Tasco Titan, which has not let me down...but looking through my new Loupy VX3hd is a bit of a wakeup call.

Thoughts from the guys who have gone through this process would be invaluable. Or is it cheaper to just go out and buy a new 308 that will already do 80% of what I want it to do???

Cheers guys...

Greetings @XR500,
You now have a pot full of opinions, some helpful and others not so much. At the end of the day it is your decision as it will be your rifle. Take your time. I find it helpful to sit down with a sheet of paper and write down what you want the rifle for. Be honest. Next what calibre would do what I need. Do I want my old .308 updated or do I want a new rifle. And so on. By the time you get to the bottom of your second sheet of paper you will know much more and an idea of what you want will be starting to emerge. Enjoy the process.
Regards Grandpamac.

Thanks again everyone for throwing their experience into the mix. Lots to think about, but it has certainly assisted in knowing where to spend the $$ initially.

Here she is when almost new: sporting a Gunworks suppressor that was #6 off the lathe when suppressors were very new (1996?). Very heavy, all 13 baffles are SS and VERY quiet

awesome...and it begs the question...have you considered spending $60-80-100 and getting simple recrown/rethread done and seeing if accuracy comes back somewhat???

it seems you like rifle you have got....wait a bit if the above doesnt work,rem 700 barrels keep popping up at reasonable prices.... a trigger upgrade could be just the ticket but if you happy with one in it now..why change?? just dont try one with the likes of a jewel trigger if you into precision shooting or will NEED ONE NOW!!!!!
my old model 70 .270 had 30 hard years of abuse and was still sub moa.....rifling didnt look flash,bore was oversized from get go but it still shot well,the addition of suppressor gave it a recrown which must have helped,why I suggested you try another crowning on yours,just to see.

The suggestion of using a rem 700 take off barrel is a good one i reckon.

Ive recently finished off a similar project.

I had an old Rem M7 in 260 rem, it had done alot of work when i brought it 2nd hand, and i gave it a fair bit of work too.

It was an older sliw twist 260 barrel and just wouldnt shoot anything heavier than 123gr well.

I grabbed a rem 700 takeoff barrel off the forum. 8 twist 6.5CM 24" long.

We spun the old barrel off ourselves and screwed the new 6.5CM barrel on, tighrened it up and checked the headspace, absolutely perfect. Too easy.

The 700 barrel was a slightly heavier profile than a M7, which was cool.

The factory plastic M7 stocks are super flexi (700's are too).

So i fitred a much stiffer B&C stock (another cheap 2nd hand forum purchase)

My barreled action dropped into the bedding perfectly.

My factory M7 trigger got a tickle up by forum member 7mmSaum a few years back and is well up to the task.

I threw an spare Weaver SuperSlam 3-15x42 ontop of it and loaded up some rounds with 143gr eldx (seated to fit the mag) in front of some go-go dust (Re26)

I got out yesterday to sight it in and shoot some test rounds.

I found some acceptable accuracy well under .5 moa and great velocity at 2910 fps with a low Sd.

Im really happy with how its come up, and It's cost me sweet bugger all.

A 143gr at that speed holds 1800+ fps and 1000+ ftlbs to 780 yards, so no slouch for a non mag SA case.

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I havnt fine tuned the seating depth yet, so hoping to get it shooting better yet.

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Please don’t discount the possibility of stiffening up the standard injection moulded stock with Fosters compound, that and a bedding job can be done reasonably easily for far less outlay than a new stock. Done it a number of times myself with great success.

Over the years I’ve done 3 different rifles (REM700 actions) with take off barrels, every one has been a shooter 0.5moa or better.