I am in the process of purchasing a .223 centrefire.

At the moment, my leaning is towards a Sako 75 Hunter or a Tikka T3.

However, in most of the reading I have done , on forums etc, the very reasonably priced Remington 700 Series does not seem to rate a mention.

I suspect it may be like motor vehicles. The tried and true more basic models are ignored in favour of the more colourful imports.

Can anyone shed some light on their view on this , relatively, new series . As a matter of interest, it has proven a real runaway success in Australia.

Robert,
When you said "tried and true" that about sums up my feelings of the M700. The SAKO is a very fine rifle I have 3 in my safe now. I'm sure the Tika is first quality also but I have not owned one. Along with an assortment of other bolt guns there are 8 M700's in my battery now. That should tell you what I think of them.

I am a born again 700 owner. Safe, stylish, functional. Lotsa after marker stuff for them.

Robert,
I have shot and loaded for several types of rifles. The 700 is the only rifle that I have owned (that has been several) that is affordable, and yet, usually shoot's well right out of the box, if not, requires very little tweaking to do so. I have 1 in 223. She's a tack driver w/o any tweaking. The Sako/Tikka are fine rifles but at added expense.

Good barrels, triggers, stocks and accurate with little work. As far as reliability goes they are the backbone of most sniper rifles. I own 7 myself and love them.

I am a great admirer of sakos but never owned one,but there was a recent thread on the gunsmithing forum about some recent quality issues.w/regards

I have too say, of all the rifles I've ever used, 700's are the most problematic gun's I've ever seen!!! They are usaully accurate enough, IF you can ever get one too feed a round into the chamber, extracting a round is an even more difficult task for a Remington

MC, interesting. I've bought 700's for over 40 years (and still own most of them) and never had a feed nor extract problem. Perhaps you need to review your reloading techniques.

quote:

Originally posted by iwzbeeman:
MC, interesting. I've bought 700's for over 40 years (and still own most of them) and never had a feed nor extract problem. Perhaps you need to review your reloading techniques.

I'm talking factory ammo, and new Remington rifles.

I own eight Model 700 action, three Weatherby and two Sako actions. And I've never had any problems with my 700's and everyone has shot 1/2" groups or less. The Model 700 has sold over 4.5 million action, the number one selling action out there. 4.5 million shooters, hunters can't be wrong.

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by MajorCaliber:

quote:

Originally posted by iwzbeeman:
MC, interesting. I've bought 700's for over 40 years (and still own most of them) and never had a feed nor extract problem. Perhaps you need to review your reloading techniques.

I'm talking factory ammo, and new Remington rifles.

Yall must be talking bout them short and super short mags. never ever had an issue with a 700 and one of them old boring run of the mill cartridges( lol) as long as reloads was kept inside the max mag length.

Ya wanna talk about feeding problems, I have had 3 mod. 70's, (300win, 06' & 375 H&H), all CRF actions. Upon extracting the first fired rd. all of the cartridges jump out of the magazine before your eyes. What ya gonna feed now? These were all factory rifles & factory ammo... Never have had a feed problem with a 700, with factory or reloaded ammo... Note: Winchester was unable to cure the problems 4 me.

I really like the Remington 700. I have a custom mauser, & a Model 70 Winchester, from the mid 60's, & my 700's will out shoot both.

quote:

Originally posted by MajorCaliber:

quote:

Originally posted by iwzbeeman:
MC, interesting. I've bought 700's for over 40 years (and still own most of them) and never had a feed nor extract problem. Perhaps you need to review your reloading techniques.

I'm talking factory ammo, and new Remington rifles.

My experience with the 700 has been, 5 rifles, 40 years of use, no feeding problems, no extracting problems, lots of accuracy.

I've got a factory original Remington 700 BDL in .222. It will put 5 shots under 0.6 inches at 100 yards using Remington factory ammo and gets down into the low 0.4s and high 0.3s with handloads. Can't ask for anything better than that.

My 700ADL in .223 was glass bedded, and the trigger adjusted while waiting for scope mounts to come in the mail. It turned out to be one of the most accurate rifles I've seen. It's got it's problems though, it's got a "sloooow" barrel, and for some reason, the extractor peels brass off the rim of every case I've chambered. I've replaced the extractor but it's no better. Beginning to believe the groove is too small.