I have a Remington .300 Ultra that no matter what, I have not been able to get to shoot, feed correctly, etc.

I have decided to have it re-done to a .338. Haven't decided if it will be a Win. Mag or Ultra Mag.

My questions are this:

From experience and knowledge, which round do you prefer?

Can you recommend a gunsmith who is good at re-barreling work and works with sporters, not just bench rifles?

We have several good smith's here, but they mostly do bench rifles and from our experience, have some difficulty with sporter type, sized rifles. I know, they should be able to do both, but when they get out of their nitch, there are problems.

Names and numbers would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Sam

eclemmons@hotmail.com

Send it to Shilen and let them do the whole thing! That's what I did.

Jim Kobe does some pretty fine accuracy work on hunting rifles, and he guarentees satisfaction.

http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/jkobe/

Blue

Or Krieger.

Or PAC-NOR.

Or John Ricks.

Or Bill Leeper.

Or..., well you get the idea. There are a lot of good ones around if you are essentially just rebarrelling. I would stick with the RUM series so that feeding does not become an issue.

Big Sam,

The last three Rem M700 I have taken apart and blue printed for customers have shown a real problem with quality control from the workers at Remington.

The first was a M700 stainless/synthetic in 338 RUM. The problem was that this rifle kicked the hell out to the owner who had never owned anything larger then a 30-06.

First thing I did was a trigger job to get the 6 lb trigger down to an very clean 3 lbs and headed to the range to see what the owner ment by this rifle would not shoot.

The first group I fired through it went into 1.5 inches for three shots and the owner was amazed, that was half the size of his groups. He tried it again and still got 3 to 3.5" groups so I recommended we install a Holland Quick discharge muzzle brake if he wasn't opposed to a brake.

He agreed and I installed the brake the next day and called him to come out and try it on the range. It took a few groups and alot of coaching to get him over his flinch but he was quickly playing with the 1.5" groups size.

His next question was if we could make it better so I discribed what we could do with the factory rifle and then what we could do with some after market options.

He decided to have a heavier Laminated stock installed with a kick-eez recoil pad(I highly recommend on heavy kickers) and pillar bedded to the action. He also wanted the action blue printed and while at it see how the barrel looked.

When I got the rifle apart, it was clear that this was a 1.5" rifle and would never be anything different. After I cleaned up all the critical areas of the action I took a look at the barrel which was a machinest nightmare, everything was out of square and the thread fit was looser then, well, very slopy.

I had to cut off .750" of the barrel shank and refit the barrel and installed a much stronger recoil lug. I then rechambered the barrel which had a chamber so bad that it only barely cleaned up as I reached full chamber depth.

I also recrowned the muzzle which I do with all factory barrels that have any work done on them.

Put things back together and had the owner come out again. He wanted me to try the rifle out first so I fired three rounds down range after I explained to him how poor this rifle was originally put together. I made it clear to him that it may not be a sub 1 moa rifle, EVER.

Those first three rounds went into a perfect 3/4" cloverleaf. I was a little surprised and the owner almost fell over. He then shot three rounds and bettered my group by a few thousandths and said this cannon kicked less then his 25-06. Do not know if I quite would say that but who can argue with a happy customer?

The other two Rem M700's I have tuned recently were almost the same situation. One responded very well to setting the barrel back and rechambering. It was a Rem 700 short action varminter in 22-250. After it was blue printed and rechambered to 22-250 AI, it became a rifle that shoots into the .2" and .3" range.

The other was a Rem 700 ADL in 30-06. This action and barrel were so bad that I recommended to the owner that we rebarrel the rifle. He wanted something a little lighter then the 30-06 so he decided to go with the 6.5-06 AI. I fitted a Lilja barrel with the replacement recoil lug and also replaced the stock with an aftermarked laminated stock that was pillar bedded to the action.

That rifles first group after barrel break in was five shots into .239" shot by the owner. He asked if I would try the rifle and I fired another 5 rounds into .251". Remember these groups were fired with virgin 25-06 brass necked up to 6.5 mm and fired in a 6.5-06 Imp chamber.

He has since called me back and informed me that at 500 yards, still using fireforming loads, he is getting 2" groups.

If you are looking for extreme accuracy, rebarreling with a quality chamber job is the way to go. Along with that, you would be very wise to have a stronger aftermarket recoil lug installed and have the action blue printed and pillar bedded into a quality stock.

If you are looking for a "good" hunting rifle, it is pretty easy to do with less fuss.

As far as which rounds to use, I agree that since the rifle is set up for the RUM case already, the 338 RUM would be my choice of those listed.

It may be interesting to you though that I built myself a pronghorn rifle using a Rem M700 action that was origianlly a RUM action. I rebarreled the action and chambered it to the super flat 257 STW and even with the RUM box and feed lips, it feed flawlessly. Some will not though, better to be safe then sorry.

If you would be interested in my prices for such work let me know and I can e-mail you the information.

The great thing about the magnificent M700 action is that no matter how bad it comes from the factory, 99% of the time you can turn them into real tack drivers.

Good Shooting!!!

50

I built a 300 Ultra when they first came out, it was hard to get it to feed.



The 338 win mag is hard to beat, for the life of me I don't know why I built that ultra, I'd go with 338 win mag.



In one of the threads somebody said Shilen, they are good. If I'm not mistaken the gun smith I use in South Texas Dewight Marshal has done work for Shilen when they got behind. Dewight builds a very accurate rifle. He is big on shilen barrells.



Dewight has a couple of my guns, he has built many very accurate sporters, most of his clients are the south texas shoot long ways sendero hunters. The south texas brush country is not a bad place to be in the gun business, lots of hunters.

Split the difference and build a .330 Dakota.

Thanks to everyone so far. I see that I should have made more reference to the rifle.

It IS a CUSTOM gun, not factory. I do not know what caliber the action came from. It wears a Shilen Select match barrel and is on a H-S Precision stock.

The first smith did use a heavy lug. The second smith that I took it to changed that and 'profiled' the action again, setting back the barrel and re-did the chamber. It was an improvement, but not a consistant sub MOA, where I require all of my rifles to be.

As far as recoil.....Before I went to Africa this last time, I had fired almost 800 rounds between my .416 Rigby and .375 H&H. A lot of those from the bench. My targets have been featured in North Fork advertizements. The .416 shoots 5 shots into a 1/2" hole. Recoil and markesmanship are not an issue.

If this information changes any recommendations, please let me know.

Thanks again.

Sam

eclemmons@hotmail.com

Big Sam,



What kind of bedding system do you have in that rifle?



Being a H-S stock, I assume it has the full length bedding block. Even with this, if it is not bedded, you can sometimes get stability problems with the M700 action.



What work was done with the action prior to fitting the barrel? Has it been blue printed or was the receiver face just turned and barrel installed or was the barrel just fitted?



I hate to question the barrel as the Shilen Select Match barrels are usually pretty good.



If you know what typr of reamer was used, I hope it was one with a floating pilot bushing and if so did your smith match the pilot to the bore to the nearest 0.0002" bushing size?



Also, what bullet are you using in your loads? Generally if the rifle is put together well with a match grade barrel, they will shoot nearly all quality bullets under 1 moa.



My story about the fella getting beat up by his 338 RUM was in no way telling you that you can not handle the recoil, just what happened with this shooter which led the way to getting the rifle apart and seeing what the real problem with his M700 was.



One very simple problem may be the crown, was the crown recut by the second smith?



Also, what barrel contour is on the rifle? I have found that most lighter barrel contours, from .550" to .675" or so muzzle diameter will generally throw the last shot of a three shot group because of barrel heat.



I tell my customers to make sure the barrel cools between each shot for accuracy testing.



I have all of the RUM's for personal rifles except the 338. All will drop the first two shots on top of each other and the third will open up to the 1" to 1 1/4" range if fired quickly.



If I space the shots out and let the barrel cool between shots, they will shoot on average under 3/4 moa with 5 shot groups.



I missed the part where you said you were having feeding problems in your original post, I would bet this is a standard magnum action converted to the RUM. Depending on your feeding problems, sometimes just ordering a RUM mag box from Brownells will solve alot of your problems along with a RUM follower if it has not been replaced.



I have found the standard belted mags will feed fine throught the RUM action but not the other way around as a rule.



Good Shooting!!!



50

I'm not a gunsmith but have had problems myself. What I found with my .338 Win Mag was that it wasn't a single problem but a total contribution.
I let myself get talked into getting a muzzle brake cut into the factory barrel with an EPDM Lazer. Well, it looked neat but that was about it.
The gun would pattern at best. I thought maybe it was me, as this was my first "Magnum". I let others try to shoot it and gave up. I took it to a gunsmith we know and asked for his opinion. His first response was that the holes for the brake were not spaced properly and would cause un-even pressure on the bullet. It wasn't hard to decide to cut it off and loose a couple inches of barrel. That didn't fix the problem.
In the end, it had been bedded, trigger work, cut and crown the barrel. The action wasn't worked over. It will shoot less than 1" groups with most bullets now. Still in the factory walnut, no pillars, and factory barrel.
The thing is it's a Ruger M77. I've always wondered if just bedding it and cleaning up the trigger works would have solved the problem from the start.
Each little thing can negatively effect the stability. I now have a Ruger that shoots really well, but I learned to start with the bedding and trigger, the crown and if thats not enough then you're looking at serious time and/or money.
I can't say much about the feeding and would agree that it probably started a standard mag and was not ready for the wider Ultra.
I'd also seriously look at a .330 Dakota even though I have nothing bad to say about the .338 WM.

I hav eone for sale that I built last summer for a fall elk hunt. I let my son use it and he shot his first elk with it. It is on a pre-'64 model 70 action, shilen barrel, Rimrock stock (black), Leupold 2.5 x 8 in PM detachable rings. The complete metalwork has be tef-coated.

Email me if you are interested; it is used after all.

Jim

50,

The action is glass bedded in the aluminum block to fit this action. R.A.Burge from Colorado did the first work. He was a custom smith and I am not aware of all of the details on what he did, but I told him and he agreed with me on the action work. I can only presume that he did the full action detailaing. The barrel is a #4 taper, 26" with his break on it. As a side note, he made me one of the most frightining accurate .243 Win. with a 1X14" twist that I shoot 55gr. bullets out of. It's a Shilen Ultra Select Match S.S. barrel.

I have shot almost every available bullet and powder combo imaginable. I was looking at my data sheets and have been working on this for over two years. Our local smith took it apart and did what he calls 'profiling' on the action. he put the standard lug back on, set the barrel back and re-chambered. The muzzle was re-crowned and break re-installed. I had replaced the magazine box and follower when I first got the gun.(should have been a clue) Like I said, there was an improvement, but not to my standard.

The decision now is to go with a .338 and would like to use this action. I have two more Remington S.S. actions available to me but they are 7mm and .300 mags, not Ultras.

I am trying to make up my mind now as to which .338 I will go with. What do you think about this action for the .338 Ultra?

Thanks for your interest.

Sam

Call Mike Scherz of Yuma, AZ. He's on the forums as MichaelS. This is a Springfield '03 that he built in .338 Win for me.