I have found an older REmington 700 ADL for sale and am wondering whether it is worth jumping on. It is a long action in 7mm Remington magnum. Action seems relatively clean, the wood (original with pressed checkering panels) is pretty dinged up but solid. The barrel is the iffy part. Most of the blueing is gone- actually looks as though something (blood perhaps) was spilled on it, leaving blotchy bare spots most of its length. Front bead is missing as is the height adjuster for the rear. Gun looks well used, comes with weaver mounts and a crappy off brand scope. Price is $199.

I really don't need a magnum for my shooting interests, would like to go elk/moose hunting some day though. Would prefer something based on the .473 boltface (how hard would it be to get a different bolt?). Currrently 2506/260 remington are my "big" rounds. Could this thing be bead blasted and reblued/parkerized/coated? I was thinking of followign that route and giving the factory barrel a try, then rebarreling if that did not pan out.

What do you think? Is it worth it as an investment/project?

CAL9

700 actions are popular. That's not a bad price IF it's what you want. IMHO, the two best actions for projects to work with are the 700 and M98's as the choice of aftermarket stuff is so great.

Just remember by the time you get it stocked, barrelled, and blued in some fashion or another, you'll have quite a bit into it.

I think that's a pretty fair price, assuming the bore is in good shape. If it were me, I wouldn't need iron sights on that caliber anyway, so I would just remove the rest of the rear.

Assuming the bore is in good shape, metal refinishing around here is less than $100.00. The stock can be refinished easily by yourself.

It's never worth trying to change a bolt, or for that fact to rebarrel into a standard caliber if the gun shoots OK. Too much work, and consequently too much money.

Ryan

It seems like this is your chance to get your feet wet. For that price you could fool around with it and learn.

Barrels can be painted with automotive paint. They look pretty good too. Just keep the bore solvent off of the paint.

The idea as suggested above is not to put much money into it.

There is a chance however that it's defective in some manner? Thus you should have an agreement with the seller that's it's suitable for what it's being sold for.

No way would I buy it where is, as is. $200 is still 7 tanks of gas.

If the action is complete, it is a steal at $200. If you don't buy it let me at it. I also have a .473 face bolt, long action bolt I would trade or you could have that one converted with a Sako extractor. E-mail me.

Just a guess, but I would bet it's an early model with a flat safety instead of a round button? If so, that splotchy barrel blueing is because the barrel is stainless and Rem didnt know how to get a good blue onto it. I have a BDL 7 mag and had an ADL like your talking and both had the stainless barrels. Someone would have had to really abuse the rifle to hurt that barrel, they shoot very well. I'd say you have a steal there, better grab it.

Why not try to keep it as is, If you don't really care for magnums why not load this 7mm to .270/.280/30-06 power levels that way you have the best of both worlds brass would last forever and you could always juice it up when needed

Well, I stopped back in today, and it was still there (pawnshop). And it still looks pretty tough. I offered the guy $175 for it. He countered with $185 and a 30 day lay away. So, I gave him $50 down. ACtion is pretty dirty, but tight. It is an older model with a different style safety button (flattened?) than the current issue. I think what I'll do is get it home and clean it up somewhat, see if it'll shoot. Then decided where to go from there. Might need some refinishing advice in the near future. Jim Kobe- I did try to email you, but it bounced.

Thanks Guys,

CAL

If you find an old Magnum BDL like that, let me know, I want one.

I paid $180 for the Rem 700 BDL I got used last year.

It is a 22-250 with some throat wear, but I figured the action was worth that.

If the rifle is a magnum and is old enough to have pressed checkering, you can figure the bore is trash. But then, $200 ain't bad for a Remington action. Let it be a project gun. pull some money together and get a barrel. Get some more money and take it to the smith and have the barrel mounted and the whole thing reblued. A good smith will work with you on this. A nice aftermarket stock, etc. Also, since you would be rebarrelling it, you could make it into some "gee everybody doen't have one of those" cartridges. Just post a thread "if you were re-barrelling a magnum action, what would you go to" and you'll get enough suggestions to keep you up late at night reading.