I have a Rem.700 VSS/Police in .308 with the composite stock and aluminum bedding.

I took it out yesterday and shot it for its first time. Ever since a friend of mine found cracks in the reciever of a new SW pistol after its first shooting, I have made a habit of fully disassemling guns after their first time out at the range to check for any problems.

When I unbolted the reciever, I found that the front screw was only threaded in just over 1 turn. On closer inspection I found that the counter sinking of the front reciever screw was slightly less than the rear screw and the hole itself is slightly off center. There was no discernable flash or casting faults in the bedding or the trigger gaurd preventing the 2 parts from coming together. The rear screw engaged 3 1/2 turns which is not quite enough to fully engage the rear tang on the reciever.

My questions are;
How deep should the reciever screws go into the reciever, surely 1 turn is not enough for .308, especialy on the front screw.

Should I deepen the counter sink on the trigger gaurd or send it back to the factory. The gun is over 5 years old and has been cased unfired so I am sure the warranty has expired. I have no desire to pay shipping for the entire gun when just the trigger gaurd can be fed-ex'd. Does any one have any idea how good Remmington is about this sort of thing?

As an alternative to deepening the countersink, I could thin the trigger gaurd itself on a lapping table, but I hesitate to do this because of the spring retainer for the magazine floor plate. Even if I counter sunk the front screw to match the rear, I think I would only gain perhaps 1 extra turn, so maybe a combination of the two? I don't have a mill so I can't do any modification to the bedding itself

Is the offcenter hole in the trigger gaurd any concern? It is not so far offcenter that it puts the screw on a bind but its just enough that the screw has to be jiggled a bit to make it engage the reciever.

Thanks in advance,

Josh

Don't go modifying anything. That is an HS Precision stock and they usually come with longer action screws because they are a little thicker than standard. Go to Brownells.com and order a longer set of 700 action screws and trim them to lenghth. The screws should be trimmed until they are flush, or, slightly less than flush so as not to interfere with the bolt.

Update,

I called Remington the Monday after I first posted and explained the proble. They where extremely polite and after taking downt he serial number, promised to send me a new set of screws right away. They arrived today exactly 7 days later. They appear to be exactly the same screw but turn in a few thousanths deeper, the profile of the counter sink is slightly different.

I called them back today and after another polite conversation they informed me that the rifle wa sout of warranty but the HS stock had a lifetime warranty and I should contact them. This was even after I explained that the trigger gaurd was well below Remington standard and that the holes where bored offcenter and appeared to be only partialy countersunk.

So I called HS and they put me on with a Knowledgable Person and after he asked several questions pertaining to screw length and and the like volunteered to send me a set of extra long screws after feeling assured I could compentantly grind them down to size.

I still feel somehow that Remington has pawned off a problem with their rifle (it is a custom shop job after all) onto one of their suppliers. I understand the rifle is out of warranty and all, but I could have easily gotten and eye full of scope at the least if that screw had failed, you would think they would perk up about a safety issue. The riffle has had exactly 50 rounds ran through it in one afternoon, its not like I am complaining about a funky trigger or sticky bolt or something like that.

I'll update again after I get the parts from HS,

Josh

I didnt know Remington had a limited warranty.

I bought a used LTR that had a out of spec reciever,
they sent me another rifle with the same stock.