How much free bore should a Remington 700 have? It is chambered in 7mm Ultra. I can get the bullet cole to the lands.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho_Elk_Hunter:
How much free bore should a Remington 700 have? It is chambered in 7mm Ultra. I can get the bullet cole to the lands.

If you can seat your bullet so that it touches the lands AND still fit in the magazine, then that would be about the right amount of free bore...

Man I had some typo's

How much free bore should a Remington 700 have? It is chambered in 7mm Ultra. I cant get the bullet close to the lands.

I have tryed the Interbond 154's and the Barnes Tsx's and I cant get them to touch anywhere close. Is it a Remington screw up or is that just the way they planned on making them?

The exact amount of freebore in the 700 I can't tell you. Factory guns come with way too much freebore. I'm surprised the Remingtons shoot as good as they do considering the slop in the throat.

If you're not getting the results you want with the throat set up the way it is, the barrel can be set back a few turns to either close the existing throat, or, to the point where a new and much tighter throat could be installed that would be more to your liking.

If I can get the rifle to shoot accurately,I really don't care how far the bullets are from the lands.In one of my 7mmstw rifles the bullets are .075" from the lands and the groups are 1/2".In one 300ultramag the tsx is .120" from the lands and the groups average 5/8".However I did own a 257wby mark V that would do no better than 1" with .200" freebore.I had the rifle rebarreled with much less freebore and it now shoots sub 1/2".However the improvement in accuracy may be because of a much better barrel rather than less freebore.

Can one of you tell me how to ch to see how far the bullet is off the rifling? I just made up a dummt round and have the bullet out as far as it will go to cycle through the magazine. It is a bit sticky there. and very slightly hard to close but isnt leaving and marks on the bullet. If I seat it a little deeper it is fine.

I don’t have a Stony Point Gauge so I use a cleaning rod method. Place the rife horizontally in a secure position on sand bags, etc. Remove the bolt. I take the bullet I’m going to use and carefully insert it into the chamber point first to touch the lands. I use a pencil eraser end to hold it there. Using a coated rod with a flat end, I run the rod in the barrel from the muzzle until I touch the bullet point. You can feel it by touch. Carefully let go of the rod and place a piece of tape on the rod marking the rod at the end of the barrel. Knock the bullet out with the rod. Install the bolt and close it. Run the rod on in until the end touches the bolt face. Again carefully mark the rod with tape at the barrel end. Pull the rod out and measure the tape marks rod tip side distance. That will give you the Cartridge Overall Length with the bullet touching the lands. Subtract as desired to allow for length off the lands. This length will change with each type of bullet and sometimes with bullet lots. Many times the cartridge will not come close to fitting into the magazine with that OAL so you are forced to seat to fit the magazine, lengthen the magazine or have the barrel set back to correct the freebore. The Stony Point is the way to go.

I use the simplest method of all to measure distance to the lands.

1-take a fired case and put a dent in the edge of the neck so a bullet can still be pushed into the case neck with your finger with some resistance.

2-barely start your bullet of choice in the case neck.

3-place this bullet and case assembly in the chamber and gently close the bolt

4-gently open the bolt and remove the case and bullet assembly.

5 measure the overal length of this assembly

6-repeat steps 2 to 5 a few times until you are getting consistant readings.

7-the resulting overall length is the overall cartridge length that will place the bullet against the lands.

8 remember that you must repeat this procedure for each different bullet style or weight.

I did it with the rod as imhance suggested. came up with 3.980. The max length that I can get to go through the magazine is 3.683
A difference of .297 it will have to jump. Ok Stubblejumpers way come out to 3.980 same thing.

So how bad is .297 ??

IEH
As the "touching the lands for accuracy" is a old wives tail, and can be quite dangerious for beginners to attempt, Remchester has decided to make it harder for you to kill yourself. Now you know why the chamber is so freeking long. Gunsmiths love people that freek out about it, because they can make so much money by "repairing" something that isn't broke.

Point being, find a load that shoots to your standards for hunting and still fits into the magazine. The amount of "jump to the lands" "freebore" (or whatever else you want to call it) dosn't matter to the critter your killing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Idaho_Elk_Hunter,
stublejumper has the idea. The only thing I do differently is I split the case neck using a dremel tool with the abrasive cut-off wheel then squeeze it alittle. This gives it enough friction to hold the bullet. I have made these for every caliber I load for.
Headache

Shouldn't a big over bore round like a 7MM UltraMag have some extra free bore? Kind of a safety issue I would think.

Terry

Sure, haven't Weatherby's got heaps of it??