A friend's Rem 700 wears 5 * on its bbl. He believes it means a factory selected quality bbl. I never saw or heard of it. Any info ?

Do you mean the five ***** thingies stamped into the barrel either side of the read instruction manual available from remington arms foolishness stamped into the barrel warning ?? It means nothing. Every barrel had this stamped on it for a number of years. I see most of the newer remingtons don't have this warning stamped there any more.

It means nothing.

Sorry. It's like "Love" in tennis.