I'm building a remington 700 long action 6.5-284 what improvements can be made to the factory hardware, trigger, bolt, fireing pin, etc. I'm on a budget so My jewel trigger will have to wait, I understand that the lockup time can be reduced with some bolt work ????. This rifle will end up being a Krieger 28 fluted barrel 1-81/2 twist, a Mcmillan A5 Fully adjustable stock, Harris bipod, Zeiss Conquest 6.5 x 20 scope Ken Farrel 20 MOA base. Any suggestion on fine tuning would be greatly appreciated. Regards Steve

a recoil lug from Chandler or ?? would be a good idea too. The 700 desperately needs an extended bolt knob, IMO.

Kewl rig!

Redial

SEALDOGGY,

In no special order of importance, trigger adjusted to remove all creep, backlash and good pull weight. True the bolt face. Lap bolt lugs. Glass bed the stock. Install a Sako extractor. That would about do it. Good luck.

Sealdoggy,
It sounds to me as if you have a reasonable budget. Why skimp on the trigger? As far as "truing the bolt face" and lapping lugs don't bother unless you can go the full blueprint route. If you can do it all its worth it. Truing one part is a waste of time and money.

I would not put a Jewell trigger on a "tactical" rifle. If you want a trigger so good you won't believe it (for about $50) contact Neil Jones. He does a great job and can set the factory trigger down to almost 1 pound and the safety will still work. I had him do mine at just a bit of 2.5 pounds and shooters who have tried it estimate it much lower....no creep and no over-travel. Neil doesn't "adjust" them he "tunes" them using magic.

If you are serious about this project, don't mess around; go the full route, blueprint the damn thing and have the Sako extractor put in. There is nothing wrong with the Jewell trigger, except perhaps, it is the best on the market. I can do the whole job, email me.

Jim

I bought a Rem700BDL LH 30-06 back in 1995, and built it into a full custom heavy rifle. I was on a limited budget, and spent a couple years buying the "right stuff" to have the rifle I wanted in the end. It took some patience on my part, but I'm really glad I did it right. I love the rifle.

Douglas #7 stainless steel barrel
Bagder Ordnance floorplate
Badger Ord recoil lug
Badger Ord 20 moa base
Badger Ord rings
Badger Ord bolt knob
McMillan A2 stock
Leupold 6.5-20x50LR with M1 turrets, mildot reticle

Had it al assembled by Iron Brigade armory, bedded in devcon titanium compound, factory trigger tuned to 2.5 lbs, parkerized metalwork. Chambered in 30-06. the rifle shoots mollied 190gr Matchkings at 2900fps into sub.5moa groups, powered by 62gr RL22. Barrel is 1-10 twist, 26".

Good luck with your project. IMO it is best to go with the best components available the first time, even if you have to wait longer. MM

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Remember there's also Tubb's Speedlock : a set of light-weight firing pin and spring that reduces locktime.

The Remington can be improved by replacing only the extractor, safety, trigger, bolt handle, barrel, stock and action. Keep the rest as is.

I don't want to hijack this thread but everyone always recommends to replace with a Sako extractor and lightweight firing pin. Can anyone explain why these are necessary. Do they exhance accuracy or functionality?? Thanks guys

Brandon

Thanks a bunch Gentlemen I appreciate all of your comments, Nice rifle MontanaMarine, I guess patience really is a virtue but man I can hardly wait to see this project come together. You guys are right about doing it right in the end it will always pay off. How do I get a hold of Neil Jones I will send the trigger to him for tuning, where do I pick up the Tubbs firing pin. Best Regards Steve

SEALDOGGY ---- www.neiljones.com and let me add Neil does a superb job at making custom dies. The only problem is you can no longer blame poor shooting on the ammo.

If you do send your trigger to Neil and you aren't happy with it let me know and I'll buy it off of you.

The best improvement I can think of for the 700 is upgrading it to a nice Mauser. Paul.

Speedlock firing Pin and spring set can be had a Sinclair Intl.

suggestions: Buy a Used 80s Remington 700, steel floorplate. Dont bother with the jewel trigger. "Lapping lugs" as people loosely use the term now, will not fully take advantage of your rifles accuracy. Many attempt to grind far too much material off by what they call "lapping". If your rifle is trued/blueprinted strait to begin with, its likely you wont have to have the "lugs lapped".
Hope your rifle turns out for you.

Trade it in on a Model 70, THEN upgrade it......

AD

Matt:

It is not the quality of the extractor that makes for the ideal installation. When blueprinting an action, it is necessary to also do the bolt. Not only the face, but also the nose and the rear of the locking lugs. The most imortant factor that I feel is necessary is to do the bolt face with the extractor. Let me explain. When I do the bolt mod to Sako, I bore out the face of the bolt and install a bushing which is then bored out to minimum ID to support the case head. All said and done, when the job is done correctly, including the action, all components are square, condentric and perpendicular to a common axis, the centerline of the bolt or action. When the barrel is fitted, it also is aligned as necessary.
In retrospect, I have to say again,the advantage to the Sako extractor is in the option of aligning the bolt face/counterbore with the other factors.

Jim

I've done a number of Rem's in the manner explained by Jim K. but still don't like the Sako for the reason that it can come flying out at hight speed. The reason that this mod was so popular was to accomidate the early PPC cases that had thin heads (I've read this, not personal experience). You can reduce the depth of the snout on a Rem bolt from .150 to .125 when you do the bushing/Sako mod. That puts .025 MORE of the case into the barrel which is good.
A friend has been TIG welding the front of the right lug to fill it to the end of the snout. He then mills a slot and installs sliding extractors from post-64 M70s or Savage 110s. You lose the counterbore in the barrel and the "three rings of steel" as you do with the Sako but the extractor should stay in place when pressures go off-scale.

For a full line of 700 accessories look at Holland Gunsmithings web site. He basicly wont sell you crap to make a buck, if its on his site it is worth the price. Darrel is a great guy and will do what ever he can to make you happy with your rifle.

The scope would be first in my book. Then the trigger. The rest can come when you can afford it. You may not want to replace the barrel until you shoot it out or sell the barrel before you shoot it too much and use the money towards the new barrel. And that takes a lot of shooting. Doing what you're thinking isn't for the faint of pocket book. Fortunately, you don't have to do it all at once. The stock, if the factory stock fits you would be last.
I know a guy who bought a Moel 70 Win just for the action and built a 17.5 lb 'any rifle/any sight' .300 mag DCRA 1,000 yard rifle out of it. He won regularly too.
Doing the work yourself would save you a pile of money.

[ 08-02-2003, 09:45: Message edited by: sunray ]