I recently picked up an older Rem. M700 dirt cheap. The action seems to be in great shape. My intent was to use this as a project gun, replace the 30-06 barrel with a 338-06, replace the stock and trigger as well. The original owner complained of not being able to hit the broad side of a barn with it. Out of curiosity, I used some hand loads for another gun of mine and went to sight it in. I was 1" high at 50 yards and grouping at about .75". Didn't shoot at 100 yards as I ran out of time. I decided to load some bullets for this gun and used my Stoney Point OAL guage on it. A 150 grain ballistic tip would fall out of the shell before it reached the lands! One of my sons wants to hunt with it this season. Most of his shots will be under 100yards so that's no problem. My question is, is it safe to shoot with average loads with this much gap between the bullet and the rifling?

Robert

My M700 had that much freebore when new. I would feel very safe shooting it, but I'd want to test it for accuracy at 100 and 200 yards before hunting with it.

Don

Safe...sure. Accurate? Possibly. Weatherby rifle can be made to shoot tiny little groups with lots of freebore. It may take some time before you find a load though.

As Jeff stated, freebore is not a bad quality to have, as everything else being equal it will develop less pressure than something with less bullet jump. Of course the downside is that the farther from the lands you go the more theoretical accuract you lose. So in extreme cases you wind up with a safe gun that misses the side of the barn, but again not always, and it can be compensated for to a great degree.

Thanks,
I didn't think it would be a problem, but it never hurts to ask. I did work up several different loads and shot them at 100 yd.s and was able to get 1.5" 5 shot groups. Not what I would want for long shots, but will do this hunting season. My son who will be using it will be making shots from apx. 60 yd.s in.

Thanks again,
Robert

Regardless of what you hear 1.5 5 shot groups is a damn fine rifle, and few rifles will do that "consistantly"....

Any gun will shoot a 1" or 1/2" group from time to time....

The true test of rifle accuracy is 5, 5 shot groups averaged, now see how many 1" guns the world has....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com