I've been running Remington 700's among many other rifles for a very long time. Every rifle maker makes a lemon and Remington makes a LOT of rifles, so they are due to make a few lemons once in a while. Talk to gunsmiths and a rough barrel doesn't always equate to a bad shooter. Some very rough barrels sometimes shoot very well as long as everything else is in order- straight action, square receiver abuttment, square bolt face, and well cut chamber.
One thing to try to see if your barrel may have some stresses that has worked for me. I have a 22-250 700 Varmint that I couldn't get to shoot to my standards- which is under .5" with my handloads. Nothing was working, even though I got very close to that .5" mark. A buddy suggested putting some pressure on the barrel at the end of the stock so I started with a business card and added cards until I saw improvement. I think it was 3 business cards created enough pressure and that thing was shooting regularly in the .2's and .3's with my handloads. In fact, I'm afraid to remove the cards as something might change. I get some strange looks from my shooting pards until I smoke them at long range targets like rock chucks, sage rats, etc....
I've tried this with other rifles and some respond and some don't but it is worth a try and it's cheap....
My favorite 700 started out as a .17 Rem, which was a hoot to shoot and was deadly on coyotes and other vermin until I shot out the barrel. I had ITD put a .223 LVSF factory take off barrel on it and punch it out to 223AI and it is just a jewel now. Shoots better than I am capable of...
Bob
I've owned a lot of Remington 700 rifles, and ha e replaced the barrel on most. Every Remington I have in house now does not have the barrel it started with. If I have a rifle that refuses to shoot .5 MOA, then I have a rifle for sale.
