Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 700 Alaskan Ti Opinions?

A number of you asked additional questions about my particular Remington 700 Alaskan Ti in .300 WSM. Here are the answers.

Bearstalker � I hunted moose and caribou for 12 days in the NWT last fall and saw a half dozen or so grizzly bears. Nonresidents can�t hunt grizzlies in the NWT, so we always kept a respectable distance and had no problems. The sleeping pad with the big bear tracks was actually in the outfitter�s base camo, and I spent very little time there. Mostly, I hunted out of small, tented backpack camps. And yes, I am having that bull mounted as he is a particularly good mountain caribou with a spectacular cape. He had it all: 50-inch main beams, strong tops, imposing bez points, broad shovel, back points and he was also uncharacteristically wide for a Mountain caribou. His inside spread measured a remarkable 43 inches.



547 � You wanted me to elaborate on the accuracy of my Alaskan Ti. After barrel break-in, I tested the rifle with three different versions of Federal factory ammunition. My notes show that while shooting on a somewhat breezy day, but from a good bench, I repeatedly got the following 3-shot-group results:

1.50 inches at 100 yards with Federal 180-grain Nosler Partitions
1.30 inches at 100 yards with Federal 180-grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claws
1.25 inches at 100 yards with Federal 180-grain Barnes TSX

I then further tested the Barnes TSX load at 200 and 300 yards and came up with these 3-shot averages:

1.25 inches at 100 yards
2.25 inches at 200 yards
2.62 inches at 300 yards.

What has to be kept in mind is that all this is with a rifle, mounts and scope combination that weighs just 6 lbs. 15 oz. That�s light! The bare rifle, right out of the box, weighed just 6 lbs. 1 oz. That�s what a titanium action can do for you. This is no heavy, long-barreled rifle. The Remington M700 Alaskan Ti is a titanium-action lightweight designed specifically to be light and handy.

With its 24-inch barrel and short action, my Alaskan Ti measures just 43.5 inches from end to end.

And yes, one could build an excellent rifle utilizing a standard, steel Remington 700 action, a custom barrel and a lighter stock. But to get the total rifle weight down to what you could expect with a lightweight titanium action, you�d likely have to cut barrel weight (contour and maybe also length) considerably. And taking that approach, I�d worry about creating a rifle that was muzzle-light. The Alaskan Ti, on the other hand, balances beautifully because the titanium action is unusually light, while the 24-inch barrel is reasonably substantial. My particular rifle actually balances (empty) about � inch ahead of the front screw, and that seems to makes it carry, handle and shoot particularly well. For me, at least, a rifle that is a bit muzzle heavy � like the Remington M700 Alaskan Ti � handles and shoots much better from the offhand position. Rifles that are muzzle-light, by comparison, tend to jump around a good bit more for me when the shooting is fast and you don�t have time to take a solid field rest. It�s a small thing, but it�s exactly the sort of thing I look for when buying a new rifle.

Oh, by the way, here are a few more Remington M700 Alaskan Ti photos:



It�s hard to put into words just how big a really big NWT moose is. But to get an idea, I took some measurements. From the bottom of his front hoof to the top of his front shoulder measured 85 inches. That�s over seven feet! And that�s just to the top of his back. That measurement doesn�t include his head and antlers. From nose to tail he measured 115 inches, or nearly ten feet. A big moose is really BIG.



The Federal factory ammunition I used, loaded with 180-grain Barnes TSX bullets, performed flawlessly. The first shot on my moose punched straight through his on-side shoulder and I found the bullet up against the hide on his opposite shoulder. My knife clicked against it when I caped him. It had mushroomed perfectly and retained 179 grains.



Here's the exact spot from which I shot my caribou. We'd made a long stalk to get to this point, and the bull was still 300 yards away.



After I shot my caribou, we caped and boned the bull for transport, then set out. It was 2.5 up-and-down miles back to our little camp. As we neared our tents late in the day, we pulled up short to watch three grizzly bears on a second ridge just a half mile from our camp. Our tents are the two white dots just above the spotting scope and the little lake in the following photo. My guide is trying to take a photo of the largest of the bears through his spotting scope. Note my rifle.



Fortunately, we passed an uneventful night in camp. Where all the bears went, I don�t know, but they didn�t come our way. Still, we kept our rifles close.

As mentioned above, I carefully choose a Remington M700 Alaskan Ti in .300 WSM for this hunt. That pick proved excellent. The cartridge offered plenty of power for moose and a flat trajectory for caribou. The lightweight rifle also handled the wet weather and the constant bumps and knocks of the hunt very well. This is a very impressive rifle.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/TimberlineX/2008NWTMooseCaribou334.jpg[/img]