My Rem 700 .30-06 was NIB and is easily the least accurate factory bolt rifle in my safe. A friend's M700 SPS in .30-06 was also NIB and would tie for that distinction. My Marlin leverguns shoot as well, some better, and my Ruger #1 in .280 Rem shoots much better.
The inexpensive Savage .30-06 I bought for my son-in-law as a wedding present shoots much smaller groups than the M700 .30-06. That really wasn't a surprise as, until the barrel went south somewhere past 4500 rounds, the Savage 110E in .22-250 I had would shoot 5-shot groups you could cover with a dime.
Yesterday I was at the range shooting at 600 yards. I was ringing the 600 yard steel pretty much at will with my Ruger #1 in .280 Rem, Ruger MKII .338 Win Mag and Interarms Mark X action with a Krieger 6.5-06AI barrel. Couldn�t hit the thing at all with my Remington M700 in .30-06, though not for lack of trying.
Two young guys were there shooting a Sendero in .300 Win Mag. Neither of these guys could hit the 600 yard steel with the Sendero. They never got a chance to shoot at the clays at 600 as I took both of them out with the Krieger barreled �off brand� rifle action.
Just before elk season last year I had my Ruger MKIIs in .300 WM and .30-06 at the range for a final scope check and took out a clay at 600 with each, 5 shots total with a 3-2 split. 15 shots yesterday and I couldn�t hit the 12� square steel at with my M700 .30-06, although I danced all around it. (I did get a first-round hit on the steel at 500 with the Remington, somewhat to my surprise.)
Last week I saw guy shooting paper at 600 with a heavy barrel Savage in .308 Win. He was shooting tiny groups that were WAY better than the guys were doing yesterday with the Sendero. Kind of like comparing an apple to a beach ball in terms of size.
Dream on, swampgas, and make all the baseless claims you want. If I had to bet my life on choosing an accurate out of the box rifle, a new Remington wouldn�t even get a look.
