That rifle is now back at Remington, and I am waiting with great interest to see what they choose to do.
Yours certainly looks improperly prepared/installed prior to brazing...lots of gap it looks like, and that silver 'solder' is supposed to be able to pull right in by capillary action when the heat is right if the fit is good.
FWIW, ten or so years ago, I paid to send my M700 stainless Mountain rifle, at Rem's instructions, to the warranty service center in Fairbanks. They looked at it and decided it needed to be review by the factory. I paid for that trip also. After the factory returned it at their cost to the warranty center, I again had to pay ransom to have it delivered back to me. I'm glad I have had better warranty dealings with Ruger, RCBS, Hornady, Weaver, Leupold, and Burris. Otherwise, I'm not sure that I would have realized how crappy Remington's is. Well, at least they're consistent. I had the same "excellent" service from them 34 years ago as well. I'm glad gunsmiths generally like to work on them.
All that aside, when you get a good one, they're good rifles, whether it's a M700, Model Seven, M78, or whatever. I've shot and used plenty of good Remingtons. I'm just not much proud of the company and think they could quite readily improve, and probably save money doing it.
