Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Stiller vs trued 700

Your smith forgot to mention that to get a Remington to the level of a stiller, defiance,bat ect. minus all the fancy bolt release/stops and flutes. The one big thing a lot of smiths over look is bushing the bolt. The bolt in a predator is made by PTG. You can add a PTG bolt to a Remington action. Last couple I bought ran in the 275$ to 325$ depending on specs!. Then a squaring and pinned recoil lug would get the Remington closer to a custom receiver.

I Believe with what you are looking at the Remington would work fine but have your smith bush the bolt.

i had heard PT&G had bought them but dont know if that is true

I'm down to zero 700's, probably have had a couple dozen pass through my hands. I still have a Stiller, but it will be going soon as well. I like the Stiller's, just not as much as my Bighorn or Deviant. Mine was quite true from the factory.

I'd go Stiller if forced to choose between the two for life, unless perhaps Mike Rescigno was building the 700...

I think they all have all the accuracy potential I'd ever use.

They were part of what I heard they partnered with another company.

Steve,

Yeah, the first Stiller action the gunsmith I mentioned bought was good to go. So he bought several more, and the majority weren't.

Mentioned above is the fact that your smith can true up the World, but if he doesn't bush the bolt face and the bolt diameter, you still don't have much.
What is the difference in resale of a "blueprinted-squared, receiver against a custom?
If it is a hunting rifle I believe all of it is a waste. Now I haven't taken my own advice.

John,
That's interesting. Maybe I got lucky. This gunsmith, a friend of mine who is now mostly retired from building rifles, said he used many of them and never had a problem. But, he did say he quit checking them after the first few were good. Maybe some bad ones got by him. But, he also said he always had very good luck with the rifles he built on Stiller actions. He told me Remington 700's could range from pretty straight to a complete mess.

The one I have his good, and I trust his judgement. If mine wasn't good, I wanted to do something about it now.

Steve

The OP states he already has the Rem 700 and that it is going to be a hunting gun, given that why not stay with the 700? Since it is going to be a hunting rifle I am not sure why he is having it "blueprinted",most Remingtons with a decent bed job and a decent trigger shoot well under MOA, and with a good barrel most of them shoot closer to 1/2 MOA. Of course I don't like fluted bolts or "truck gear shifter"type bolt handles either and often wonder why folks do that to perfectly nice looking rifles.

As far as the resale of a custom action hunting rifle I really have my doubts about that. Outside of a few rifle looneys who hang out on the various forums most folks wouldn't know a Stiller or any other custom action and would be more likely to purchase a Remington over a custom because they recognize the name.

My suggestion is to stay with the Remington, have it bedded to a stock you like, put a good trigger in it then go shoot it. If it doesn't shoot as well as you like then have it rebarreled, take the money you saved by not buying a custom action and having the eye candy done and go hunting with the money you saved.

drover

This may be gungack rumor only but what I heard was the problems arose when they first started farming out the bolts to PT&G. The specs between bolt and receiver were not what they should have been. This lasted less than a year before PT&G got it resolved.

This can happen easily if two different machining operations are done separately with out custom matching each bolt and receiver.

This is also a reason for heat treating prior to final machining. Most of the good ones are done this way.

The problems weren't caused by that. I was in his shop when he measured one of them.

However, that was maybe 3 years ago. Maybe they've resolved all the problems, but he ain't using any more of their actions, partly because they wouldn't stand behind them. YMMV.

Any opinions on Borden actions?

i have two borden actions ...they are excellent in my opinion and Jim Borden has been great to deal with

I was looking at the alpine action

borden actions has a new hook extractor that they are now using instead of the sako style also

I have two rifles on Stillers that are arguably the most accurate rifles I own. They are a 20 Vartarg and a 6.5x47 so they are pretty accurate calibers to begin with. I own several customs on 700's as well. I have a rifle being built right now on another Stiller. I have gone with the last two Stillers because I could get them when I decided to build the rifle. I wanted to try a Borden but wasn't willing to wait for one. For a hunting rifle I would buy another Stiller in a heartbeat and wouldn't worry about it. If I had a 700 in hand I wouldn't hesitate to use it either. I would be more concerned with who was building the rifle.

Get a good smith and ask them what they recommend based on what you want to end up with. He won't recommend parts that won't get you there.

Thanks for that info jdunham. I have talked to my smith and he said it was up to me, but I would not sacrifice accuracy using the 700. Though the 700 wouldn't be as tight when cycling the bolt as a custom action.

Bighorn is the current hot action. Worth checking out.

That has been my experience between the two. Really just a personal preference. Sounds like you have your bases covered. Make sure you post your rifle and specs in the blueprint thread when you get it done. I still like going through that thread and looking at the different blueprints.

Will do

Defiance action is worth the extra coin IMO.