Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 700ADL Sell or Project

An older friend had an RR 700ADL synthetic in 6.5CMthat he was looking to sell for $500. It came with a cheap Bushnell mounted and a box and a half of Frontier factory ammo. Barrel cut and crowned at 20” by a good gunsmith, stock shortened by about .5”. I bought it as much because I thought he could use the money as any desire for the rifle.

I’m trying to decide whether to keep the rifle as a project to be done over time, or sell it and recoup my money. I took it to the range on a cold (20s) day and shot one 3 shot group of about 1.5”. Trigger feels like around 5 pounds. I’d think it would shoot considerably better with a decent scope and trigger and free floated barrel. Maybe a good stock and barrel replacement down the road. I guess I’m curious since I’ve never had a CM before. I never had that much interest since in the cartridge I’ve got good rifles in calibers on both sides of 6.5.

Any opinions on a course of action? Will any bedding compounds stick to Remington plastic stocks?

Thanks.

Frank

Frank, I'd start by getting a bore scope in the barrel and taking a good look at the throat and the muzzle. If they look fine, my next steps would be a stress free pillar bedding job, a trigger in the 1.5 lb range and a good parallax adjustable scope. -Al

Thanks Al. I always appreciate your input.

The Nylon Remington stocks will take bedding just fine. I've been shooting my M700 280 Mountain rifle in the black nylon stock since 1992 and it keeps on ticking. I installed aluminum pillars and bedded the tang and front of the action and first 1.5 inches of barrel with Brownell's Acraglas. It's been sub-moa with the loads it likes ever since. Probably burned five pounds of H414 and five pounds of IMR4350 through it with no ill effects. You will want to really degrease and then rough up the areas where the epoxy will be. I used a 1/8" drill bit in the dremel to create a bunch of pockets at different angles to lock the bedding in mechanically. The degrease is important. The stocks will have remnents of mold release on them which would keep the epoxy from adhering properly.

fshaw do you like the shortened stock? I might just replace that with something aftermarket - could make things easy.
Stocky's sells decent looking walnut stocks with bedding blocks so you aren't necessarily locked in to synthetic. I have tried both on my 700. Just a thought.
Trigger tech is a good option for a trigger. It is what I replaced my 700 with. I had my factory trigger adjusted perfectly but felt better replacing it since I will one day hand it down to someone nowhere near as retentive as myself.

I should follow up on Al’s post above. I am confident on the crown of this barrel because or the gunsmith who shortened the barrel and knowing the previous owner who had the work done. It is extremely unlikely that he damaged it Additionally, this rifle has less than 100 rounds through it, likely leas than 50 so I’m betting that the throat is good.

Gzig5, thanks for the info on the bedding compound. I don’t like this stock much at all, the only thing between me and a Manners UC-Plus is $975. Not sure I want to spend that on a $500 rifle, which is the point of this thread. I may pillar bed the Rem plastic stock. Not really interested in wood for this rifle.

Is the 700RR. Any better or worse than any other produced in the past 20 or so years when it comes time for the gunsmith to chuck it up?

Kenns1, what made you choose Trigger Tech over Timney?

I’m interested in any other input as well.

Thanks guys.

Frank

If you want to put some money into it to improve it, you could install a different stock and a Timney trigger.

The injection molded factory stocks aren't that great and there are lot of new/used stocks on eBay that would be stiffer and have more accuracy potential.

Swapping out a trigger take an hour or so the first time that you do it.

I have 2x 700s in 6.5 CM with RR prefix SN, one with a sporter contour barrel and one with a heavy contour barrel. I converted them both to BDL format and bedded them in factory laminated stocks, but the barreled actions were nearly MOA capable as received in their factory cataloged configurations.

Sounds like a project already well underway. Might as well continue with improvements and make it something useful worth having around especially since it came already altered. Bone stock Remington ADLs will work as they are, but aren't so nice until after all the usual improvements are complete.

fshaw
I would have no qualms using a Timney. It just seemed most folks at the time were bigger on Trigger tech so I went that route. I don' t recall price factoring in to it.

I love how easily it installed and how it breaks like glass as one would hope. If having a negative I would prefer the safety feel a bit more positive and tactile. Mine replaced an already nicely smithed trigger. Replacing what you have I am sure it (either) would seem a Godsend.

The RR series are generally better with dimensions than earlier receivers. The bad thing is the bolt tubes are longer which is why the RR's have virtually no...or very little...extraction camming. -Al

700 ADL from the 70's:

I went 243 to 6.5CM
B&C Ti Alaskan stock.
2.5-8 Leupy and talley lightweights.

What's the best (easiest/cheapest) way to fix this Al? I looked at that specifically after I purchased it. Mine would fall into the "NO" category.

Thanks.

Frank

With earlier receivers, the best way was to relocate the handle forward so the gap was .010-.015. In the later receivers, that gap is already reduced. Dan Armstrong at Accu-tig. Dan will walk you through some preliminary measurements he needs, you send him the bolt and it will come back ready to rock with excellent mechanical extraction. http://accu-tig.com/

I would keep it for Adirondak hunts. Nice and light .

I had one like yours but in 308. Even with the bad factory trigger, it was sub-MOA out of the box with cheap factory ammo. Definitely check the scope and mounts. On mine, they were barely tight enough to keep the scope from falling off of the rifle before I got out of the parking lot, with nothing like LocTite anywhere near them. Also check the action-screw tension. 30-35 inch-pounds should be about right. Shortening the barrel will also likely help.

Let us know how it goes.


Okie John