Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Remington 700 CDL SF in .30-06

With my pet load consisting of W760 and Speer 145 gr BTSP's my first three shot group I fired with it I thought I missed the paper twice until I looked really close at the group. I couldn't believe how well it shot until I confirmed it with another three shot string. Same results, one tiny group about the size a 30-06 would make with one shot. I was pleased to say the least. All I have done is adjusted the trigger and keep loading the same recipe. That bullet is fantastic on whitetail by the way, they usually drop in their tracks and leaves a beautiful exit hole in case they do move. I did have one make two bounds and collapse but it looked like someone threw a couple of gallons of red paint on the ground.

I bought a M700 CDL in 30-06 3 months ago and have been fighting it ever since. I tried it as it came out of the box and got 2" to 3" groups. I reduced the trigger pull to 3 lbs, it came from the factory set at 5 lbs.
I tried shimming the action to temporarily float the barrel as JB suggests in several of his articles and was rewarded with the same 2" to 3" groups.
Since all of that I have acraglassed the front of the receiver and had evened out the pressure point with some pressure added.
Still running 2" to 3" groups.
After re-thinking all of this I have removed the tip hump and opened the channel so that a dollar bill folded twice will slide freely down the channel to avoid the barrel tapping the forend tip, again per JB's recommendations in print.
I've had good results with free floated M700's before and two Weatherby Vanguards that shot poorly until I free floated the barrels and glassed the front of the action and just ahead of the recoil lug.
I worked primarily with H4350 and 180gr bullets and ran a batch of groups with several 165gr and H4350 with similarly poor results.
With the pressure point I am getting 2 holes of a 3 shot group within 1.5" and the other off horizontally and low for the most part.
At this point I am setting H4350 aside for IMR4350 and RE19 when I start working with 165 and 180's again.

I loaded up some 168 AMAX's and 168 SMK with Varget to see what they will do because I have yet to find a rifle that will not shoot well to very well when using Varget.

I check cases before and after seating for concentricity.

If floating the barrel does not settle the rifle down I don't know what my next move will be.I like the rifle and it was gift to myself after reaching two milestones in my life last year and I wanted to own at least one nice 30-06.

I have a feeling that if I contact remington and tell them the gun will only average 2" groups they will tell me that is within their acceptable range.

I guess I will keep trying.

It sounds like you know what you're doing, so please forgive me if I state the obvious for additional things to check.

Is there a bind anywhere when you lift the action from the stock? Is the action bottom riding level, not just at the front, but on the back and sides too?

When you take up the action screws, grasp the intersection of the forend and barrel. As you tighten the screws, does if feel like your barrel goes over a hump as its tightened, or does it come to a dead stop?

One thing I noted on my dad's rifle was that the floor plate didn't quite set level and I could also feel it bind as I took up the screws. A small wood rasp and a stainless washer took care of this issue.

Have you swapped scopes or know the current scope to work on another rifle?

Finally, you might want to try faster powders. I have another .30-06 that will only shoot with RL 15. Another poster here claims 4064 is the magic stuff for his.

As for 2" groups, I know we all expect our rifles to do better--and, they should. But I'll take a 2" gun that didn't wander zero and is utterly reliable to a fussy 0.5" gun on game anyday.

Nailbender59,

There are a couple of other things you might want to check before fiddling with the bedding some more:

1) Look closely at the back of the locking lugs on the bolt to make sure they're both contacting the locking recesses. The lugs on non-stainless 700's are normally blued, so you can see the amount of contact as wear on the blueing. If they're no both making at least 30% contact then this may be the problem. Over the decades I have purchased two new 700's where one locking lug wasn't making any contact at all!

2) Check out the crown of the barrel. Sometimes this is imperfect. I have touched up the factory crown on a number of barrels with a Brownells tool and often seen a great improvement.

\

How did you deal with this? Did you lap the lugs in, or have Remington fix this? I'll tell you that on dad's gun, one lug is doing most (but not quite all) the work. Its probably less than 30%.

I lapped them in, but sometimes the one lug that's seating has to be lapped so much that excessive headspace can result. The only way to tell is with a headspace no-go gauge. If this occurs then the barrel has to be set back.

Since you're getting some contact with both lugs, lapping the lugs proably wouldn't result in excess headspace.

In the Fall of 2008, I bought my oldest daughter a new Rem 700 CDL SF Limited in 260 Rem. Before even firing it, I took it to my 'smith and had him touch up the crown, glass/pillar bed the action, free float the trigger and tune the trigger to 2-1/2 lbs. Through out last winter I did some judicious load devlopment and it really paid off with no less than 15 different loads that run under MOA and several under 1/2 MOA. I liked the rifle so much and before even getting it back from my 'smith I ordered another one. The second one is not near as accurate, as it came from the factory. Later, I tuned the trigger and free floated it myself and before I could really get into load devlopment to see if it would equal it's twin, I sold it to finance another project.

What it proved to me was having the 'smith touch up a few important items really paid off. Otherwise, IMHO, it's a crap shoot.

Alan

Or you can buy a Savage.

Well, here's an update. When I answered, I had looked and thought I could see where a bit of blue had worn on one lug. On closer inspection, I wasn't so sure, so I wiped a pretty big dab of gun grease on the suspect lug. It wasn't disturbed. Best I could tell there's several mils of play. So, I call Big Green and told them what I did. They told me to send it in. We'll see.

Huntaria Setters, the action sits in the stock well. I can loosen either the front or rear action screw and not feel any noticable change in the barrel/stock relation at the front of the forend. I have had actions teeter totter back and forth as either screw was taken up in other rifles, but not this one. My floor plate fits without binding.
Thanks for the suggestions, I am always open to things I may have missed.
I am trying faster powders in Varget and a batch with IMR4064 as well.
The first scope on it was a new VX3 1.75X6 with the heavy duplex.I was going to have to use entirely different targets to be able use that scope for load testing so I bought a new VX3 2.5X8(which was my original first choice for this rifle) with the standard duplex. Both were mounted in Talley lightweights, not farmer tightened. I cannot tell I even mounted the first VX3.
I have a proven VXII 3x9 that I could put on it to try and eliminate the scope question as it had crossed my mind. The other thing I have not done is check the present scope for parallax(shame on me).



Mule Deer, I dug out my prussian blue and cleaned the lug recess's and lugs and with a fired in this rifle case I checked my contact. I rubbed off some of the stuff on one lug, but not much on the other. When I look at both lugs I can see a difference where the blue is worn but not gone on the back of the lugs. I'm not convinced I have a lug contact problem yet, but have no doubt it causes problems as you say.
I have read your articles on accuracy and read your comments about lug contact problems.
What do you use for lapping compound? I have valve grinding compound that is not very aggressive. There seems to be a burr in one of the receiver lug recess's because I see a definite line on one lug that is worn shiny.
Can you see with the eye if the crown is off or do you go ahead and use your crowning tool and see how it makes contact?

So far of the rifles I have owned or own I have yet to get my butt kicked by one and eventually getting it to shoot well.Suppose there has to be first for everything.

If I can get it to average less than 1.5" that will be good enough. If it was an honest 2" rifle I could even live with that. Problem is it wants to be an honest 2.5" to 3" rifle now.

I have options yet, just takes time.

Thanks for the help.

Lee

Lee,

I use some lapping compound I got from Brownells years ago. Don't remember the grit size offhand but could find it for you if you want to know.

Aside from two Rem. 700's, I have owned some other rifles that only had one locking lug contacting inside the action--which is why it's one of the things I check out pretty quickly if a new rifle doesn't shoot all that well.

John,
thanks for the info. No need to hunt up the grit size. I can look at Brownells site and figure it out.


Lee