Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Preferred Action?

Now your reaching.....

I'm with Rovering.

Funny when guys come here and talk theory and we have guys here also who live and hunt in Alaska who use 700's and I can't recall hearing stories about them freezing up. If it were a genuine concern, I'm sure they wouldn't use them...........I know I wouldn't.

What Alaska guys are you talking about?

I didn't realize Alaska had the exclusive rights to cold, snow and freezing rain.

Just used Alaska as an example of [bleep] weather yet some how those unreliable PF actions seem to perform.

Tools to disassemble a 700 bolt?

I'd tell em about the bolt lace trick but I think we're dealing with the Velcro closure crowd..........

More like the Crocs crowd!

Billy did someone shanghi your account. How about that high dollar 22.

Referencing your first comment.

A: A ULA/NULA isn't a 700 clone.
B: If affordable 40x 22 repeaters were available, I would be all over one for a trainer that matches my other Remington rifles.

It isn't a PF/CRF thing...the times I have seen freeze ups or gunk ups, it was a trigger/safety issue,a snow/ice/grit thing where the moisture got down into the trigger housing,freezing it up; or snow and ice got into the safety cut out on the stock next to the tang.Another instance the rifle did not go boom was just a couple years worth of good old Wyoming gumbo in the trigger housing...just gunk.

A M70 safety/trigger,or original M98, will shrug off the same treatment without blinking...at least I have never seen them quit.

Rifles like Mausers (some of them),or M70's or Kimber Montanas have three position,shroud mounted safeties that allow them to be quickly and conveniently field stripped without tools for easy cleaning and flushing offending material from the bolt body....easy/peasy and ready to roll if it freezes up.You can buy the same type safety for a Rem 700.

Just coincidentally, these models happen to be CRF.

We can make a M70 or a Mausre fail,but it will take more gunk to do it.. But in cold and snow I have seen a couple of Remingtons go from "go" to "no go" in the matter of a couple of hours under the right conditions.If I wasn't right there to see it I might not believe it either.

Not all Mausers are ex-military junk...if they were a good one would not cost thousands,and if you think all Mauser 98's are junk you don't know much of anything.... The "sloppy" bolt movement was built in by Paul Mauser because it was designed as a manually operated battle rifle;and Mauser knew they would get dirty in the hands of foot soldiers who had no time to keep them clean,and they will shrug off dirt and ice that will shut down some precisely made actions with tighter bolt movement tolerances. A friend tells me his Rem 700 did OK in the blowing sands of the Kalahari but he had to pay a lot of attention to it. But if all you do with a rifle is sit in a blind or flop prone under good conditions,anything will work.

If I were building a 600-1000 yard belly gun I would use a Rem 700 type clone;but for a general purpose, go any where BG rifle, I would use a M70 or a NICE Mauser. But then again all of my hunting and killing has been done inside 500 yards.And I know for certain a well tuned M70 will stay MOA or less to 600 yards.YMMV.

But those BAT's, Bordens, and Templar sure do look nice!

If I did not already own the chitpile of riles I do, the current Ruger M77 action would be my pick.

Ruger Number One...

1950's vintage commercial 98 actions - if you can find them at a reasonable price. I have picked up a couple for less than $500, but it has taken me a lot of time to find them, hence they may not be the best option for the average loony who is going to build a rifle or two a year. I understand why the M700 and clones would appeal to many.

Ultimately, they are inherently a little more reliable and can readily be made into easy sub-MOA rifles. Some of the actions being suggested here are probably inherently a little more accurate, but we are talking a fraction of an inch even beyond 500 yards - which for me just is an irrelevancy. They are also a touch heavier, but again we are only talking an ounce or two.

Personally, I am not a fan of the M70-style safety, as I find it more difficult and slower to operate (I have an arthritic right thumb).

why BAT, they are one of only 2 actions that you can get with a built in scope rail AND recoil lug. defiance deviant being the other. surgeon has the 591 but last I heard they sold the company and no new orders are being taken. The Bat action is a bank vault their actions dominate benchrest and competitions. go look at the equipment list. as remington clones go Bat machine is the very best money can buy.

I have put lots of money into customs over the years, for me if it don't shoot way less than 1 moa why am I bothering to build a custom?? CRF rifles IMO aren't ones that you want to use to build .5moa or less rifles on. most people if they demand CRF would be better off just buying a ruger or one of the new remingtons

I will agree Bat makes one of the better clones, but I wouldn't go as far to say that they are the best, and while the built in rail and lug are great features and they do stiffen the action, I haven't see any proof that they will out shoot a Bighorn,Defiance or Borden, but the rail does add weight so a person wanting a little lighter rifle won't want or need a built in rail, but if I was strickly a picatinny user a VRPIC makes total sense!

I would throw a vote toward a commercial mauser. I picked up my first Interarms Mk X in .270 a couple of years ago for well south of $300, and it definitely won't be my last. Commercial mausers come drilled and tapped, scope appropriate bolt handle, and a they should have decent trigger. Other than rebarreling to the cartridge of your choice, they are a pretty turnkey approach to a customized rifle. I picked up a sporterized g33/40 about a year ago,and while it's going to be a much more expensive project, the action IMO is the pinnacle of the mauser 98's evolution. (military, not including brno 21/22) It would be my choice if you are planning anything on the .30-06 or 7x57 case.

Kimber 84L or similar lightweight, '06-length, CRF action. Also like the 6-lug Weatherby.

A good version of the '98 Mauser, including the commercial varieties. These are the closest to perfect hunting rifle actions I can imagine.

Feeding is legendary, positive and reliable extraction and ejection, gas handling in case of case rupture is better than all the rest. Yes, the action is somewhat less stable than some more modern actions; yes, the recoil lug could be bigger, and yes the gunsmithing bill will be higher than most in a fine custom job. Is there a better action for a top drawer custom hunting rifle? No.

If you can find a commercial Oberndorf M98 from the mid-30s, you are in tall cotton.

I have never understood the application of a rail on a hunting rifle. It may be that there is a good reason to have one, I just don't know what it is. And I can see a lot of down side to them.