Originally Posted by szihn
The gremlins that sometimes take up residence in the 700s are mostly hidden, so there is really not much you can do to fine them by "inspecting" the rifle before you buy. The most common are the problems with triggers, bolt handles and extractors, none of which usually go bad unless you are actually using the rifle.

Problems with rough and out of round chambers as well as problems inside the bore are rare, but again that is not something you can know about unless you are shooting or if you have a good bore scope. Scoping the bore first is not a bad idea, but most men don't have one.

I read about barrel problems with Remintons but in my shop, such problems have not been in a higher percentage with Remingtons then with some other guns, so I do not think you are more likely to get a bad Remington 700 barrel more so then any other rifle's barrel. Yes we see some, but I have seen a few on Savages, older Rugers, A few Weatherbys, one Mossberg, one Browning BLR, and even one band new SAKO. So I don't really buy into the craze that Remington is making "bad barrels" any more then any other factory made rifle. My best guess is that with the exception of a few European makers any rifle you buy has about the same odds of good barrels to bad ones.

I am sometimes said to be a "Remington basher" and I am not really. I am just stating what I have seen.

I am a gunsmith with about 1/2 century of experience, so I do see the "sick guns' like a doctor sees the sick people. People do bring the good ones to me for repair, but only the broken ones.
So I base my opinion on what rifles I have seen come to my shop the most with need for repair as opposes to those that come for customization and that type of thing.

Recoil pas installation, adjusting triggers, re-bluing, refinishing, shortening and lengthening and so on....those are not the things that I look at when I form an opinion about the design of a rifle.

Broken parts which happen in normal use is what I remember, and the 700 is at the top of the list as far as things that need to be FIXED, not adjusted.

But in fairness I need to point out that for every 700 I need to fix that are probably 10,000 I never see. The "gun doctor" need not cure the healthy but only the sick guns.

The reason I recommend other rifles before the 700s is the fact that I also fix them now and then, I have fixed more 700, 721` and 722s in the last 50 years that all other rifles from all other makers combined.

There can be factors that need to be addresses like the fact the many more 700s exist then Ruger 77s, or Savage 110s,so the odds stack against the Remington if the failures were all happening at the same percentage. (Remington has made what.....6,000,000 of them?) But if that were true the percentage of needed repairs would be the same for the other brands. They are not.
If there were (just to illustrate my thinking here) 1 in 100 'bad guns" made by all other makers and I got 1000 Remington, 500 Savages and 100 Rugers I would be fixing 10 Remington, 5 Savages and 1 Ruger.

But my records have proven that the average is NOT even close.

I have seen a few broken Savage, Marlin, Mossberg and Howa extractors but NEVER had a bolt handle come off a Savage, Howa, Ruger, Browning, Mauser, Mosin Nagant, Lee, Krag, or any other rifle ever. I have had to re-solder on a bunch of them on Remingtons.

Trigger problems with other guns are related to them being hard to adjust or in some cases not being up the the customers liking. But no others have had a problem with parts breaking. We don't even need to go into the fact that the M700 trighgers have had problems, some of them turning deadly.
Broken extractors? Yes, about 75% of all the extractors I have ever had to replace because of the original breaking were Remingtons. 25% being every other rifle from every other maker including old military and obsolete guns, lever actions singles shots, rim-fires and all.........combined.

If you like the M700 get one. In the largest majority of cases it will not need the services of any gunsmith.

But the odds of you needing one for the M700 are higher then with any other rifle you can buy.

I do not mean to offend anyone here, but men seem to fall into a "thing-warship" when it comes to their guns, and saying things against their rifle is something like saying things against your wife. No insult is intended, but these are the facts I have to report on from 50+ years of experience. Those that love their Remington have my blessing and my encouragements. I am only addressing this to those that are thinking about 'what rifle to buy".





Just think how much money you've collected over the years from those loyal 700 users. I noticed you didnt use the model 70 pushfeed or tikka in your comparison. Probably would have really offended the 700 guys. Im not a gunsmith, but ive owned 100's of rifles and the 700, 722 and 788 were the most troublesome. Like you said, extractors and triggers were horrible. That so called extractor was/is the worst designed pos ive ever seen. If you really use a rifle, you can bet money, that extractor is going to fail. Its a given. Ive had enough 700's fail, that i finally said, enough is enough and ill never buy another. They are just not worth the headache.

Originally Posted by raybass
I try to stick with the basics, they do so well. Nothing fancy mind you, just plain jane will get it done with style.
Originally Posted by Pharmseller
You want to see an animal drop right now? Shoot him in the ear hole.

BSA MAGA