Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 700 - new or old

I still have am old BDL [#7756X] in 30-06 that I bought used in Security Equipment in Hawaii for 125.00 in 1972. Added a Weaver Marksman scope and, with factory ammo , it shot about an inch or less if I did my part. Started loading when I started working on Molokai and shooting the Axis deer about every other weekend. This rifle [til today] will shoot ANYTHING and still keep its groups under an inch. I even tried this: Five different brands of cases [Mil /NM Mil/ Rem/Fed/Win] and loaded all with 48.5/4895 and 165 Gr. Sierra Gamekings. Even with different cases it still shot! This was with powder charges straight out of the RCBS powder measure and not scaled. [This load was NOT max in my rifle but it MIGHT be in yours so go fore-warned.] Can`t ask much more from an off-the-shelf rifle, used at that. Only difference now is that it has a 1-4 Leupold scope. NEVER touched the stock. Why mess with success?

Aloha, Mark

Without a doubt the quality has went down along with attention to detail. The bluing isn't as nice on the current ones.. The mag followers in some of the new ones are really crude compared to past ones. I've seen a couple of the sps s/s that were crudely tapped and noticebly out of line.

Accuracy hasn't seemed to suffer and this is contributable,to the design of the rifle. It was designed to be made cheap and accurate,as a result of post war manufacturing. That and CNC has helped.

I've owned alot of older ones and current production ones. The older ones are alot nicer in construction and fit. That becomes a moot point when all you do is tear them down and add fiberglass stocks and after market barrels.