Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Rem 700 30-06: Crazy long throat?

I'm still playing around with reloads for this 30-06. I'm learning alot, and collecting lots of tools, various bullets, and powders!

So today I finally get a chance to play with my new Hornady Overall Length Guage. I confirmed what I found when just a bullet in an empty brass: The Overall Length of a three different 165 to 180 gr bullet is 3.450" to 3.480" touching the lands. For a cartridge that the books show an OAL of 3.340" for, that seems very long!

The magazine won't allow for an OAL 3.450". So no loading "just off the lands" for this rifle!

Question: Does Rem make the Model 700 with this long a throat or is it perhaps been shot so much it is worn out? I bought it used as a teenager about 35 years ago, so maybe!

My Rem 700 30-06 has a 3.6" magazine.

The 208 Amax kisses lands at 3.56" OAL.

The 215 Berger kisses lands at 3.61" OAL

That's not uncommon, the trick is to find a bullet/load that shoots well with a jump. That may limit bullet choices but one of my favorite rifles shoots bugholes with a similar jump.

All Rem 700 long actions have a 3.6 magazine regardless of caliber, more than enough to reach the lands in this case.

I have a M700 in -06 that has a very long throat. If the bullets are seated anywhere near the lands, there is only about 1 caliber of bullet still in the brass with 180 Barnes. With anything else, you can't come close to the lands. Luckily Barnes like a fair amount of jump and it does MOA or better with them.

Well, at least it's not likely to be "shot out" as they say. Just buillt crappily.

Is this "crazy long throat" just a Rem 700 thing?

That's about what mine looks like, about .01" shorter, actually, on COL. Plenty of room in the magazine too.

It seems to be. You should check your magazine length. Remington Long Action 700's are used for magnum-length cartridges too, not just std action length cartridges. Your magazine should handle 3.6"+ length.

After some thousands of rounds, mine is starting to get a little rough at the beginning of the leade.

Which Barnes 180?

Mine has same kind of throat and I feel like I can get a few more fps due to it. And since has been mentioned the magazine is 3.6", it works nicely and is very accurate so not sure I'd call it crappily built.

Not a 700, but in the Springfield M1903A1 sniper clone I built, with a fresh Criterion barrel, I finish reamed the chamber with a standard reamer, setting headspace at a bare minimum. The resulting throat was not ideal for for shooting cast bullets, its intended end use. I acquired a throating reamer (from one of our members here) that cut the leade at a gentle 1 1/2 degree included angle. Long heavy cast bullets now fit into the throat nicely without having to seat them with the bases below the neck. Accuracy improved also. The downside is cartridges loaded thusly are way too long to fit in the magazine, but I don't care since I shoot it single shot anyway. (I used the same reamer to make a swage die to re-form the bullet noses also- a tapered "plug" in a tapered hole makes for concentricity. That trick further improved accuracy too.) Ten shot groups with its favorite 180 grain cast bullet now average MOA (with a few groups that I would blush to describe), when before 1 1/2 MOA was the norm in the beginning. (10x Unertl scope is used.) Long heavy 220 grain plain base bullets driven by a pinch of pistol powder at velocity just high enough for them to remain sonic at 100 yards shoot almost MOA too, which if you knew about the subject would be cause for celebration. (I've been advised to try some stock bedding tricks in order to further shrink groups. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.)

Funny thing is, jacketed bullet accuracy improved also, even with rounds loaded short enough to feed through the magazine. I was afraid I might have ruined it for jacketed bullet use. I guess any scenario when you introduce the bullet "gently" into the rifling has to improve things. A steady diet of hot jacketed loads would wash the throat out somewhat sooner than average with such throat geometry, I suppose, but again I don't care as the light cast bullet loads I like to shoot would take two or three lifetimes to accomplish that.

I have a 06 in a 700 that has a long throat also i run it 10 off the lands and it shoots it has a hinged floor plate

I have an old Remington .270 with a long throat. My OAL almost touching the lands is 3.487" with a Nosler 130 gr. ballistic tip. It fits through the magazine but not much room to spare. I like the long throat. It adds case capacity. Hitting 3100 fps with that load is no problem and the brass lasts a long time, as in I have never had to throw out a casing and I bet some of them have been fired 10X.

Just called Hornady yesterday while trying to work up some loads with the Hornady
212 ELD-X.....basically they recommend I single feed this bullet...

your Remington having too long a throat might be what you need with this bullet

they are claiming mega high BC on it..or so they said.

I recall a list somewhere that showed that bullet not getting all its claimed BC in a 1:10. If I had some, I'd run them through Berger's twist calculator after getting a length measurement (minus the tip).

Remington throats are all over the board. I had a Model 700 BDL 30-06 with a very long throat once. It still shot very well. It required a few more grains of powder than the manuals indicated. Don't stress over the jump to the lands. Just try shooting the rifle and see what it does.