Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Actions: Nosler M48 vs M700

Can someone provide us with the finer points of difference between Nosler's M48 action and that of the M700?

The 700 has a round action, made out of a tube, with a separate recoil lug between the barrel and action. The front action screw is behind the lug, like most other modern actions, so there's no real need to bed the rear of the barrel. The extractor's a ring made of spring-steel inside the bolt face. It doesn't break nearly as often as some people believe, but isn't exactly easy to replace properly when it does.

The M48 action is a flatbottomed action It's stiffer than the 700, but the front action screw is in the integral recoil lug, so they sometimes shoot better if the rear of the barrel's bedded, so tightening the front screw doesn't bend the front of the action. It's also a push-feed, but with an AR-15 style extractor, much easier to replace than the 700's.

Both have adjustable "enclosed" triggers, with a 2-position safety that blocks the trigger, not the firing pin. The lever's on the side of the tang, like many today.

Neither....

Model 70...

Thank much!!

Averse to M70 due to its gas handling potential shortcomings...

I blew a primer a couple of years ago in my M70 Classic 25-06 (the only one ever I'm ashamed to say), and never felt a bit of gas on my face.

Interesting. I blew a primer in a Model 70 Classic .308 a few years ago, and got a face full of gas.

One of the reasons I have/like 700 (721's, 722's, 600's, 7's) Remington rifles is how the 700 action controls escaping gas. (And I suspect that inadvertent escaping gases has happened to shooters that shoot a lot at least once in their lifetime.) I can only remember this happening a few times to me. The first was with a Model 57 Marlin 22, but later a 98 Mauser. These two were memorable although they happened 50+ years ago, and this was before I made a habit of using shooting glasses, which was a habit I picked up soon after recovering from that second blast of gas into my eye and onto my face. Powder residue and hot gases are quite memorable.

I have other rifles than Remingtons, but I still feel that the Remingtons are some of the best (Weatherby rifles is another good design, IMO) for handling escaping gases. Not saying other rifles are bad, but having cuts in the bolt face, at least to my way of thinking, allows a path for gas to escape towards the shooter.

I had a severe over pressure in a pre-64 model 70 and never felt any gas whatsoever. A sample of one but it seems to me that the poor gas handling of the 70's may be overstated.

Incident - I had two different types of ammo in proximity to each other - 7 BR and 243 Win. I was talking to my spotter about my last shot while I loaded the rifle, I picked up a cartridge and loaded it without looking at the cartridge, I fired the rifle and everything seemed normal except the bullet never hit the target (500 meters), I had fired a 7 BR cartridge into a 243 Win chambered rifle. When I tried opening the bolt it was stuck, I used a piece of 2X4 to open it and I extracted a portion of a very strange looking 7 BR cartridge, with a grossly expanded primer pocket. Even at what must have been a severe overpressure from running a 7mm bullet down a 6mm barrel there was no gas leakage, blowback, or other indication of an overpressure.

I had the action and bolt magnafluxed and there was no damage to either of them, but I never did get all of the copper out the barrel.

Lesson learned - always be sure you are loading the proper cartridge.

drover

May I pick a terminology nit?

In a book by De Haas and Van Zwoll** a Remington engineer named Mike Keeney states that the Rem 700 receiver starts out as bar stock. Furthermore he states that seamless tubing in 4140 is expensive enough that it is actually cheaper for Remington to start with bar stock and do their own machining.

**Bolt Action Rifles, expanded 4th edition, page 420, ©2003

Maybe one day they'll figure out how to make the safety lock the bolt...or not fail on fire..

Now that is interesting. I usually wear sun glasses when at the range but wasn't this day as my dog had run away with them that morning and still felt nothing on my face or eyes. I can't explain it. Hopefully I never get to try it again.




I never found the sunnies either.

My younger brother experienced a catastrophic case failure with factory ammo in a M70 circa 2000. He nearly lost an eye. The cause continues to be a mystery though I believe the best explanation is a partially plugged bore. The experienced gunsmith who examined the rifle after the accident thought so too even though he could not see any damage to the barrel. I continue to believe that M70's in general could handle escaping better than they do.

The best at handling escaping gas is th 98 Mauser.

I overcharged my FN 98 Swede, blew a primer, felt nothing. Had to beat on the bolt handle to open the action.

It was good to go, I was good to go.

DF

Been sitting back watching this thread wondering if I should jump in the pond. To myself, this is a hugely interesting topic because there is a massive amount of rifle manufacturing history going into the OP's question. READER Warning: All accurate credits go to Mule Deer himself and inaccurate interpretations are on me.

I asked John Barsness a very similar question revolving around a test he conducted with a Weatherby Vanguard and an RAR some months ago. This lead to discussing the designs of different bolt action receivers.

This is what I remember from the school of Mule Deer about bolt actions. What John said above is the same he told me. If you don't have the rifles in hand, Google the exploded views of all of them and compare each receiver and where the recoil lug is positioned and think of the machining process that went into each one, as well as the action screw positions into the receiver.

The Nosler M48, Howa/Vanguard, Weatherby Mark V all have that similar recoil lug that are machined as one with the receiver action. The front action screw goes directly up into the lug itself. This is a very old design that has roots going back to the Mauser 98, Springfield 1903, Enfield 1917, Arisaka, and Winchester model 54. The big split in design, engineering and machining came with the Remington 700 in having the lug positioned alone by itself between the barrel and receiver, with All the receiver screws going up into just the receiver itself. That design is found in RAR's and Savages.

Winchester model 70 even though they stayed with the older design for machining the receiver/lug as one, the company moved the front action screw behind the recoil lug and not straight up into it. Ruger M77's angled their front action screw up into the slanted recoil lug (it's not straight up and down like found in the M48, Howa/Vanguard, and Mark V).

Like John was talking about in bedding these different actions; it is important to remember where the forces are enacted on by the receiver screws and recoil forces placed on those lugs, as well as, the barrel and other parts of the gun. To me and this is just my opinion; the M48, Vanguard/Howa (which I have owned) and the Mark V are rock solid receivers and they are shooters. The one thing I couldn't get past my Vanguard was that the front action screw pulls double duty, not only being apart of holding the stock to the receiver but also directly going though the recoil process being one with the lug. Good, bad, indifferent; I honestly don't know. But it is interesting to think about.

I am starting to think a Nosler M48 Heritage in 30-06 might settle me down... from always looking for a well-engineered well-assembled no-trouble rifle whose only limitation is me. Backed my a manufacturer who stands by their product.

That is not even a choice. 700s now suck along w/all RemLin products.

You also might look at the CZ 557, gotten great press.

I bought another Nosler last week. It's a M48 Liberty in 30-06.

It is a LOT lighter than my son's M48 338 Outfitter. Should be about 8lbs scoped.

I think I am going to like it quite a bit. They are extremely well-made rifles.

I'd say go for the Heritage in wood/blue if that trips your trigger.

Regarding customer service, read post number 7 in the link below. Simply AWSOME!

Nosler Customer Service

So go buy an older one at a gunshow for $450 or much less and not worry. Rocket science if one wants a M700.

^^^^^^