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I think I am "smarter" when it comes to rifles then I was 65 years ago when I started pulling triggers. I have also been down sizing my collection and giving guns away to kids and grandkids. I have kept my custom Mod. 70 .338 that I had made up about 25 years ago, based on the "Classic Stainless" Mod. 70 with the Bansners stock and Blackburn bottom metal, also had the bolt collar welded on it. A local gun smith managed to get a crisp 3 lb. trigger pull on it and the other Winchester I am keeping for now. It puts 225 grain TTSX bullets into tidy groups and wears a Nightforce 3-9 SHV with illuminated duplex. and that ballistic tape from Kenton Industries that is good out past 600 yards, which is further then I will ever shoot.

My other one is a Pre-64 Featherweight 30-06 made in 1958. I put Williams one piece bottom metal on it and the Brockman's Talley Peep Sight on the rear that pops up when the scope is removed. I pull the scope in the summer if I take the rifle on a hike or ATV ride. The scope is a Leupold "gasp" 3.5-10x40 with a B&C reticle, I don't dial this scope. A guy down the road a few minutes from the house cleaned up the checkering and refinished the stock and it likes Barnes 175 grain LRX bullets.

I expanded my horizons a few years ago and picked up a Tikka T3X Superlite in 6.5 Creed and put a SWFA 3-9x42 Mil scope on it. It is a far cry from the old mod. 70's and Springfield 03A3's I grew up with, but I like it. I will always have my Dad's old Mod. 99 in .300 Savage. That is all of the "big game" magazine bolt rifles I have left. But, I do have four peep sighted lever guns suitable for Alaskan critters.

Five buddies all have Remington 700's in .35 Whelen and I doubt they will ever change as they work so well for them. How many 700's have been put to the test in the "sand box wars" the last 20 years, a bunch I think. I probably know more guys that use a 700 then any thing else or a Ruger, but the ones I think know more about rifles use a Mod. 70 for what ever reason. I just like the CRF Mod. 70 with the simple old trigger and the easy field stripping bolt that locks down when on safe. At my age I doubt I will ever change my ideas much on what I want a rifle to be like.

That was my experience. My first Remington 70 was a BDL .243 purchased very slightly used in 1974--from co-worker whose ex-boyfriend bought it as a present, apparently partly because he believed the .243 was a better "women's cartridge" than the .308 she'd been using for years on everything up to elk--in a Winchester 88 lever-action. I got the .243 for $80, including 17 rounds of factory ammo. (She'd fired it 3 times.)

One of the other smart things Remington did back then was give the 700 BDL's stock a semi-Weatherby look, with a Monte Carlo comb, and white-line spacers between the black buttplate, grip-cap and forend tip. The Weatherby look was "in" then, but Remington's was enough of a compromise between Weatherby and "classic" that it sold very well (despite giving Jack O'Connor a case of his "vapors").

The rifle would group just about anything, whether factory or handloads, into less than an inch at 100 yards. I killed a lot of game with it, from prairie dogs to big mule deer. But a year or so later bought a 700 ADL .270. By then I "knew" something about bedding rifles, so-free-floated the barrel, It grouped three shots well under an inch at 100 yards before that, but afterward it would group tree into 1-1/2"--at 300 yards. And that was with a 4x scope. It's still perhaps the most accurate factory big game rifle I've ever owned.

In 2001 I purchased a new varmint weight 700, with a laminated stock, at a local sporting goods store. It didn't shoot all that well out of the box, with 5-shot groups going around 3/4" at 100, but after some minor accurizing and handloads put together with basic benchrest techniques, it consistently grouped 5 shots in 1/4" at 100 yards. (These days a few thousand rounds have gone through the barrel, but it will still consistently group five into less than 1/2".)

Have owned a bunch of 70s, including pre--64s, post-'64 push-feeds, and post-'90 controlled-feeds--which right now include a stainless-synthetic .223 WSSM "controlled push-feed," a Jack O'Connor Commemorative .270 Featherweight, and a "Portuguese" .300 WSM. All three shoot very well--but the .223 WSSM required rebarreling, because (as it turned out) the barrel threads were so loose that there was no way it would shoot. A properly installed Lilja barrel resulted in sub-half-inch 5-shot groups.

The one pre-'64 I now own is a Featherweight .308 Winchester made in 1953, when that was the only factory rifle in .308. As the early reviews of the Featherweight indicated, it shot very poorly until I free-floated the barrel by placing two bread-bag plastic shims behind the recoil lug. Now it groups just about any factory load under an inch at 100 yards, and it's best handloads will put 5 under an inch.)

The O'Connor rifle's first 3-shot group at 100 yards, with factory Norma ammo, was under 1/2": (It also has a very precisely bedded action and free-floated barrel, as have all the other O'Connor Featherweights that I've seen.) The .300 WSM shot most ammo under 3/4"--until Hill Country Rifles accurized it. Now it will shoot just about anything into smaller groups.

I wish the new M70s still had the original trigger, but apparently that's never going to happen.

Must also mention that I've fired over 100,000 rounds from Remington 700s (and 722/721s) and never had a bolt handle fall off, or an extractor break. I guess that's very damn lucky!

25 years ago I saw a big guy jump on an FAL action handle [like jumping on a pogo stick] to clear a stuck case. I was shocked the rifle survived and the case came out.

I have had a TIG welded military Mauser bolt handle fail at the weld with ordinary use.

Stuck cases in Mauser with forged over bolt handles... I have pounded out some very stuck cases,

Better buy a lottery ticket.

There’s a few that are going to need counseling after this.

700 derangement syndrome is real.

The real advantage of the 700 goes way back. 700's are easy to bed accurately. Now with epoxy bedding, not to mention pillars, bedding blocks and frames, kind of irrelevant. The Remington was advertised as having a faster lock time, which it generally does. But only by a standard .4ms.

The 700 gets bagged on for the safety issue, yet the model 700 rarely gets bagged on for having no gas handling ability.
FWIW I own both 700's and 70's.

God forbid if muledeer mentions using a leupold scope as well on said Remington 700’s

The 700 "handles" gas by containing it at the bolt's head. I have blown a few primers in 700s (and a 722) and never felt a trace of gas on my face.

Have also had primers blow (and a couple of cases) in 98 Mausers and Model 70s, including the latest 70s with the supposed gas-block on the left side of the bolt. Have felt a slight amount of gas on the left side of my face in 98's, but got quite a blast from the 70s.

About 25 years ago the head of the 2nd Amendment Foundation wrote a comedy piece about the typical attendee at the Puyallup WA gun show.
~~ "He carries in Rem700 30-06 with a Leopold 3x9 scope. He wants to get $400 for it."

Inflation has ravaged that comedy.

Those couple that have had every Leupold fail and “extraction” issues with every 700 would have to be put on suicide watch.

I’m tired of tripping over those dam bolt handles while I’m hunting.

I’ll take it!

I thing I have to disagree with... thrre aren't a lot of options for the older Savage 110. It was my first big game rifle I bought in 1987.. its worn several barrels since then. Currently rebuilding it again into a 6mm Rem.

The only stocks for them that I can find are the B&C and McMillan. Even then, McMillan requires you send it in to match the inletting. I looked into a chassis, but when talking to the manufacturers, they indicated I'd have trouble getting it to feed from a detachable mag in a chassis without machining the receiver.

The only reason I'm building off the old 110E is nostalgia, barely worth the headache.

I have had a Sav110E 30-06 since 1985 when I got it for $100.
I tried to update it in 2017, I put a Bartlein 280AI barrel on it, but the stock availability was the problem. The B&C Aluminum bed stock was too heavy.



The 280AI is on the bottom.

Looks cool!

The B&C is no lightweight, but serviceable. I'm modifying one and going to paint it.

You got me to do something.
I ordered one of these.
https://www.brownells.com/rifle-par...ge-arms-110-stock-sporter-prod73008.aspx

I will glass bed it, like this is 1985.

Nice! Post pics when you get it 😎