Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 700 Mountain Rifle

I have the same rifle topped with a Zeiss Conquest MC 2.5-8x32 in Talley lows. It is a great combination and mine shoots lots of 139 and 140 grain bullets around moa. The easy scratch floor plate is a pain.

I had one in the early 90's, same .280 caliber. I had it reamed tot he 280AI, but it was a finicky shooter. It "settled down" with the Nosler 150BT and the Speer 160 HC. 2950 and 2800 respectively. I could only gain 50fps with accuracy. It would go faster, but all over the target, ha. I killed a lot of game with that 150 and 160, my friend used it to take a big old cow elk with the 160. I started out with a Leupold Compact 3x9, then settled on the VXII 2x7. It was too light to use well in the antelope prairies, the wind blew me and the rifle all over the place. I finally stalked a buck, crawled up into a snow drift fence to get still and popped him at 250. I had missed several that day out around 300-350 from the wind! It is a sweetheart in the woods/mountains though, have owned several MRs since,...all were finicky, usually settled on 1 to 2 weights. No problem, just the nature of the thing.

Thanks for the info guys. Have a couple options now to scope it with. I think I’ll just leave well enough alone with the floor plate, I’m going to hunt it anyway. I’ll report back when I get some loads worked up, and see how it shoots.

You could always run a 280 AI reamer through the chamber to clean it up a bit, shoot 280 AI and standard loads, just a thought.

I love this model of the Mountain rifle. I wouldn't replace the bottom metal I would sand it or blast all of the paint off clean real well and cerakote it or duracoat it. Heck I've even used regular spray paint and top it with a matte clear and let it set for about a week. Floor plate is still scratch free. I would use the 2.5-8×36 but that's my favorite little setup with talleys.

280 Mountain rifle

That’s one sweet rig!!

My 700MR wears a 2-7 Leupold, and, I'd do a 2.5-8 if I had another. Slim, trim scope on a slim, trim rifle.

Good luck with a Leupold.

My 280 mountain is one of my favorite rifles, shoots Nosler 140gr BTs better than I can, I kill my nicest buck with it on its maiden hunt. Only thing I've done to mine was install a triggertech primary. its wore a 3-9 stryka, 3-15 vortex razor, and now it has a 2-10 razor. It will be one of the last guns to go down the road.

]Probably cost more to have the old bottom metal ceracoated than to pick up a new one. I'll bet someone here on the "Fire" has one laying around.

I’ve got 3 of the original 700 Mtn rifles. A 25-06, 270 & a 30-06 rebareled & cerakoted to 338-06. All of my floorplates are scratched up just as you describe. Each rifle needed bedding & floating love to shoot consistently around 1”. My 270 wears a 2-7 Leupold that I bought in high school and never changed it. Killed LOTS of stuff with that gun & 130gr Nosler, Hornady & Speer. Mostly Speer & Hornady in those days though. The 25-06 is the sweetheart with 115gr NP - stone cold dart throwing killer. The 338-06 wears a 20” Schillen and is my whitetail woods gun.

Oh and yeah - cerakote is awesome.

That’s a wicked trip POC. 338-06 is one of those on my bucket list.

I've killed the majority of deer with a .270 Mountain I bought at a garage sale in the spring of '88 for $400. Way before I went rifle loony.

Couple years ago I made it over as a sort of driven game rifle w/o straight pull action.

Timney Calvin Elite set at 1.25-lb, Kinetic Research Group bolt knob, and a Romeo5 squatting on the front bridge. It's my ATV Varmint Rig loaded with the Rem 115- grain Low Recoil round; a gentle 6.8 SPC LONG.

So far only kilt possum & 'dillo, but I may try it on a WT this FALL

@Beretzs - I’ve somehow collected 4 338-06’s.

Rem 760, Rem 700 MR, Ruger 77 Tang w/Douglas & Weatherby Super Ultralight.

To me, it’s as versatile as a 30-06 but allows me the ability to shoot 210 NP & 250 NP.

Go get one - you know how much fun you’d have?!

Would anyone know how much extra weight the steel Sunny Hill bottom metal weighs over the Remington 700 short action plastic "bottom metal" with aluminium floor-plate on the SPS models?