Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best Years for Remington 700 ?

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Connoisseurs of fine wines and classic cars and planes talk about the Best Years for certain makes and other years to avoid.

Collectors of Smith & Wessons seem to like certain years of production and avoid others.



Not for collector status but for straight performance, reliability, and smoothness...

What are the Best Years for Remington 700 rifles and which years should one avoid ?

Similar question for Weatherby Mark V's ?


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Alot of guys consider the early 1980s as the time frame
when Remington 700s started to lose their quality.

Best year for the M700 was 1964, when the new Model 70s came out.

Seriously, my take is that M700s made in the last 10 years have suffered significantly in quality. I was seriously disappointed with a M700 APR, supposedly produced at the custom shop, that was ordinary- in fit/finish and performance (the firing pin assembly was fitted terribly, had to replace it with an after market Callahan that worked well; guess I'll sell that, as the rifle didn't stay).

I bought Model 700's and Mark V's throughout the 90's and they have all been really good rifles...in every respect.

I have had Remingtons from all periods and consider the quality about the same, although my most accurate Remington was a new sps I bought about five years ago.

I own multiple examples of M700's from every decade they have been made.

Several shooters/gunsmiths whom I respect say the last 2-3 years of production for the heavy barrel M700's have been shooting lights out.

I've yet to find a chamber from a 2001 or newer M700 a sporter or mtn barrel where the chamber wasn't significantly eccentric to the bore.

I picked up a pristine M722 in 257R a long time ago that shoots very well with every bullet I've tried. But when you stand a fired case on a flat surface, it looks like the Leaning Tower of Pizza......

The blueing on all my 70's vintage M700's is the best of the lot.

My 60's M700 all cycle very smooth--even a 1963 BDL that was virtually NIB when I bought it--nor does it have the anti bind slot.

The matte/synthetic ADL's--especially post 2000--have the worst metal work/finish I've seen.

The first 5-6 years of regular production SS M700's (1991 thru 95 or 96) have had the best chambers, smooth actions, and all three of mine shoot very well. The barrels clean as easily as my custom barrels.

I've killed more elk with 70's vintage M700's than any other decade--so I guess I could say that era has really good elk karma.....

Gee, where is Swampy when you need him....

I have only had 3 700's.

One was a 1990 Classic, 25-06, didnt shoot good at all, it currently is a 280AI.

Had a 223, 26" heavy barrel with the synthetic stock, bought new in 2001, outstanding shooter.

Just got rid of a 2005 22-250 SPS, was a great shooter as well.

I've got a bunch of 'em; a couple from the first 1000 built and my last was a CDL Stainless fluted bought about a year and a half ago. The only ones that I wasn't pleased with were in the "J-lock" era. I replaced the firing pin ass'y with a Callahan speed lock ass'y. Problem solved. All of those I've bought in the last six or seven years seem to have very smooth bores and clean very easily and get down to "bare metal" with one application of Wipeout.
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NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.

I'd say the best year for the 700 were before Cerberus bought the company.

I do think the quality declined after the Cerberus buyout, but has improved lately........

Exactly.

Offhand, does anyone know the serial# range for the 700s that reportedly had the trigger/sear slippage problems? That is, firing pin falling/striking without intentional trigger action. Thanks for any info.

There was just an article in Rifle magazine profiling Jarrett rifles where he stated that he would only work with 700's that had a A, B, C or D serial number. I don't know what years they correspond to, but maybe someone could look that up on Remington's website.

I though that the only good ones were those that were produced on Thursdays?

Ive alwasy liked the 700s back in the 80's I was alwasy jelous of my cousins 700 BDL in .243 compared to my old 1947 mfg Winchester modle 94(I think diffrently about that now). My uncle had a Classic in .257bob and that is a beautiful gun, I get to see it every November. My .300wsm is built on a 2001 LH short action. In its orignal configureation it shot VERY well and worked very smoothly. I like it just as well after the rework. I will say that Im not at all impressed with the fit and finish of the current ones. I handled an SPS model this past weekend and noticed that the bolt is parkerized and seems very sticky as the action is worked. It actually remined me of a model 710 POS I picked up as a back up gun. It shot good for a hunting rifle but UGLY and clunky to manupulate.

You know he'd say "ALL OF EM"

That's why I clicked on this thread

Current production is outstanding....

All of them are fantastic. I don't care for the j-locs as much but both of my j-locs shoot sub-MOA.

This was the best bolt aciton rifle remington had it's name on. Doesn't matter what the year was



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