For what it's worth!

[Rick Mulhern]

A lot of guys are spending $3500-$4500 or more to have an accurate long range rifle built up! That's OK with me....it's their dough! $$$$$ however do not guarantee that they will be able to deliver rounds on target at the extended ranges. Several years ago I had a Remington M700 Varmint Special (VS) in .308 Winchester and in a weak moment I let a friend have it. It was a great shooting deer rifle. Recently I had an urge to have another VS model and Lo & Behold that particular rifle is no longer produced by Remington but they do make an SPS Model with the same heavy barrel in a left hand action which I need. I searched around on the net and found an HS Precision stock which has an aluminum bedding block and I bought it. It's the same stock the old VS model had. All I have done to this rifle is bed the action and I installed a Timney trigger; essentially it's nothing but a factory rifle with nothing being done except as I have described above. This afternoon I had a 6-12 mph wind from the 8 o/clock position and I put 3 MOA left windage on and fired ten rounds from 900 yards into the AR500 plate shown. Plate is 32"x34" dimension. This isn't the only time this rifle has performed this well I might add and I think it proves that a large amount of $$$$$ don't necessarily need to be spent because I only have $904.00 in the rifle....not counting the scope. 308 Winchester is the caliber.

308 Win/Remington M700 factory barrel/action by Sharps Man, on Flickr

.308 Rem M700 VS by Sharps Man, on Flickr

[Gunlaker]

Those older Rem 700 VS rifles are pretty good. I picked up a used one maybe 5 or 10 years ago. I don't shoot it a lot, but when I do, it impresses me. I bought a Jewell trigger several years ago but never got around to putting it on. I might go with a Timney as I was shooting beside an F-Class guy this winter when the temperature was pretty low and his Jewell triggers stopped working.

Chris.

[Gunlaker]

Nice shooting by the way! But then, you probably knew that :-) :-)

[Don McDowell]

Danged nice shooting Rick.

[Kurt]

Rick when the 700 came out with their VS I got two, one in .22-250 and the other the .308. The .22-250 had a head space problem so it got traded off for a heavy barreled 700 ADL in the .222 caliber that rifle has been a tack driver since day 1.
The .308 when I got it and I put a 3rd generation Springfield Armory range finding 30mm scope on it calibrated for the 168 Sierra match king bullet and that rifle would not hold 3" at 100 yards. I called Remington and told them what was going on and they said send it in and we will check it out. Two weeks later I got it back with a note in the box saying this rifle meets the Rem specifications. My first thought was @#$%^ Then I ran a patch down the bore and cleaned out the fouling they left in it and whipping it down the dent in one of the flutes where the M-! tipped over and put it in was gone. Big smile on my face....they rebreed it I took it to the range and set up a target with a heavy + on it so I could align the cross hairs on it and shot three rounds looking through the scope after the second shot fired I just saw one hole low and left, where is the second hole???? I shot again and still one hole. Things started to go through my mind so I walked down to look where the other holes are and when I looked close I just saw a oval hole. I took that target down and measured it. That 3 shot group was .357" outside to out side of the group.
That rifle is still a shooter but the 168 gr match peters out past 700 yards. That scope has elevations from 100 to 1000 and I can hold it on a known distance and it will hit center. One fine Coyote rifle.
When I got the bore scope I looked at the throat because it has washed out where I can seat the bullet out to the point where the case mouth is just above the BT and it has spider web cracks starting ahead of the throat but it still is a fine shooter.

[Rick Mulhern]

Thanks guys! This rifle has amazed me! 600 yards is boring to shoot. I fired six five shot groups with it from that distance over a two week period and I could cover all five shots with the knuckles of my fist. I shoot the Sierra 155 gr. Palma bullet with 47 grs. Varget using a F210M primer.

[Kurt]

My loads are 45 gr of Varget with the 168 SM that load matches the scope. And 42.5 gr of 4895. It's a little slow for the scope but it's the most accurate shooting load.

[Don McDowell]

Good ol 4895 just seems to work in a bunch of cartridges.

[Rick Mulhern]

When I was shooting NRA HP Kurt my short line loads were 40 grs. IMR4895 shooting the Sierra 168 bullet. Very accurate! I had a rifle that on several occasions it fired ten rounds such that all ten could be covered with a 2" spotter! That was with a Boots Obermeyer barrel I might add. He made all my barrels during that era! Sure wish I could go back and do all those years over again! Boy....what fun! Lots of work to....staying in practice!!

[bruce moulds]

rick,
you can't go back, but one thing is for sure.
no one can take what you've done away from you.
there are those who have done little or nothing.
keep safe,
bruce.