When did Remington still make good 700's?

[SteveOak]

There was a time when a Remington 700 was a pretty good rifle for an off the shelf product. About when did that change?

To put it another way, if I was looking to buy a Remington 700, what vintage should I look for?

A guy at work wants me to help him find a rifle, probably in 223, and teach him to reload.

Thanks!

 

[dgeesaman]

It’s called a Tikka, lol.

I am curious about those 700 Alphas which are supposedly made to much closer to custom action specs.

 

[joshb]

Get a Tikka. Fantastic guns, right out of the box. Great trigger, slickest bolt ever made. I have 8 or 9 of them. They all shoot well! The last barrel I scoped looked as good as a custom.

 

[1K6BRA]

For me, I think they changed in the early 90s. Maybe even late 80s. Kind of like Winchester pre-64… Remington pre-90.

 

[JSH]

I can’t/won’t date it, depends on who you ask I think.
I won’t point you towards a different action, but I won’t hesitate to mention looking at a 700 footprint actioned rifle. I have seen them at or around the price of some of the 700’s, depending on chamber and other options.

 

[jds holler]

It almost seems like when they started coming up with the newer models other than straight ADL and BDL, things started getting weird. jd

 

[urbanrifleman]

1990s varmint rifles were incredible.

 

[jepp2]

To put it another way, if I was looking to buy a Remington 700, what vintage should I look for?

Kind of depends on several things. I'll list my preferences, yours might be significantly different

- If blued, then you want one from a while ago. I hated the newer finish, just looked cheap to me
- Are you planning to use the stock trigger or an after market? I was always fond of the Walker trigger and hated the X-Mark/Pro

Remington prices seem to have increased substantially in the past few years. I haven't bought a Remington for many years. I wasn't willing to live with the primary extraction issues, excess clearance between the firing pin and the opening in the bolt face, and other short comings.

If you just want something as a collector or hunting rifle then a Remington could be perfect for you. I would prefer to buy a custom and avoid spending money on Remington action upgrading that I will never recover my $$ on when I sell it.

 

[FNSafari]

Take the Tikka advice road...and get a Tikka T3x

 

[6.5 forever]

There was always a CHANCE you might get a GOOD one....(Remington)

 

[lb-ft]

1962

Not to be snarky, but the Remington 722, last made 62 years ago, is the only 700 series rifle that really impressed me.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Buy a Kauger Viper and give me a call.

 

[NZ_Fclass]

If you have to go the factory route, Tikka, or the Rem 700 clone, Bergara.

 

[jds holler]

I am 67 years old, and I became a gun nut as a kid. I'll bet I'm not the only one here who remembers when they started putting plastic and aluminum parts on guns, our first impression was that they had turned to junk. jd

 

[mongo chicago]

Pre 1980s

 

[6.5 forever]

I am 67 years old, and I became a gun nut as a kid. I'll bet I'm not the only one here who remembers when they started putting plastic and aluminum parts on guns, our first impression was that they had turned to junk. jd

My dad had a pre 64 Model 70. He said the new ones were junk. At that time he convinced me to get a 700 for my first rifle. It was a little less junk!

 

[Joe Salty]

Tikka has one of the best actions I've worked in a hunting rifle and you won't be disappointed in the accuracy department either!

Joe Salt

 

[dryhumor]

Cerebus bought them in 2006-2007. The downhill slide began when they started to cheapen the product lines. That, and the X mark trigger. Not to say all of them have problems, I’ve had good rifles from them since then. And I’ve also had a couple with barrels better suited for tomato stakes. Kind of subjective though.

My experience overall, B and C prefix serial numbers seem to be a bit better by volume. I have no real experience with older ones. S prefix stainless cover a long production cycle. G prefix were some of the last letter prefix before RR.

Barrel codes help narrow down production years. A little history lesson looking at what was going on in the country, based on barrel codes, at that time might be worth considering. IE, was there a recession or a war going on, stuff like that. Was production pushed with high volume sales or slower, meaning better hands on and quality?

True Remington LE 700’s through about 2003 or so seem to be better. Without a box serialized to the rifle, with its LE model code, I’d doubt I’d buy one just on someone saying it’s a police model 700 or LTR.

The early Mil Spec 5R were good rifles. Though I do recall getting what had to be a Friday afternoon gun that I had to clean up the inlet myself.

Limited production runs might be worth looking at. I’ve had a couple from different runs that seemed very well fit and quite accurate.

Used to be, a heavy 308 would group Federal GMM at about a half inch across the product line. A heavy 223 would also.

 

[Tommie]

I bought a 1999 model new. Workmanship was embarrassing. Sold it fast. Garbage.

 

[rdremsek]

don't be a remington hater 700s are great rifles shot them all my life everyone I've owned shot great the only rem I ever had that shot bad was a model 7 I shot tikas wasn't impressed with them just my opinion if rems were junk why is everyone cloning them just my 2 cents.