First Remington 700 build. Do nothing at all, true the face or full blueprint?

[tonyben]

I've got a new, unused Remington 700 action with a pre-installed threaded 20" 308 barrel, and a new factory bolt from PTG. Both items are from the bankruptcy sale. I checked the headspace and it's right at 1.630". The bolt handle seems to be in the right place for good primary extraction. There's maybe a 0.005" gap between the front of the bolt handle and the handle cutout when it's fully closed.

This will eventually be a M40 clone and I have a barrel on the way from Bartlein in July. In the meantime, I'd like to bed the action to the stock with the existing barrel, which should be the same barrel contour and see how it shoots before I do any further modifications, like truing. Should I just true the receiver face and call it good?

I don't have the alignment rod or bushings yet, but I'll probably order them this week, as well as the action truing jig.

does anyone know if the quality of those last production receivers is good enough that they're not worth truing or blueprinting? This will be a learning experience for me.

Tony.

 

[GenePoole]

If they are RR prefix actions, quality is usually good. They are made on modern CNC equipment and the only thing I've found is that the RR with no barcode (I believe made in Ilion NY) are possibly machined in two different fixturings compared to the RR with barcode (I believe made in North Carolina or Arkansas). The barcoded actions are apparently made in a single fixturing. Non-barcoded actions seem to have an extra step for the thread-milling of the receiver threads and they may be eccentric compared to the raceway (I've seen them out by as much as 10 thousandths which required close to 15 thousandths to sufficiently clean up the eccentricity).

This is all speculation on my part based on personal experience with several of each kind. In short, RR WITH barcode need no real truing and are good to go as-is while the actions WITHOUT the barcode will probably need truing of the threads which means a greater nominal thread diameter and custom barrel threads to fit without slop. I would love to hear from anyone else who has worked with both and their opinions.

 

[LVLAaron]

RR prefix have been good. RAR have been great.

Should you blueprint it? Measure it and find out.

 

[Walt Krafft]

Good answers above. I have not had to do anything to over 100 late rr or rar actions. I do question your headspace measurement. Should be 0.698 from the front reciever face to the bolt face.

 

[tonyben]

 

[tonyben]

Good answers above. I have not had to do anything to over 100 late rr or rar actions. I do question your headspace measurement. Should be 0.698 from the front reciever face to the bolt face.

I'm talking about chamber headspace with a 308 WIN GO gauge (1.630"). This receiver, barrel and bolt have never been used together before. I have not measured the bolt face to receiver face distance.

Tony.

 

[boltfluter]

Maybe clean up the receiver face and grind the lug parallel and shoot it. Simple operations that certainly won't hurt. Or shoot as is. The target will tell you.
Paul

 

[ELR LVR]

I would face the receiver definitely
Lap the lugs to the receiver
Use a surface ground recoil lug
Going to a .250" or thicker recoil lug is a good idea as I have seen bent .187" lugs
Do all this
Before chambering or doing any barrel work as it will change the relationship of headspace
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I will also get some polishing compound like Flitz and work the bolt back and forth through the raceway to make it operate nice & smooth, basically lapping itself to itself with polish compound.
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The rest is kind of up to you and depends on if you're reselling or keeping it for yourself
And your own accuracy expectations
The above stuff I've mentioned along with a quality cut rifled barrel is all I've ever done to my 700's
and a good bedding job
and they shoot .2's or better
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You might talk to one of the guys posting here about going further if that's of interest to you

 

[SKWERLZ]

Maybe clean up the receiver face and grind the lug parallel and shoot it. Simple operations that certainly won't hurt. Or shoot as is. The target will tell you.
Paul

This is probably what I’d do if it has some primary extraction.

 

[STOMP442]

If you have a barrel coming I wouldn't bother with doing all the extra work until it comes time to put the new barrel on. Shoot it as is in the mean time. Results may surprise you.