Advice for 308 Rifle.

[Madhatt5r]

Hi everyone. I have been trying to decide for a week which rifle to buy. Originally I was going to buy a custom rifle from Sniper Central, but after reading quite a few reviews and looking at information online I decided against it. So I am here today to ask for some advice on a direction to take. I want to get a 308 rifle that I can build on later, maybe replace the stock/barrel and trigger for a better gun. Either way I want to start getting into long distance shooting but I was looking for something to get my feet wet. I was thinking a Remington 700 but there are so many different kinds. I could use some guidance!

Thanks Everyone!

 

[Cort]

A couple of years ago, I was in your shoes. I bought a Remington 600 in .308 and a Savage model 12 in .308. I intended to use the Remington as a donor action for a custom build and use the Savage as a means of shooting immediately.

To make a long story short, I sold the Remington 600 without doing anything with it. Stocks and triggers are a bit of a problem for the 600 action. I replaced the Savage barrel on the model 12 with a pre-fit aftermarket barrel and then took the Savage apart and sold all the pieces one by one. I like the Savage system with the barrel nut but I don't like the trigger or the stock options.

Today, I have a totally custom rifle built on a single shot Predator action by Stiller. In my opinion, if you want a quality rifle, a custom action is a better buy than a factory action. By the time you buy the factory action and have it trued, you have close to the price of the custom action with out the fit. A barrel costs the same for any action. Fitting the barrel to the action costs about the same unless you use the barrel nut system. Quality trigger and stock options are more widely available for Remington clones than for any other action. Consequently, the custom rifle based on a Remington clone is my preferred choice for a precision shooter.

The Savage barrel nut system does allow an individual to buy a pre-fit barrel and install it himself. A pre-fit barrel is close to the price of a barrel blank with no machining. There are at least two sources of pre-fit barrels with barrel nuts available for Remington actions. I do not know anyone who is using the Remington barrel nut option so I can not report on it. Savage actions are competitive in some circles so the barrel nut system works. Also, some shooters with a Savage action throw the nut away and have the barrel machined to fit the action just like most other rifles. I may experiment with the Remington barrel nut option some day. Right now, I would rather shoot than play with hardware ;-).

Cort

 

[Madhatt5r]

Yeah, from what I have been reading lately is that the Remington Action is a very nice action for long distance shooting. I am sure it is no where near the best but for a budget I read it is good. That is why I wanted to go with a Remington 700, but even going a full custom rifle I don't see a way of doing it without spending 2,000 on the rifle just to get some basic practice in. So I wanted to get a Remington 700 something and go from there. Maybe add some custom work on the trigger than the barrel.

 

[ohearchai]

Remington 700 milspec 5r and the Remington 700 SPS-T, are good places to start, stick a decent scope on them and a Harris bipod and go shoot, lot less than two grand.

 

[Rustystud]

You have the option to spend a little more now or a lot down the road. Buying a custom action that is straight and tight with a good trigger, lug, and bottom metal. Or a Remington donor rifle that you are paying alot for parts you will discard. Then truing and replacing inferior parts. There are many Custom actions ranging in price from $850.00 to $1,500.00 that are right from the get go. Determine what your end goal is, you can not build a rifle and not know what you want. If you do you will be making changes all along the way and that is an expensive mistake. Don't expect to build your rifle is a couple of weeks as it takes months to get all the components. Have your gunsmith get your components he will know what is compatable and what is not. Then you will need to get in a good gunsmiths que that months too and the better smiths are in high demand. Check your smith out, he should have references and his customers should be successful in some shooting discipline the same or simular to what your gun will be used for.
Nat Lambeth

 

[Cort]

I am going to chime in one more time.

I would buy a second hand shooter for now; a Savage or a Remington. Play whatever game you want to confirm your interest in that particular form of shooting and then pony up for a custom action.

All other parts of the rifle cost exactly the same when you replace them. Most likely the factory stock will not be the stock of choice; the factory trigger will not be the trigger of choice and the factory barrel will be replaced at some point due to not shooting well or being shot out (in .308, shot out is not likely). The factory action can be made to work for most sports, other than true bench rest, but the total expense is very close to the cost of the custom action without the fit.

So, buy a shooter to learn on and start saving for a custom rifle built for the sport that you want to enjoy. You may find that the shooter is good enough for what you want to do. Lots of .308's shoot very well. But, if the shooter is not good enough for what you want, then the cost of upgrading the shooter is close to the price of the custom rifle and you are out of the shooting game while a gunsmith plays with your only rifle. As Nat said, it takes months to get all the pieces together and have them assembled properly. My custom rifle was a year in creation. I shot the Savage while waiting for the final touches on my current rifle. It was good experience.

Cort

 

[drumcorpschamp]

I am only one season ahead of you. Last winter, I bought a Rem 700 SPS Varmint (.308 w/26" barrel) from a son of a friend. It had a couple hundred rounds through it and an abysmal scope that came with the rifle as a package from Remington. I had a hankering to try F class and the Groundhog benchrest shoots that are popular in this area.

At around the same time I became a rabid reader on this website as well as Benchrest Central. Both are invaluable in the information about the activity and deals on equipment that are there every day.

As of today, I have replaced the scope (twice), stock, trigger, scope mount and bought lots of other goodies for reloading and accessories. I had a lot of fun over the summer and met many people that frequent these websites at the shoots and now have to admit....the bug has bitten me!

You may or may not find yourself in the same boat as I after a fun season of shooting. By then, you'll have a lot of decisions to make regarding the direction you'll take. Best of luck with that and shoot whatever you can afford. Be careful, you may be looking for an additional source for income this time next year!

I am moving my commitment to this activity to the next level and am going to spend a lot of time on the rifle over the winter. Fortunately for me, I have 32 years in the machinist/toolmaking trade and access to the equipment in the off hours. I bought a barrel blank in 6.5mm, new Lapua brass, 600 bullets, Wilson dies....have a reamer on order (.260 Rem match).....just for starters. Will true the action, sleeve the bolt, bush the firing pin, do all of the barrel work.....etc.....etc. You get the idea.

Of course, I know if I were interested only in shooting tight little groups I would just buy one of the rifles for sale from the forums and save a ton of time, money and aggravation. But, I always have been one to do things the hard way.

Have fun!
Jerry

 

[FryeGuy]

I have a .308 win that I bought a few months ago in the Remington 700 compact tactical model. I love it. It shocked me at the accuracy that a factory remington rifle had. It was a used rifle, that had not been shot much at all. they have a really nice stock, the new triggers on them are great (I like it as much as my jewel trigger, but I don't have it set on 2oz either). I like to shoot it, but I can honestly say I don't do the whole compition thing either. I have shot short range benchrest & F-class, but don't have the time or the $$ to anymore. I can say that custom actions are super nice and slick. So most of what kind of gun you want depends on your plans. I have read about many folks liking the whole savage setup, but everytime I think I have convinced myself into buying one I go look at one and work the action a few times. If you are going to compete, it depends on how soon you are going to. A remington may be all you want for now, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a local match with mine.

 

[bheadboy]

A lot of good opinions, advice, so here is my 2ct worth,

any 700 bdl, that servs your purpose now is all you need to buy, even a 5-10 year old used one.

when you true the action they all wind up the same very good 2nd only to custom ones., you are going to add a bbl then, triger then, and stock, so why pay for something now you are going to replace at a time in the future,

I have done many, the bbl/chamber truing typically runs $600, the stk what you are willing to spend and the trigger $150, so you spend $750 plus stk work which you can do much of your self and let the smith do the final bedding when he does the metal work. basic bedding is no problem, and painting is a snap, so let the smith do the final bedding, i use High tech on many of my rifles with good success.

you can have less than a $1000 in it plus the original rifle cost, keep the original cost down.


Bob
Bob

 

[Madhatt5r]

Both are invaluable in the information about the activity and deals on equipment that are there every day.

Which website has deals? I have seemed to overlook that part of these websites.


I've also been looking at getting a Savage F class rifle? It starts off at $1000 and it seems Team Savage uses the rifle in F-Class without any modifications except a great scope? Could maybe this be a great route? I think my main issue is that if I was to try to get a decent custom rifle built I would not be exactly sure what I need to get. I spoke with the gunsmith in my area who is supposed to be really good. I told him I wanted something a little better than what you could get from a gun store. He told me that we could get a used remington without a short action and we could convert it to the .308. He would replace the barrel, trigger and do the work on the action for $1200? Well after paying for a Remington 700 which I could assume that it would be around $400 + $1200 I would be looking at $1600. Sorry for all the questions I am just trying to make sure I spend my money wise.

 

[cruiser49]

You are making the same decisions now that I was making one year ago. I had never shot at long range before and didn't want to spend a fortune to find out I didn't care for it. I too was considering a Savage F-class rifle since I was already shooting one of their LRPV rifles and liked it. So here's what I did. I bought a new Savage target action (RB/LP) with the target accu-trigger, a precision ground recoil lug and barrel nut, a barrel nut wrench, a PTG go-guage, a Shilen prefit stainless select match barrel in 1:10" and 30" length, a H-S precision stock (same one that comes on the LRPV), and put it together myself. All this cost me about $1250, about the same price as a new F-TR except that I have a match grade barrel!! I did not scrimp on the optics however. I bought a Nightforce that cost 50% more than my rifle but this is easily transferable to another rifle. The results have been more than I hoped for. This set up shoots in the .2 to .3 MOA at 100-200 yards, .4 to .6 MOA at 700 yards and even with my trifocals it will stay sub-minute at 1000 yards after my load development (I'm pretty sure I'm the limiting factor in the accuracy). I can tell you it has been most satisfying to see the "bang for the buck" in this project. Since I don't shoot competitively, I doubt I will move from this rifle. At the same time I did this, a friend was doing the same project, except he went with a used Remington action which he had PacNor true and install one of their match barrels. Cost him more, but there isn't any better results. Hope this gives you another idea to kick around!

 

[deadlyswift]

Determine what your end goal is
Nat Lambeth

Exactly!!!!

 

[Redhighpower]

I think the best buy is the Savage Model 12 Palma, The stock is a true target stock, it has the adjustable Cheek rest and an 3 way adjustable Butt Plate. It is pillar bedded. The barrel is 30" with a 1-13 twist for the 155's. Then go and compete, get your experience. When the barrel is shot out have the action trued, lugs lapped and have a Kreiger Palma barrel installed using the shoulder of the barrel against the face of the action. Larry

 

[NHgunNut]

I like savage. The floating bolt head helps keep things in equal contact. The target triggers may be good enough for you but sharpshootersupply.com has 2 great triggers for a savage. You can also swap your own barrels on a savage, and the bolt faces on the bolt.(for diff calibers) there are quite a few companies making laminated stocks for savages now, including sharpshootersupply. I got a pre-threaded 6br barrel for my savage, and installed it myself in about 30 mins. shooting .340" 100yd 5 shot groups with cheap Rem cases and 20$/box bullets. I cannot wait to try my Lapua cases and SIE MK's out. My savage is a plain-jane model 10 with a choate stock