New M 700 VS an older one

[JohnO]

I intend to build another 6br bolt gun using a Remington M700 receiver. I already have a custom bolt kit for it from Dave Kiff, ready to assemble. Right now, short action M700s are kind of scarce where I live unless you are willing to really spend a lot of money. Walmart has brand new rifles complete with a scope for a little under $400. My question is whether a brand new Walmart M700 is all that bad compared to an older one. I know the finish is pretty blah but I don't care about that. My barrel on the way is going to be a phosphate colored chrome moly 6mm 1-8. I am going to discard the stock, factory barrel and sell the bolt and the scope.

 

[tunacan]

From what I understand the same tooling and processes have not changed since the introduction of the 700.
Personally I try to find "A & B" prefix serial numbers. I have a couple with no letter prefix as well.
To me the older actions "seem" much more slick. The triggers can also be made very good on the older models with little work.
The highly polished receivers of old are indicitive of better quality and more time spent on the finished product.
The is just my 2 cents. Others may disagree. For me I hold out for the oldies and am willing to pay a few more bucks for them

 

[JohnO]

I could not find a used M700 short action so I bought a new rifle at Wal-Mart. I brought it and the new barrel and new bolt kit to the gunsmith and I will soon be selling the scope and the factory complete bolt.