Opinions Requested - Remington 700 Tactical SPS

[Shynloco]

Need opinions on a .308 Remington 700 Tactical SPS with the 20" barrel. Thinking about buying one for one of my adult son's and your's truly would be doing the reloading, mostly using 168 gr Sierra HPTB's. My .308 loves that bullet and I suspect the powders would be RE15, IMR 4895, Varget or Benchmark. Won't know for sure until I decide to buy this rifle and do some testing. He'd be using the rifle mostly for hunting and plinking out in Arizona. Opinions pro and con would be much appreciated. Thx.

Alex

 

[dkhunt14]

I have not owned one but others have said they really shoot for a factory rifle. It would be a good hunting and plinking rifle. Matt

 

[ShootDots]

Quite awhile ago I bought it's forerunner, the Remington 700 "LTR" (Light Tactical Rifle)... It had a 20" 1-12 twist barrel. The freebore on it was quite long and I used the Berger 185 VLD. It was light enough to carry around easily and would have been a perfect "stand gun"... I never used it for hunting, just target shooting. For a factory rifle it was extremely accurate. I shot several "1 hole" (no paper connecting the shots) with it at 200 and 300 yards.

Now to be fair, I had the trigger removed and a Jewell installed, and I had it bedded... Other than that it was "stock" with no other modifications.. But it was an excellent rifle!! I also recall that with that bullet, I could shoot 39.7grs of RL-15 in the summer and 40.3grs of it in the winter...

 

[jonbearman]

I have a barrel off of one which I made into a switch barrel,anyways I had my doubts.I loaded up my usual load of h335 and the hornady 168 grain match bullet and was surprised when it shot under a half inch consistently.I did this switch barrel in 6br for serious target and the .308 for deer hunting.The .308 is 20 inches long.

 

[PhulesAu]

Mine likes anything from 168 to 180gn. 20' with the 1-in 10. but I gotta tell ya, the houge stock to me is a piece of crap. No way to stiffen it up enough to NOT interfere with the barrel. B&C stock, viper scope heavy "tactical" barrel and 4 rounds comes to 11.75 pounds. but since I'm about the size of a bear, it's all good!

 

[dabibbee]

I have 2 of these in the SPS Varmint, .223 & .243. They both shoot under .50" at 100 yards and the .243 has shot .50" at 200 yards. Very accurate with hand loads. Only drawback is the stock and trigger. Throw them away and get something like a Timney and B & C at minimum.

 

[broncman]

I have the 20" barrelled 308 AAC-SD and it shoots very well. I replaced the stock with a laminated one, gave it full pillar/devcon bedding job and called it done. X mark Pro trigger sucks...

Very long throated and I shoot a lot of 125 grain SMK in it and it does not seem to mind at all. I have shot some phenomenal groups with it. Some 1/4' five shot groups!

Problem is it fouls quickly, has to be cleaned frequentyl to stay accurate. Not as consistent as a custom barrel but still very good for a factory.

 

[jonbearman]

I know ,moly sucks right.However in my barrel it made a heck of a difference in my barrel with regards to fouling so bad.

 

[PhulesAu]

I have the 20" barrelled 308 AAC-SD and it shoots very well. I replaced the stock with a laminated one, gave it full pillar/devcon bedding job and called it done. X mark Pro trigger sucks...

Very long throated and I shoot a lot of 125 grain SMK in it and it does not seem to mind at all. I have shot some phenomenal groups with it. Some 1/4' five shot groups!

Problem is it fouls quickly, has to be cleaned frequentyl to stay accurate. Not as consistent as a custom barrel but still very good for a factory.

Are you hand loading? I have the same rifle and after reading a bunch of them twist rate tables, I thought you needed 150 grn or better for the 1 - 10 twist. apparently I missed something.

 

[Shynloco]

Hey Guys,
Thx for the responses. Some of you have mentioned about the rapid fouliong business which suggests to me its probably the barrel is doing it. jonbearman even talks about using those messy moly jobs which I don't care to use in any of my rifles. But just how bad (if it can be quantified in terms of rounds down the tub) does it get in terms of accuracy, by that I mean group size increase in a given number of rounds and how big is the increase? Thx again.

Alex