Remington 700 BDL varmint special

[Wild Bill IV]

I had a 24" varmint special specifically made for silhouette shooting in 7-08!!! Shot .378 extreme spread, 7 shot group with 160 yr Sierra SBT!!! Epoxy bedded (w/ lab grade extra fine steel filings added to the resin) the lug and barrel bearing surface!!! Relieved the bearing surface using plast-a-gage for 0.005" clearance!!! Beautiful wood finished stock!!!

I also have a 26" VARMINT SPECIAL in 22-250 with a gorgeous wood laminated stock!!!! That too got the epoxy/filing bedding!!!! Shoots cloverleafs all day, any day at 100 meters!!!!

 

[David Milisock]

It’s a damn shame that Remington can’t or won’t make a fine rifle like those Varmint Specials anymore.
View attachment 1364639

I have one and it's a damn fine rifle.

 

[Bob3700]

Those early 700 Varmint Specials were also great for transplanting into a wood 40X stock. They would shoot lights out and probably introduced more people to benchrest shooting than you could imagine.

Once you started down the rabbit hole of precision shooting, there was no way out!

 

[danny]

Steel Mover, what you have is not a Varmint Special.

The Varmint Special were a highly blued, heavy barrelled 700 repeater action in a standard sporter BDL stock with black tip that had the barrel channel opened up for the heavier barrel. The picture posted above is what the true Varmint Specials look like.

Later versions ran the gamut from the HS stocked Varmint Synthetics and there many derivatives, to the VLS with a beautiful laminated stock and finally into the injection molded cheesy versions. The many versions of the Remington Varmint rifles would fill a book. And unless you lived through that era, it's hard to get your head around just how many versions....good and poor...there were.

Hope this helps. -Al

Most people have no clue on what it is that they have.

edit: IE, the infamous and nonexistent 223 Remington "Sendero", the equally nonexistent Polytech "M1A".

Danny

 

[danny]

I had a 24" varmint special specifically made for silhouette shooting in 7-08!!! Shot .378 extreme spread, 7 shot group with 160 yr Sierra SBT!!! Epoxy bedded (w/ lab grade extra fine steel filings added to the resin) the lug and barrel bearing surface!!! Relieved the bearing surface using plast-a-gage for 0.005" clearance!!! Beautiful wood finished stock!!!

I also have a 26" VARMINT SPECIAL in 22-250 with a gorgeous wood laminated stock!!!! That too got the epoxy/filing bedding!!!! Shoots cloverleafs all day, any day at 100 meters!!!!

If you had it made, isn't it not a Varmint Special, and couldn't the same be said of something with a laminate stock?

Danny

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

Those early 700 Varmint Specials were also great for transplanting into a wood 40X stock. They would shoot lights out and probably introduced more people to benchrest shooting than you could imagine.

Once you started down the rabbit hole of precision shooting, there was no way out!

I own one with a 40x benchrest stock. 6mm rem.

 

[Albany Mountain]

Amazing Infrequent Shooter, I own one with a 40X barreled action with a BDL Stock.

 

[nmkid]

It’s a damn shame that Remington can’t or won’t make a fine rifle like those Varmint Specials anymore.
View attachment 1364639

Old memories for me. One of my deceased brothers had one and he used to talk to it while cleaning it! LOL. One of his youngest grandsons got it.

 

[Wild Bill IV]

If you had it made, isn't it not a Varmint Special, and couldn't the same be said of something with a laminate stock?

Dann

 

[Wild Bill IV]

Both were factory made!!!
Both had stock numbers on the boxes!!!
Both were noted on the box as varmint special!!!
They were not made in the custom shop!!!
The special option for the 24" was the 7-08 chambering and the 7mm, 9-1/4" twist barrel compared to the regular heavy barrel varmint calibers!! It was special manufactured targeting the silhouette shooters which was a huge sport and growing very rapidly at that time!! Here in Western Kansas, you could shoot at 7 different ranges, all within 150 miles!!! And reloading for that 7-08 was about 16-18 cents a shot and shoot the rimfire class with a brick of 22longs at a cost of less than $5.00. The fun days of shooting!!!
The 26" was a standard heavy barrel varmint with the laminated stock as a special option!!!
In the 80's and early '90's, the quality and attention to details at Remington were excellent!!! All the rifles in that period of time were great shooters!!! Fine tune with reloads, expect less than 1MOA accuracy!!! My REM's all shoot under 1/2MOA extreme spread!!!

 

[danny]

Both were factory made!!!
Both had stock numbers on the boxes!!!
Both were noted on the box as varmint special!!!

Was the box, one that was serial numbered to the rifle, actually marked *VARMINT SPECIAL*, or possibly "VS", "VLS", or something similar?

Danny

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

Amazing Infrequent Shooter, I own one with a 40X barreled action with a BDL Stock.View attachment 1513114

Dang, nice. I like the scope too.

 

[Wild Bill IV]

Was the box, one that was serial numbered to the rifle, actually marked *VARMINT SPECIAL*, or possibly "VS", "VLS", or something similar?

Danny

They were stamped with VS and VLS, stamped model number, with hand written serial numbers!!!! Remington advertised these guns as Varmint specials in there sales aids!!! At that time, mom and pop part time gun shops bought the guns through SHOTGUN NEWS, a publication that came out bimonthly!!! It was 1/2 size newsprint with 30 to 40 pages of ads!!! Getting a gun then, no background check, walk out of the shop with guns, no waiting period!!!!

 

[Bc'z]

I haven’t shot the one in that picture. It’s a 22-250. I traded into it, it’s supposedly unfired (and appears to be unfired). That picture doesn’t do it justice, not a mark on it. I should have cleaned the smudged up hand prints LOL.
I plan on mounting a scope and firing sometime soon, I just have had too many irons in the fire. Hopefully it shoots as good as it looks. I saw one on gunbroker that went for a little over 2K and I think it had been fired. Crazy.
Gary

You ever get the opportunity to shoot it yet?

 

[Gary in MD]

You ever get the opportunity to shoot it yet?

Yes Sir, I did. I have a little under 100 rounds through it now.

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

My 1981 Model, Rem 700 Medium Barrel weight, .22-250, "Sporter" looks, almost exactly like, Gary's !
I Glass Bedded it with, a TAD of slightly Upward, Barrel Pressure and, installed a Timney Trigger, it shoots from, the Low 3's to, 1/2 MOA with the "Correct" Bullets for, it's 1-14 Twist Barrel,.. 50 gr. V-Maxes, 52 gr. ELD-M's and Berger, Flat Based Varmints, in either, 52 gr OR, 55 gr persuasions ALL shoot,.. extremely, well !
With 50 gr. V-Maxes + H-4895 and Velocities in, the 3,400 - 3,550 Maximum FPS, "Range" I can see, "Impacts" on Sage Rats with, the Brake, on it ! IMO that's Awesome,.. for an 8 Pound, Rifle.
I think, I've found, the "Holy Grail" of Varmint Rifles with,.. THIS One !
Remington, really Knew HOW to, Build varmint Rifles, in the OLD Days !

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

It’s a damn shame that Remington can’t or won’t make a fine rifle like those Varmint Specials anymore.
View attachment 1364639

like other members have written, those rifles were very high quality and readily available. No telling how much it would cost for FN or another maker to produce that again. A few years ago, the ADL models from the 70s and 60s were relatively cheap. they have finally been discovered.

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

My 1981 Model, Rem 700 Medium Barrel weight, .22-250, "Sporter" looks, almost exactly like, Gary's !
I Glass Bedded it with, a TAD of slightly Upward, Barrel Pressure and, installed a Timney Trigger, it shoots from, the Low 3's to, 1/2 MOA with the "Correct" Bullets for, it's 1-14 Twist Barrel,.. 50 gr. V-Maxes, 52 gr. ELD-M's and Berger, Flat Based Varmints, in either, 52 gr OR, 55 gr persuasions ALL shoot,.. extremely, well !
With 50 gr. V-Maxes + H-4895 and Velocities in, the 3,400 - 3,550 Maximum FPS, "Range" I can see, "Impacts" on Sage Rats with, the Brake, on it ! IMO that's Awesome,.. for an 8 Pound, Rifle.
I think, I've found, the "Holy Grail" of Varmint Rifles with,.. THIS One !
Remington, really Knew HOW to, Build varmint Rifles, in the OLD Days !

I think the very early 'Varmint' 700s were called Varmint Special.

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

I think the very early 'Varmint' 700s were called Varmint Special.

Mine is just, a plain old Rem 700 BDL model, in .22-250 Rem.
The HEAVY Barrelled one's, were called,.. Varmint Special's

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

Mine is just, a plain old Rem 700 BDL model, in .22-250 Rem.
The HEAVY Barrelled one's, were called, Varmint Special's

Idaho L, if you decide to sell that old BDL in 22-250, I know a guy who will take it off your hands! Cheers. I got lucky a few years ago, I have a 22-250 and 222 ADL, old styles. I try to compare apples to oranges, 1980s Sakos and top level 700s. there is a rough correlation in price, but long periods where there is a great mismatch in price.