Dating a Remington 700

0

02bigdogs17

New member
My dad has bought a Remington 700 .30-06 it has a nice wood monte carlo stock does not have the hinged floorplate. We are trying to figure out what year this rifle is and got the date code off the left side of the barrel and it says OU83. According to Remington's date code system the O means it was built in the 7th month of the year but the U shows two different years for that letter 1971, and 2000. How do we tell wich one it is. Thanks for any help.
 
If the bolt is locked down when the safety is in the "Safe" position it is a pre-1982 gun. If the bolt can be opened with the safety on it was made after 1982. It is an ADL with the blind magazine.
 
I've had a similar issue getting the year of my 700 although I know that it was made around 2003. Those codes didn't help me.
 
They do use the same year codes more than once, but with 30-40 years between them it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if a gun were made in the 1950's or the 1980's. Stock styles and other features change so drastically it shouldn't be that hard.

There is also the possibility someone swapped barrels. That would be pretty uncommon on a rifle, but happens a lot with shotguns. Also there were 2-3 years, 1999 and 2001. where no date codes were used.

Once you figure out how to use the codes they are pretty reliable.

Click on "Barrel Code Location Diagram" for an enlarged view. Much easier to use.

http://remingtonsociety.com/rsa/questions/barrelcodes

The OP has a "U" for a year code. This is either a 1927, 1971 or a 2000? gun. Since the codes were not used 1999-2001 this is one of the rare guns where the code might not be reliable. You may need to call Remington with the SN to be 100% sure. Since they did not make 700's in 1927 we can rule that out. If the bolt locks down it is 1971. If not somewhere between 1999 and 2001.

DC777, you could have the same problem. Even if you know the gun was bought in 2003, it could have been made 1999-2001. I've seen guns NIB in gun stores over 10 years old based on SN's.
 
Jmr- I could care less when my gun was made. I'm just agreeing with the guy that the codes aren't 100 percent accurate via the info available on the Internet.
 
jmr40 said:
If the bolt is locked down when the safety is in the "Safe" position it is a pre-1982 gun. If the bolt can be opened with the safety on it was made after 1982.
Click to expand...

True, but the trigger/safety cold have been updated.

That sure sounds like it's a 1971 M700 ADL.......
Click to expand...

Pretty sure by 2000 the 700 ADL had a synthetic stock, I bought one in 2000 and it had a synthetic stock and the barrel finish was pretty ugly, looked parkerized. I bought the rifle to get the action, this pic is from when I sold the parts I didn't need:

rem700stuff1.jpg


The wood stock on the bottom is a BDL stock from the mid 80s.
 
I used to date a Model 700, back in the day, but I married a 600, the little gal just pleased me more....:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top