Heavy Barrel 30-06 Cabella's

The point is not what the sale price is or anything else.

Its the fact that someone finally has an HB 30-06 at an affordable price with a good stock.

Probably Cabbalas OEM only and that's fine.

Even not on sale its a very good price.
 
Came across a thread elsewhere where someone was talking about them...it is one heck of a value, in the M40 stock.
Stocky's sells the B&C M40 for $270.
Dealer price on the Rem LA with the X-Mark Pro is $488.

You're already over the price of the rifle by more than $100 without the barrel (and Buds does have them for a little less at $654/free shipping).

Looks like a nice, turnkey long-range capable stick.
 
Bought 2 of them in 30-06, a His and Hers thing for Christmas. The trigger on hers is okay, about a 3 pound pull. The one on mine was crap. Fiddled with the adjustment but the best I could get was a 4+pound pull and it was not at all consistent. Bought a Timney 510 trigger-I like the wider, grooved trigger better than the Mark X thin smooth type, but that's just me.

Did some load work up's with IMR4350 and 175 grain Nosler Competition bullets and so far, very satisfied with the groups...5 shots are averaging about .5 MOA. Was pleasantly surprised at the short free bore-bullets touching the rifling at 3.341" and my best groups came in at 3.330. That was with new Lapua brass and CCI 34 primers.
 
The only thing good about the X Mark trigger is that it's easy to replace. I like my Remington's but I usually have the Timney in hand before I get the rifle home.
 
No kiddin, saltydog. I drove the front pin left to right, and the rear pin right to left-keeping the bolt stop lever pinned to the original and dropped the trigger assembly. Takes longer to talk about changing triggers in a 700 than doing it.

So far as my choice of Timney's, it was a truly drop in part. On some 700s, the 510 needs to have a slight relief cut around the trigger but the M-40 B&C stock it came with worked just fine. I think the 520 has a slightly narrower trigger but both work well right out of the box. I have yet to adjust mine for pull...was nice and crisp just as it came. Another benefit to the wider trigger is that while it might be a 2.5 to 3 pound trigger as it comes stock, it feels like a lighter pull.
 
Not a terrible price on that rifle. I was on a lease where you could shoot 500-600 yards, and I would have bought one of these if I could find the .300 Win Mag. It was all but impossible to find at the time.

Now I'm back to thick woods and pines, so I'll just hang on to my 22 inch barreled sporter. :(
 
I recently picked up one of these Cabalas specials in 30-06.

I have acquired a number of Remington and Springfield 1903/A3's both sporters and originals so I have a good set up for reloading. I shoot them a lot, mainly informal target shooting and some hunting.

That said, I wanted something more geared toward target shooting and potentially, long range hunting. The Remington 700 LR at Cabalas seemed like a good fit.
I picked it up, put a rail and scope on it and took it to the range. Setting up a target at 50 yards with a nice 3'' dot on it, I took out the bolt and did a rough bore sight and scope alignment. The first shot went through the center dot. I ran a couple patched down it and shot 2 more, again, center dot. After another patch and a total of 5 shots, all through the center dot, I moved the target to 100 yards. Again, 5 in the center dot, 5/8ths group. Needless to say, I am impressed.
Granted, these are hand loads, but regardless, it's one impressive out of the box rifle that will shoot like that. I shot loads from 125 gr up through 180's, match and hunting types and all shot less than an 1''.

I will say, these newer guns are not quite as smooth as the old classics, a bit rough feeling is the best word I can think of. They are configurable and you certainly could modify them to your hearts desire. You can also spend a ton of money on them if that floats your boat. I think this particular model is a bargain. The Savage rifles are probably the next closest and with the easily changed barrels are not a bad option.

These guns are heavy at 9 lbs and gain weight with accessories but if you think about it, soldiers carried that and more with a 1903/A3 during the wars.

Caliber choice is limited in the line, 300 Rum, 300 win mag, 7mm, 25-06 and 30-06. I went with the 30-06 because it can shoot from 100 gr all the way up to the 200+ pills and do it well. The magnums are fine but I don't particularly find them all the fun to shoot at my age anymore. The 25-06 is interesting but a pretty narrow selection in bullets.

A couple observations...The throat is longer than all my other 06's with the exception of a Smith Corona. It's impossible to seat the lighter bullets out far enough to touch or nearly touch the lands. Same thing with some of the 165's. On the other hand, they have a generous mag and you can seat out to 3.36 or so easily.
The trigger is another area you will find either you like it, you don't, or you can live with it. I find it's just ok, not great and doesn't seem to adjust all that much. I will replace that in the near future.

All in all, I'm impressed with the gun and I don't see where you could do much better at this price point.
 
A couple observations...The throat is longer than all my other 06's with the exception of a Smith Corona. It's impossible to seat the lighter bullets out far enough to touch or nearly touch the lands. Same thing with some of the 165's.

By design, and to be expected. It's named, and marketed as a long-range rifle.
Long range shooting requires heavies- and often, long-for-weight secant ogive bullets with high ballistic coefficients.

However, Berger bucked the common "wisdom" that even they adhered to, and now suggest that VLD's will shoot well with a lot of jump- once the sweet spot for it is found, dispelling the "kiss" or even "jam" the lands philosophy:

http://www.bergerbullets.com/vld-making-shoot/
 
tobnpr

Good point, I hadn't really thought about it, more an observation. I don't load against the lands, usually off them by a little or a lot depending on the gun. Some like it tighter, some don't seem to care.

I think it was Roy Weatherby that was into extended free bore in his magnums years ago. It was the new, new thing for awhile some on each side of the fence. It was looked into, played with and pretty much faded away. Now it seems to be coming back. Bullet design has come a long way since those days and long range shooting has as well so maybe that has something to do with it.
Berger makes some nice bullets, I have had more than a few conversations with him, mostly regarding .223 loads before he published his first load book. He certainly has come around to accepting that a longer throat isn't a bad thing and in some cases is better. He wasn't always.
 
FWIW, I was quite surprised on my 06. Distance to rifling is 3.41" so I shouldn't have much of a problem getting the lighter grain weights close to the lands.
 
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