Remington 700 SPS-V in .308 Winchester

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I purchased a Remington 700 SPS-V in .308 Winchester at Dicks sporting goods for a good price under $500. I plan to install a Rifle Basics 8oz to 1.5 pound trigger group and replace the crap plastic stock with a Boyd Ross Featherweight. I plan to use the rifle only for Varmint/Target so I feel the light trigger weight is safe. My questions for you all are

1. Should I spend the $ to have the action trued prior to glass bedding?
2. Is there any real benefit to having a heavy varmint barrel fluted on .308?
3. Should I have a muzzle break installed to see the hit and for quick reacquisition?
4. Does anyone have a good link for a full glass and pillar bedding vid?
5. I plan to do all custom hand loads do any of you have any good loads? 26" barrel 1:12 I am a semi experienced re loader.

Thanks in advance for taking the time...
 
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1. Should I spend the $ to have the action trued prior to glass bedding?
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Have you shot it yet? It might not need that work.

2. Is there any real benefit to having a heavy varmint barrel fluted on .308?
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There are trade-off's to barrel fluting and it may or may not help. Google is your friend here.

3. Should I have a suppressor installed to see the hit and for quick reacquisition?
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Suppressors are cool and have many uses, however, they add dramatically to the cost of a rifle. An acquaintance of mine shoots one, but he cautions that it adds a thousand dollars to the cost of the rifle, after you consider the cost of the can and the ATF stamp.

5. I plan to do all custom hand loads do any of you have any good loads? 26" barrel 1:12 I am a semi experienced re loader
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Every barrel is different, every rifle is different. Depending on which bullet you intend to use, your handloads will be different from mine. There's lots of good information from the bullet manufacturers and the powder companies. Many folks report good results from Hodgdon Varget and other report great results from Alliant Reloder 15. Take your pick.
 
Shoot it first. Then decide if you want/need to spend all that money. If you are that flush, you should not have started with a box Remington to begin with.
 
@ SUNDOG. whats flush mean as a shooting term ?
"If you are that flush" .
Im new to rifles and chat rooms I have been seeing all types of new lingo. I wish the forum had a glossary
 
PawPaw: thanks for the advise, I don't know why I said suppressor I meant muzzle break.

Glock.45: I will be sure to post picks once I gather up the parts and start working.

Sundog: I just don't see the challenge or experience gained in buying an out of the box "accurized" rifle. I guess I'm just odd that way.
 
I bought one just a year and a half ago and it shot under 1" out of the box. Best thing you can do is get rid of the junk factory stock. I went with a Bell&Carlson Medalist and it made a big difference.
 
I bought a similar Remington SPS Varmint in .22-250 last year on a clearance sale at Dick's Sporting Goods.
It also had an ugly factory stock and a 5 lb 6 oz trigger.

Even then it shot accurately and averaged 0.7 MOA with 55 grain factory ammo but I felt it could still do better.
I replaced the trigger with a Timney and the stock with a Bell and Carlson Medalist.

It now shoots its favorite 45, 50 and 55 grain bullet loads at an average well under 0.5 inches.

I also would recommend shooting your rifle with a variety of ammo to see what it could do before going wild with modifications.

I am happy that I changed the stock and trigger and proud of the fact that I improved the accuracy, but some might not have seen the logic of putting an additional $400 into a rifle that was only $ 430 to start with.

I wouldn't discourage you in fulfilling your plan. I would only recommend some measurements of before and after so you'll know how much improvement you made. To me, the improvement in my rifle was worth $ 400 and it really made the rifle "mine'. It is one of my favorites.

Good luck with your new rifle.
 
Hey there,


I came very close in early 2010 to buying this exact deal from Dick's as well. I was new to ownership and I had always wanted a Remington 700 as I love rifles and they make the Marine Corps M40 AND the Army M24 SWS.... So when I found one for $499.99 that came in OD Green AND it was an exact match for the new Remington 597 I bought there, I was hooked. Plus it came in .308, My caliber of choice for rifle rifles.

But I hesitated when I found out there was few places to shoot it in NJ, and my range of choice across the river in PA did not allow it. Then I did some research: You got a great rifle but some people don't exactly like the 26" Heavy Barrel. Plus- the stock is absolutely the worst you could get. I have the exact same stock on my Rem 597 .22LR, green injection molded plastic (Read: Cheap chinese made ) junk plastic stock. Now I thought about buying a different Rem 700 to get a different stock but, I believe you can get a great stock for like $250 for it, which is not so bad when you're getting a Bell and Carlson etc.

I can't find the page now but once I was looking in a Brownell's or MidwayUSA catalog something like that, and sure there was 2000 HS Precision etc. stocks like that, but some of them were full service stocks, decent names, bedded, etc. for little more than $200 - which is totally doable.


I think the SPS Varmint would make an excellent 'suburban sniper' rifle build with some decent stuff added etc. but i just haven't done it yet lol.
 
But I hesitated when I found out there was few places to shoot it in NJ, and my range of choice across the river in PA did not allow it. Then I did some research: You got a great rifle but some people don't exactly like the 26" Heavy Barrel.
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Whoa, whoa I'm very confused. NJ-- ok, I get that, it's a weird state IMO. But PA?? They don't like... Remingtons? .308? Heavy barrels?

To the OP, I agree you should shoot and see what she does. Plan on replacing the stock, but other than that just enjoy it before making changes. Handloading can almost always get smaller groups than commercial ammo, so that's one more reason to not make changes yet. As a general rule, I don't see barrel fluting really being useful. It does lighten the barrel, but at the cost of making the barrel thinner.. so why would you buy a heavy barrel to begin with?
 
I picked up a R700 SPS-Varmint a couple of months ago. Mine shoots three-shot 1/4" groups at 100 yards with FGGM (168gr) and 0.19" groups with my hand loads (42.0gr RL15/168gr SMKs/CCI BR2 primers/WW brass)---with no mods. I shot these off a bench with a Harris bipod and rear bag.

sc002e7ec5.jpg


I was practicing for prairie poodles on Saturday with my .25-06 Rem 700 XHR, no mods, with hand loads (52.1gr IMR4831/100gr SMKs/CCI BR2 primers/WW Brass) and got good results.

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My takeaway is that Remmy makes some pretty good rifles as is---good glass is the only thing you'll need to start. A muzzle brake on a .308 Win is unnecessary as is fluting the barrel. Shoot the rifle first, identify any problems and solve them before adding mods. I'll probably put an A5 stock on mine, but for my comfort, not because it needs a new stock.

FH
 
No there are plenty of ranges in PA- just not close. PA is a huge humongous state lol, they got even a .50 cal range with a mile target, but its like 4-5 hours way.

The range I go to the most is also the closest, about 20 mins away, happens to be across the river in PA. BUT They're an indoor range, 25 ydss max, and they refuse to allow anything bigger than pistol calibers or 12 gauge shot. Basically they are a ghetto range, catering to white trash and gang bangers. But its cheap and convienient for me. but those yahoos will blast the ceiling and shoot the wires and lights and everrything esle so they won't allow .223/.308 etc so- if I bougth the Rem 700 I couldn't even have a little fun with it there (Not that you're gonna be having so much fun shooting a 700 at 25 yds away).

I can always take the hour trip to Ft Dix to shoot its just abig hassle.
 
The 700 is a good rifle out of the box, I would do a good break in and then run about 100 rounds through it before I started thinking about doing any mods. Then you will get a good feel for the rifle and what you need to do to make it a better one.
 
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Tacticool check out Central Jersey rifle and pistol club in Jackson N.J. You can shoot up to 300yds outdoors and its an all around great place to shoot in Jersey.
 
I have the same rifle, however I did replace the factory stock with a used Bell&Carlson that was already pillar and glass bedded. The former owner wanted a HS stock. As far as the trigger try adjusting the factory one mine is 1lb 10oz. you might be surprised. Then tried the 2 piece bases that I already had, swapped that for a 1 piece Weaver 20 MOA picatinny style imo money well spent. I tried the factory 168gr Federal gold medal match loads with mediocre results. Handloads are the way to go! I used the Federal match cases CCI primers 39grs of Varget, and 175gr Sierra match kings. COAL of 2.805". 11/16" at 300 yards is my best so far with that load. You really cant go wrong with Reloader 15 or Varget powder in a .308 IMO. At a local 500yd shoot recently a man I know who shoots 600yd benchrest regularly won small group (well under 2") with a R700 .308 168Sierra match kings and R15. That's all I could find out about his load Darn! And yes there were the 6mm BR's and the like present. Hope this might help!
 
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