Too much freebore in 700 SPS?

R

ronl

New member
I recently bought a .308 Remington 700 SPS Varmint and have been trying to work up an accurate load for it. I will usually barely insert a bullet into an unprimed case and insert into the chamber and let the rifling seat the bullet so as to work up a correct seating depth. I usually do the math and start loading the bullets about .035 off of the rifling. Trouble is that with this rifle, using 168 SMK's and new Win. cases, the case mouths are not long enough to properly seat the bullet. Guess I could fire the cases a couple of times and let the case mouths grow or try some 175 SMK's. Never was a problem with the 6mm Rem. or the 25-06. Any other suggestions out there?
 
Pull the barrell off, cut off about 1/8 inch or so on the chamber end, re-chamber it with the reamer that suits you, then screw it back on.
 
Load a factory Remington round and if it still has to much free bore, call Remington and they will probably re barrel it. So long as it has not been tampered with our burned out at the free bore.
 
I've got a Remington 700SPS in 308, and i've got alot of freebore in mine as well. If i seat the bullets to just touching the rifling, I end up with a round too long to load into the magazine with 168gr matchkings. I tend to load one at a time though, so this isnt a huge problem for me.
 
I think I will call Remington and see what comes of it. If I load a 168 in my rifle till it touches the rifling the bullet will not even stay seated in the case mouth.
 
Don't have a Remington .308, but my .30-06 700 SPS does have a rather long freebore. Seating 168gr MatchKings to touch the lands, the base of the bullet is maybe 1/3" from the case mouth.
 
I feel your pain. I just picked up a SPS Tactical AAC and it has a tremendous amount of free bore. With my 168 Berger VLD rounds I have to set over 3.00" just to get it to touch the lands. My bottom metal limits me to 2.880". I think I will shoot it to see how it shoots and go from there. It would cost me about $400 to re-barrel so I'd rather not go down that road with a rifle that I only paid $600 for.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top