Why a new stock on a Rem 700?

R

Radiator

New member
I have my eye on a new Rem700 SPS. A friend of mine says I need to replace the stock, I think he is biased cuz he is a part-time gunsmith and LOVES doing all kinds of things to his guns.

So I figure I would direct this question to the forum, are there any reasons for getting a new stock, aside from cosmetics?

Thanks,

Mike
 
I have a new 700 SPS Buckmasters in .270. It shoots sub MOA groups with it's "horrible" plastic stock. And it's "terrible" trigger adjusts down to 3 lbs. and is smooth as silk. It's not necessary. In fact it makes no sense at all to me. :)





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Factory stocks are usually not free floated and flex when shooting, it depends on what you want to do.
Look into XLR Industries or AICS so that you dont have to bother with a smith and get what you pay for, these chassis completely free float your rifle and add maybe 2-3lbs of GOOOOD weight for stability unless your weak and i mean no offense but i read alot of people complaining about recoil or an extra lb, me myself iam 210 and 6.1 so i have no problems carrying a cannon in the woods. I stay away from stocks that need bedding and all that because technology has brought us to a whole new setting of using a chassis and doing the work yourself not to mention the warranty involved and in the end it adds up to the same amount, and now you have detachable magazines.
exmp:: mcmillan around 600 to 800 bucks, bedding by smith-around 300 bucks so you see by that time you couldve bought a nice dependable chassis that you can keep and later maybe drop a different action/barrel combination and switch calibers without having to rebed or any of that.:cool:;)
 
Typically people say replace the stock for accuracy. The forearm tends to flex on some of the lower end stocks, and if it contacts the barrel, it could throw off your point of impact just a little. Also, the stock may not be making good, consistent contact with the action. You could search on here for bedding your action and find out more information on that.

But ultimately, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You should shoot it and see what kind of groups it can get. Also, its better to fix you (ie, make sure you have good technique and doing everything right) before you look into fixing your rifle.. because the shooter is the biggest variable.

Welcome to the forum!
 
If your buddy's looking for business, the joke's on him: anyone with an average mechanical aptitude and a few basic tools (a small torque wrench for the action screws is a plus) can change out a stock. I recently changed my SPS Varmint stock to a Bell and Carlson, and switched to a Timney trigger in a short afternoon; could do it again in an hour, two @ most. Groups - already decent - shrank by 1/3, but don't know if it was the trigger or stock or both. In contrast, I have no intentions of changing the (B&C-produced) stocks that came on my Rem. LVSF's, as they suit me fine and shoot well the way they are. At any rate, if you go to a synthetic aftermarket stock that doesn't have an aluminum bedding block, you're probably wasting $.
 
I think once you get the rifle and see how it shoots you'll be better able to make a decision on that. As Warbirdlover states, his factory stocked Remington is shooting sub MOA and for a general purpose rifle, that's is probably more than you'll ever need it to do.
 
As a garage gunsmith I wonder if any of you guys more educated than me know an answer to this. I also have a Rem 700 in .223 with original factory plastic stock that shoots groups as good or better than Warbirdlovers 270 shown above. Is the inherent strength of the 700 action the reason many of them shoot so well without stock support when many other models struggle with that? Just curious:confused:
 
Forgot to mention. I let the range "ace" shoot my Remington and he shot a 3 shot "almost" one hole group. Then he did it again in the same POI on another bull. I'm not as good as I used to be shooting but this guy is one of the best I've seen and he proved my Remington REALLY shoots. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera or cell phone along that day to take pics of his target. And all with cheap factory CoreLok ammo.
 
Thanks for the replies, and to warbird for the pics and anecdote. I was thinking that much like a motorcycle where the most important part of the system is between the helmet and the handlebars, the shooter makes the gun. I think I will follow the advice that I should shoot it first, see how well I do.

I will be hunting with it, not competition shooting so I don't need 'same hole' accuracy. A bit of background, I am from Illinois where we can only hunt with shotguns, I am in Colorado now and wanting to pick up hunting elk/deer and they allow rifles.

My friend's "remington 700" has a bedded, floated Lilja barrel in 6.5 swede smithed to a slightly larger flatter shoulder (so he has to shoot normal 6.5x55mm rounds, then reload the spent brass which have expanded to fit the barrel) H-S stock, a trigger job and a smithed action to make it "smooth". I am thinking that is an awful lot of money for something that I may not really need!

Thanks again for the input.
 
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