What to do with my 7-08 700 SA?

[youngtrout]

Well, I have a remington 700 SA I put together, gunsmith mounted barrel, When the barrel was more like 24 inches the gun shot well.

Don't ask me why but I had the barrel shortened to 20 inches,,,, now I can't get the thing to shoot, heavy-light bullets, freefloat no free float (it does shoot better with tip pressure) Cold bore-hot,,,,,it does okay at 100 but something like 2-3 inches, and with my other rifles, I can do much better than that, at 300 its a shotgun,,,,,mounts tight, tried different scopes, factory ammo, reloads

But all in all the gun just is not preforming to my expectations, shame to, its a shilen barrel, and nice components. Kind of lost faith in it, and you all know how that goes.

Looking to just rebarrel the thing and start over, its a 7-08 on a rem 700 short action. I was leaning towards a 300wsm with brake, still want a pretty light gun.

Would this be a decent builer action for one, I know I would either need a new bolt or have the one opened up, dont know on the follower.

Thoughts, or other 30's to look at, I live in AK so really leaning towards a light (as in gun weight) 30 caliber, no, bears are not around everyconer but even the game tends to be bigger up here and I have lots of 30 cal reloading supplies

Thanks

 

[J E Custom]

What load are you using and what is the barrel(Size,type,brand,twist,contour ETC.

J E CUSTOM

 

[youngtrout]

Good Question!

The action started life a a short action rem 700. The barrel is a standard contour shilen chrome moly match barrel, that was cut to 20". It's a 1 in 9 twist.

The barrel was head spaced and mounted by a local gunsmith. Some of my first loads I was working up used the Barnes 120 TSX, this was actually the worst load/ bullet I've ever used. No kidding 5-6" groups at 100.

Right now I'm working with 140 Nolsler partitions, and H414, I'm running 42 grains of H414.

I have some 160 Nolser BT's I'm going to try as well.

As I do more research on the 300wsm conversion, I'm more prone to try to get this thing to shoot. I'm going to start from scratch with load developement, I basically have 4-5 powders that are recomended for the 7-08 that I will run through.

Additionally, I was just inspecting the rifle last night, something struck me odd about the crown, its a reccessed target crown, at first glace looks fine, but when looked at from the side it does not look square, it almost looks like it has a wave in there, I'll look with beter light and put some straight edges on it to verify. Might have it recrowned and will pillar bed it as well. typically I've pillared bedded everything and part of my bedding procedure, I did not do this one.

 

[J E Custom]

Good Question!

The action started life a a short action rem 700. The barrel is a standard contour shilen chrome moly match barrel, that was cut to 20". It's a 1 in 9 twist.

The barrel was head spaced and mounted by a local gunsmith. Some of my first loads I was working up used the Barnes 120 TSX, this was actually the worst load/ bullet I've ever used. No kidding 5-6" groups at 100.

Right now I'm working with 140 Nolsler partitions, and H414, I'm running 42 grains of H414.

I have some 160 Nolser BT's I'm going to try as well.

As I do more research on the 300wsm conversion, I'm more prone to try to get this thing to shoot. I'm going to start from scratch with load developement, I basically have 4-5 powders that are recomended for the 7-08 that I will run through.

Additionally, I was just inspecting the rifle last night, something struck me odd about the crown, its a reccessed target crown, at first glace looks fine, but when looked at from the side it does not look square, it almost looks like it has a wave in there, I'll look with beter light and put some straight edges on it to verify. Might have it recrowned and will pillar bed it as well. typically I've pillared bedded everything and part of my bedding procedure, I did not do this one.

Bedding can only help also a poor crown can ruin a great shooting rifle.

My pet load is the 120gr ballistic tip, CCI br2 primer and 49.5 grains of h 414 (No more or no less).

Do the bedding and have it re crowned then try this load. it will/should shoot.

J E CUSTOM

 

[youngtrout]

Thanks for the feedback, I'm going to take a closer look.

Its too bad as well, I'm only a week out from going on a sheep hunt, which was why I built this rifle. Oh well, the 300WM is shooting like she always does, just weighs a couple pounds more.

I'll try the load (worked up of course)

Thanks