Snowbird
Well-Known Member
that's a great attitude to have. i wish i was more successful at removing ego from daily life.
Just bought 4 Rem 783's for $199 each!
- Thread starter engineer40
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that's a great attitude to have. i wish i was more successful at removing ego from daily life.
Reloader28 has had an account for 9 years and only has 20 posts. Of those 1/10th of them are talking crap about a rifle he doesn't own or probably has ever shot. Nothing he says can phase me.
I appreciate you having my back though.
I believe Mike 338 has a Remington 783 in 308.
I'm 100% delighted in my 783's so far. There is room in my safe for cheap guns, expensive guns, SHTF guns, investment guns, and guns that really have no purpose but are just fun to shoot. I try to keep my ego out of my way of having a good time.
Actually I have two. Like you, both were obtained at a reasonable cost and I hope to try some different things with them. I have one apart now. I have the receiver at the gunsmith to be squared and drill a hole for the set screw on the the new recoil lug. I left the barrels (old and new) with the gunsmith in case he has any questions but I can post a pic of the take-off barrel threads when I get it back. I have one in 30-06. If it shoots great, I'll leave it alone and it can be a backup rifle or a back country backpack beater. If it doesn't shoot that well, the sky's the limit for modifying it. I'm not a picky person and definitely not a perfectionist but 4 of the last new American made rifles that have passed through my hands have had function problems and all have needed to be sent back to the factory or to a gunsmith just to get them to to go bang, feed, eject or in one case a combination. None of those problem rifles were economy models. I have reasonable expectations for these 783's and am looking forward to working with them.
Sure. I'll throw up a pic of the barrel tenon when it I get it back from the gunsmith. I've looked but can't find the pic from another forum of the other two 783's with the same issue.
cohunter14
Well-Known Member
Bitterness...but when that $199 gun outshoots your $5,000 custom, I guess I'll go with the tomato stake.
I love how to some people it doesn't matter how accurate a gun is, all that matters is how much you spend.
Great thread engineer40, love the continued updates!
MudRunner2005
Well-Known Member
Agreed!
Here's a pic of the take off barrel tenon threads. I mentioned earlier that I had seen this in a pic of two other 783's like this. Upon closer inspection and as I recall, the pattern of missing threads on my gun is identical to the picture of the other barrels from another forum (threads, gap, couple threads, gap, threads). Could be it's designed in that way. Maybe the Remington fellas wouldn't mind commenting on it.
On a slightly different note, the magazine on the 308 wasn't feeding so I called Remington Customer Service and spoke with a nice southern man. He said he'd send me a new one which I thought was A-O.K. I checked the mail today. No magazine... that was 23 days ago. I could buy another one from Midway but I'm a little concerned I'll get another one with a weak spring since other 783's in 308 have demonstrated the same issue and who knows how many bad mags are out there. I guess I'll call the nice southern man again and see if he just got busy and forgot about me. Could happen to anyone.
Looks like Remington is a new sponsor and asked Len to do a review on the 783. I reckon if Remington is a little behind on getting the T&E rifle out, the reviewer, Tikka Mike might could borrow this one for awhile. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading more about this handy rifle.
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D
Deleted member 46119
Guest
That cut looks machined after the threads are turned. If all examined have it then I would suspect all have it as a design "feature".
As for weak springs in magazines or customer service problems with big corporations. Not a new thing. They all have phases where its better or worse.
I agree, at the moment the Remington brand of Freedom Group is suffering on the worse side.
As for weak springs in magazines or customer service problems with big corporations. Not a new thing. They all have phases where its better or worse.
I agree, at the moment the Remington brand of Freedom Group is suffering on the worse side.
engineer40
Well-Known Member
I know a couple people requested some pictures of the muzzle brake a while back. So I figured I'd update with some additional pictures and where I'm at with the project.
Not counting optics I have about $439 into this rifle.
$199 purchase price
$150 Boyds stock
$35 Tubb's Final Finish fire lapping system
$27 muzzle brake from Amazon
$20 bolt knob from ebay
$8 JB Weld for bedding action
I'll preface by saying that I work in IT and have never done any of this kind of gun work before. I was nervous doing most of it, especially threading the barrel and grinding off the original bolt knob.
Bedding the action took way longer than I anticipated. Probably around 12 hours by the time I finished. The Dremel work cleaning up took the longest. But so far that seems to have had the best accuracy results. Probably 1/4 inch better at 100 yards.
It's hard to tell with the Tubb's system if it increased accuracy much yet. My barrel was dang hot after shooting the 50 polishing rounds needed. I was trying to give the barrel time to cool, but it was hot outside yesterday and I was in the direct sun so it didn't cool off much. I do seem to have less "flyers" after doing it though. I'm hoping it pays dividends when I learn what I'm doing better with reloading.
Since I started my accuracy testing with cheap Prvi ammo, that's what I'm still using to keep it consistent. I went out yesterday and shooting off of a wiggly bench (folding leg card table) every 3 shot group was under 1 inch at 100 yards. Many touching holes. I measured a few groups with my calipers. If I had to guess I would say average is .75-.80 inch 3 shot groups with the cheap Prvi ammo. That's measuring center to center which I believe is how you guys do it.
So far, I have no regrets with my modifications. My next steps are to learn what I'm doing better with reloading and seeing if I can work up an accurate load. If I could get to .5 inch with a $199 rifle, I would be pretty ecstatic.
Scope is SWFA and I'm using cheap UTG rings if anyone was interested in that.
Honestly the only thing I'm not thrilled with about the rifle is the trigger. Remington is truthful when they say 2 1/2 pound adjustable trigger. In fact, mine measures right below that. I just don't care for the trigger that moves inside of the other part of the trigger. Because as soon as that 2nd piece of the trigger moves the rifle fires. It's harder for me to resist the urge to flinch when I know when the gun will recoil. It doesn't even recoil hard with the brake on. But I prefer to be "surprised" when the rifle fires. That's not possible with this trigger. I did just order some Snap Caps to help and hopefully I can get used to this trigger. It's probably just my style of how I shoot bolt action guns from a bench. But I don't like to know when it's going to fire. Not knowing helps me to not flinch.
Good view of the new bolt knob.
Boyds Pro Varmint with adjustable comb.
Muzzle brake
Threading for the muzzle brake.
Also, using my home made rifle vise I wrote about here:
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/my-memorial-weekend-gun-project-pics-included-154553/
Not counting optics I have about $439 into this rifle.
$199 purchase price
$150 Boyds stock
$35 Tubb's Final Finish fire lapping system
$27 muzzle brake from Amazon
$20 bolt knob from ebay
$8 JB Weld for bedding action
I'll preface by saying that I work in IT and have never done any of this kind of gun work before. I was nervous doing most of it, especially threading the barrel and grinding off the original bolt knob.
Bedding the action took way longer than I anticipated. Probably around 12 hours by the time I finished. The Dremel work cleaning up took the longest. But so far that seems to have had the best accuracy results. Probably 1/4 inch better at 100 yards.
It's hard to tell with the Tubb's system if it increased accuracy much yet. My barrel was dang hot after shooting the 50 polishing rounds needed. I was trying to give the barrel time to cool, but it was hot outside yesterday and I was in the direct sun so it didn't cool off much. I do seem to have less "flyers" after doing it though. I'm hoping it pays dividends when I learn what I'm doing better with reloading.
Since I started my accuracy testing with cheap Prvi ammo, that's what I'm still using to keep it consistent. I went out yesterday and shooting off of a wiggly bench (folding leg card table) every 3 shot group was under 1 inch at 100 yards. Many touching holes. I measured a few groups with my calipers. If I had to guess I would say average is .75-.80 inch 3 shot groups with the cheap Prvi ammo. That's measuring center to center which I believe is how you guys do it.
So far, I have no regrets with my modifications. My next steps are to learn what I'm doing better with reloading and seeing if I can work up an accurate load. If I could get to .5 inch with a $199 rifle, I would be pretty ecstatic.
Scope is SWFA and I'm using cheap UTG rings if anyone was interested in that.
Honestly the only thing I'm not thrilled with about the rifle is the trigger. Remington is truthful when they say 2 1/2 pound adjustable trigger. In fact, mine measures right below that. I just don't care for the trigger that moves inside of the other part of the trigger. Because as soon as that 2nd piece of the trigger moves the rifle fires. It's harder for me to resist the urge to flinch when I know when the gun will recoil. It doesn't even recoil hard with the brake on. But I prefer to be "surprised" when the rifle fires. That's not possible with this trigger. I did just order some Snap Caps to help and hopefully I can get used to this trigger. It's probably just my style of how I shoot bolt action guns from a bench. But I don't like to know when it's going to fire. Not knowing helps me to not flinch.
Good view of the new bolt knob.
Boyds Pro Varmint with adjustable comb.
Muzzle brake
Threading for the muzzle brake.
Also, using my home made rifle vise I wrote about here:
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/my-memorial-weekend-gun-project-pics-included-154553/
engineer40
Well-Known Member
Oh, another thing...
If anyone else is planning to bed the action of their 783, the receiver bolt pattern is 1/4-32.
1/4 inch with 32 threads per inch.
You most likely won't be able to find this bolt pattern in a local hardware store.
Luckily it matches up with the Winchester model 70 and you can get "inletting guide screws" at Midwayusa or Brownells.
Forster Stock Inletting Guide Screws Winchester 70 Package of 2
Hopefully this saves you some time because I spent forever trying to figure this out and was very frustrated.
If anyone else is planning to bed the action of their 783, the receiver bolt pattern is 1/4-32.
1/4 inch with 32 threads per inch.
You most likely won't be able to find this bolt pattern in a local hardware store.
Luckily it matches up with the Winchester model 70 and you can get "inletting guide screws" at Midwayusa or Brownells.
Forster Stock Inletting Guide Screws Winchester 70 Package of 2
Hopefully this saves you some time because I spent forever trying to figure this out and was very frustrated.
Big +1
D
Deleted member 46119
Guest
Well done mate. A techie after my own heart. 
gohring3006
Well-Known Member
Great job, I'm so glad i haven't ordered my Pro Varmint yet. I definitely getting the adjustable cheek piece.
engineer40
Well-Known Member
Well done mate. A techie after my own heart.
Thanks everyone! I definitely appreciate the positive feedback!
Even though I haven't owned this rifle long and only have a couple hundred rounds through it, I'm very much surprised at the level of connection I feel about it. I am emotionally attached to this gun in a weird way.
I've spent so much time thinking about how to modify it and scheming what to do to it... Researching... Planning... More researching... Taking the rifle apart to change something... Putting it back together just to take it back apart again.... Tweaking whatever it was I was trying to modify... Taking it back apart... Putting it back together... Looking at the bolt handle for over an hour from every direction possible to determine the proper bolt knob angle... All of those hours learning and figuring out how to properly bed the action... Having the sinking feeling in the bottom of my stomach the first millimeter I cut the dies into the end of my barrel to thread it... Just spending a lot of time with the gun...
I would be sad if something bad ever happened to this cheap little piece of rifle.
It's mine.
There are none like it, because I built it.
