Remington 700 .223 LTR

Dave King

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 3, 2001
Messages
2,366
I bought one of those Remington PSS .223 in the Light Tactical Rifle (LTR) models.

I've been waiting for my custom .223's as several of you may recall but I couldn't hold out any long. The groundhog population is getting out of control and some of the farmers are getting upset with me for not shooting crop damage deer.

This little rifle is really pretty nice for straight factory. It's got an H-S Precision stock like the full size PSS although a different model number. It's pretty light and has a 20 inch "fluted" barrel with a 1x9 twist. The trigger was factory set like always at 7 to 8 pounds but a little tweaking with my screwdriver and resealing with fingernail polish and it's a crisp light 2 to 2.5 pounds. (Yes, I drop tested, played with, fingered and everything else anyone could ever think of to final test the validity of the safety mechanism.) The magazine hold 6 rounds for a total of 7 rounds in the rifle!

One additional feature/item I found particularly refreshing is that it DOES NOT have the little 'Green' safety key. This gun does not have the new bolt lock mechanism, and yes, it's a brand new recent model.

I mounted a Leupold 4.5 x 14 Vari-X III Tactical with Mil-Dot reticle using standard Leupold rings and bases. This is a temporary rifle and I didn't figure to go through the trouble of setting it up with Badger Rings and Bases only to sell it and them in the near future.

In a quest for a cheap varmint solution while waiting my final .223's I also opted to not handload any ammo for the little rifle. I've shot the Black Hills 'Blue Box' 223 loads before and though I'd try them in this rifle. I found a box of 68 grain 'Heavy' match (non-Moly) and gave them a try. After a very quick zeroing session in the field, no time for a day at the range, I first began exterminating groundhogs. I ran a quick data chart with a .330 BC and 2850 fps (Black Hills published speed for this ammo) and taped it to the inside of the rear lens cover. I believe this is the best/most accurate factory rifle I've shot to-date, and I've had a lot of them.!! This little rifle shoots extremely well, I had a 4 round, windy day, session on a moving groundhog at 430 yards killing him and many one shot kills on groundhogs over 300 yards. I've fired 40 rounds of ammo through this little rifle and it has really astounded me (and a few groundhogs and deer) with it's accuracy.

I'm thinking I may need to keep this little rifle for a while longer than I had originally anticipated. I may also need to group the thing to see what the actual verified accuracy is but that may screw things up.

I'm taking it out again tonight, more groundhogs to get rid of. I also picked up two more 50 round boxes of the Black Hills 68 Heavy Match ammo.
 
A lot of times factory rifles are very good shooters they have been improving a lot the past 20 years or so. It use to be that a 1 in rilfe was a good shooter the last 3 dog rifles I brougth out of the box went all under a .5 in group one of them well do under .375 plenty good. They all need trigger work but you have to go a ways back to fine nice triggers out of the box. I think barrels and such have just improve over the years with better metal and mechineing.
 
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