I'm considering getting one of these in 7 mm Rem Mag primarily for target shooting. My concerns are word of Remington QC issues. Part of what draws me to 700's is that there are virtually unlimited options should I need/want to change anything in the future. Looking for any feedback on these. I'm very thick skinned and sometimes thick headed :)
https://www.remington.com/rifles/bolt-action/model-700/model-700-sendero-sf-ii
Yes, the barrels are a risk of being bad. Usually the chamber is burred or not well polished and you get sticky bolt or damaged brass from in there. Also my .300 win mag factory barrel burned out in about 600 rounds..throats errosion. That was with proper use and not machine gunnin the rifle and keeping regular rest periods during strings of fire. Keep in mind too that the 7mm is pretty bad for barrel life just by the nature of the cartridge, so I would take care to check your lands to see how much they set back everyone once in awhile.
However I have a .308 remmy tactical and i havent pushed out copper or even really cleaned it much and it still shoots MOA. Hell it still hits a 9 inch plate at 1000y. It's been barrel life is probably in the 700rd count not looking at my rifle data book
So it sounds like if I kept on 7mm Rem Mag path with 700's it might make more sense to go with the Long Range model instead of the Sendero. Given that it's about $600 less that would leave money to put towards improvements that both models might benefit from.
Yeah my buddy got the 700 lr in 7mm and it's a good shooter. Just locktite the action screws with the blue stuff
Thanks for all the feedback misneach21.
Good luck with whatever set up you decide on
When I was doing my homework on a rifle build every gunsmith I talked to said to get an older (15+ years) Rem 700 and build what I want. The newer actions need too much work to put them "right" from a precision standpoint. So I found a 700 that, coincidentally, was made in the same month and year that I was born. After selling the scope and some other unneeded things that came with it, the action ended up costing me about $100. Had it rebarreled and trued by a local smith who builds benchrest rifles and it shoots less than 1/2 MOA with Federal GMM ammo. He said it was one of the better factory 700s he'd seen and needed almost nothing done. So far I have less than a grand in the rifle itself. Something to think about.
Thanks Copperhead. Building a rifle is something I've been considering, but have been leery of buying older rifles because of my concerns about barrel conditions. Your message refocused me by reminding me that the action is what counts since barrels tend to wear out. I'll add this to my research.
I was looking at the 7mm Rem Mag and 300 Win Mag in the 700 Long Range but decided against the 7mm as the 9.25 twist rate was too slow for the fun bullets. So I chose the 300 Win Mag. I know it was a gamble but at $525 door price and $150 mail in rebate I could not say no. So far think I was under 1.5" at 100 while siting in. Had some self inflicted trouble but we will see. I got some Bergers on the way to see what I can do but the Federal Gold Medal Match will be shot first.
May want to consider an action that can take prefits as the barrel life could get expensive if you want to target shoot with the 7mm mag. Savage sells just the action to build off or you could go to something like a bighorn (700 pattern custom action) or mausingfield...I am sure there are probably some others too. Remages could always work but may limit who you can get a barrel from.
https://www.nwactionworks.com/actions is also a good place to purchase a rem 700 action, they are trued and run $595.00 with options of upgrades.
Thanks for the feedback and the link to NWActionWorks. I ended up getting a really good deal on a Sendero in 300 RUM. I'm thinking of a project rifle in the future and will keep NWActionWorks in mind.