My new rem 7mm mag not a shooter

[mason a]

I bought a new Remington model 700 7mm mag from sportman warehouse. synthetic stock 26 inch stainless barrel. I had a muzzlebrake installed before i ever shot it.(hopefully that is not my problem).I broke the gun in with about 20 shots cleaning it after every shot for the first 10 shots, then every 3 shots.Then 2 weeks later I worked up 14 different loads using H1000 powder and retumbo , and different seating depths, hoping to find a load that my gun liked. I am shooting berger 168 bullets. I did all of my shooting at 200 yards because sometimes berger bullets dont go to sleep till past 100 yards. ( at least that is what i have found with my other guns that shoot berger bullets). Anyhow I did all my shooting at 200 yards . All 4 shot groups. My best three groups were .80 -.95 moa, The worst three groups were 2 moa, The remaining 8 groups hovered around 1.5 moa. That is not good enough. I am thinking about sending the gun to a gun smith friend of my brothers to have the barrel floated and glass bedded , and pillar bedded, All for 150$, but it will still be the cheap factory stock.Other than a new barrel, any ideas?

Also there was little to no wind at the range,And the few groups that did shoot well were all the ones that were seated farther from the lands, which i thought was odd, for berger bullets. Maybe the harmonics of the gun is a little off because the barrel is not floated, so it likes the bullets not seated to close to the lands.

I don't believe it is a scope problem .It's a zeiss conquest 6.5-20x 50 and I never touched the turrets during the process.

When i was done at the range I pulled out my browning a-bolt 30.06, and shot 2 groups at 200 yards under 3/4 moa, then I pulled out the remington model 700 .243 and at 200 yards shot 2 groups also under 3/4 moa and that is the factory stock no glass bedding, and not floated.go figure .

Any ideas or help would be great. Thanks Mason

[308Nut]

I bought a new Remington model 700 7mm mag from sportman warehouse. synthetic stock 26 inch stainless barrel. I had a muzzlebrake installed before i ever shot it.(hopefully that is not my problem).I broke the gun in with about 20 shots cleaning it after every shot for the first 10 shots, then every 3 shots.Then 2 weeks later I worked up 14 different loads using H1000 powder and retumbo , and different seating depths, hoping to find a load that my gun liked. I am shooting berger 168 bullets. I did all of my shooting at 200 yards because sometimes berger bullets dont go to sleep till past 100 yards. ( at least that is what i have found with my other guns that shoot berger bullets). Anyhow I did all my shooting at 200 yards . All 4 shot groups. My best three groups were .80 -.95 moa, The worst three groups were 2 moa, The remaining 8 groups hovered around 1.5 moa. That is not good enough. I am thinking about sending the gun to a gun smith friend of my brothers to have the barrel floated and glass bedded , and pillar bedded, All for 150$, but it will still be the cheap factory stock.Other than a new barrel, any ideas?

Also there was little to no wind at the range,And the few groups that did shoot well were all the ones that were seated farther from the lands, which i thought was odd, for berger bullets. Maybe the harmonics of the gun is a little off because the barrel is not floated, so it likes the bullets not seated to close to the lands.

I don't believe it is a scope problem .It's a zeiss conquest 6.5-20x 50 and I never touched the turrets during the process.

When i was done at the range I pulled out my browning a-bolt 30.06, and shot 2 groups at 200 yards under 3/4 moa, then I pulled out the remington model 700 .243 and at 200 yards shot 2 groups also under 3/4 moa and that is the factory stock no glass bedding, and not floated.go figure .

Any ideas or help would be great. Thanks Mason

 

There are so many possible explanations here.

 

Floating the stock cant hurt it. Bedding it couldnt hurt it either but I would try floating it first. If it ends up being more of the same, I would say try a different bullet or powder or both. You can burn a barrel to ashes arguing with it about what powder and bullet to use. You HAVE to listen to what the rifle is telling you. Dont argue with her, just submit to what it shoots best. You may want to use the 168 Berger and H1000 but if the rifle wont digest them well, you will have to live with the lack of accuracy. If it will be used as a deer/antelope rifle, try the 162 AMAX. IMHO, the AMAX bullets are more consistent and are not near as finicky as the Bergers. The 162 has a legit BC .625+. The published is .625, Bryan Litz of Berger Bullets tested it and averaged it out at over .625. They open up great on deer but would not want to hit something thick and hard like an elk with it. I would'nt want to do it with a Berger either despite what I see on TV. Nothing wrong with H4831 either. Dont worry about your velocity. Focus on accuracy. With the super high BC bullets we have these days, you dont need super high velocities.

 

Also, it never hurts to try a couple different primers too. Federal 210 GMM and 215 GMM, CCI BR2 and CCI250's would be worth a shot. (no pun intended).

 

Other than that, make extra sure your scope mounts are straight. I burned a barrel half way through it's usefull life trying to figure out why it would not shoot worth a crap only to find that my mounts were not right.

 

Hope that helps. Keep us posted.

[BruinPoint]

I'm going through something similar with a new Remington 700 CDL in .264 Win. It's a 26" fluted, 1-in-9" twist. I don't have a break on mine, but I did the same "break-in" that you did. I freefloated it and that turned out to be a mistake. It went from a hair under 1" at 100yds to not being able to get any load much under 2". Tonight I finally got a load to shoot halfway decent with 6 shots under 1"...

 

From what I've learned on other forums, the thin, long barrels don't take to floating well, the only mitigating factor being whether it's bedded properly or not. Every single person I've found that had trouble with a freefloated rifle had a long thin barrel, but I don't know how many of those were bedded properly. Rather than bed mine I'm going to "un-freefloat" first it and see if I can get back where I started.

 

That issue notwithstanding, I've had good success with Reloader-19 in 4 belted magnums now (.338 Win, .300 Win, 7mm Rem., and .264 Win.) All 4 have shot sub-MOA as bone stock factory Rem 700's with RL19, and the .338 is a legit 0.5 MOA shooter. If you get desperate you might give that a go with Federal match primers.

 

Have you tried a shorter/lighter bullet? Try a box of 140gr VLD's or Accubonds and see what happens. And if you get a chance post an update.

[mason a]

I actually did shoot two groups of 139 grain hornady boat tail soft points, (they were free from hornady when i ordered the reloading dies), using h4831 sc velocity 2780 1.5 moa about the same on both groups

308 nut you must have been talking with my brother , he swears by the 162 amax, I will give them a try along with some others , at this point i will give her whatever she likes.

With all the loads I used winchester WLRM primers , but I will try some of the others that you recommended.

At this point i think i will send the gun to the gun smith and let him do his thing with the glass and pillar bedding and float the barrel. 150$ sounds like a fair price . In the mean time i will work up some different loads including some other bullet types.

[mason a]

I'm going through something similar with a new Remington 700 CDL in .264 Win. It's a 26" fluted, 1-in-9" twist. I don't have a break on mine, but I did the same "break-in" that you did. I freefloated it and that turned out to be a mistake. It went from a hair under 1" at 100yds to not being able to get any load much under 2". Tonight I finally got a load to shoot halfway decent with 6 shots under 1"...

 

From what I've learned on other forums, the thin, long barrels don't take to floating well, the only mitigating factor being whether it's bedded properly or not. Every single person I've found that had trouble with a freefloated rifle had a long thin barrel, but I don't know how many of those were bedded properly. Rather than bed mine I'm going to "un-freefloat" first it and see if I can get back where I started.

 

That issue notwithstanding, I've had good success with Reloader-19 in 4 belted magnums now (.338 Win, .300 Win, 7mm Rem., and .264 Win.) All 4 have shot sub-MOA as bone stock factory Rem 700's with RL19, and the .338 is a legit 0.5 MOA shooter. If you get desperate you might give that a go with Federal match primers.

 

Have you tried a shorter/lighter bullet? Try a box of 140gr VLD's or Accubonds and see what happens. And if you get a chance post an update.

My brother also shoots a 264 mag. He shoots 140 amax out of his .His favorite powder so far is h870( but he said they dont make it anymore or they changed the name of it, I think it is a ball powder). He now shoots retumbo and likes it. He tried h4831 sc cause he had some extra left over but it was NO good at all.His gun did not like that powder. He was surprised that your gun likes R19 , but every gun is different. And i'm still trying to figure out what my gun likes.

[BruinPoint]

Those powders are all on the slow end but RL19 and RL22 are a little faster than those you listed. Both put out some pretty good velocities without unsafe pressures which is why they're fairly popular powders for the belted mags. I haven't had a chance to try it but I've heard good things about Ramshot Magnum too.

[travist1]

my 2 cents get rid of the synthetic stock period i wouldn't spend the money in the martex to bed it my idea is cut the fore-end off and use it as an ice cube tray. barrel length doesn't matter if your fore-end doesn't flex to touch your your barrel and like 308nut said check your scope base and make sure it is strait.

[coues7]

Mason,

 

I know of two individual who bought the Rem 700 SPS in 7WSM and did nothing more than bed them. Both rifles with handloads will shoot .25 MOA at all ranges. The tupperware stock isn't the best but I know both of them bedded them anyway.....the results were impressive to say the least. Both rifles were purchased at separate times from separate stores. Anything that Mike (308Nut) says I'd listen.

 

Scott

[jeffro]

Theres no way I would put $150 in a tuperware stock. I would look into getting a better stock. If you can do the work your self, I would go that route, and see if it helps. It wont cost much to do it your self. I have bedded a few tuperware stocks over the years, and they worked out great, until they were replaced with better stocks.

[DesertBull]

http://www.stockysstocks.com/servlet/the-553/*NEW!-Bell-%26-Carlson/Detail

 

For $60 more you can get a nice stock with aluminum bedding block. You'll probably still want to bed it with epoxy.

 

What about the trigger? That would be where I put my money first.

[308Nut]

Theres no way I would put $150 in a tuperware stock. I would look into getting a better stock. If you can do the work your self, I would go that route, and see if it helps. It wont cost much to do it your self. I have bedded a few tuperware stocks over the years, and they worked out great, until they were replaced with better stocks.

 

+1

 

You dont have to spend a fortune on a decent stock either. Most factory stocks make great boat paddles. That said, if you can float it and bed it your self, it may be worth a try. If you had to invest much coin into it, invest it in something worth while.

[308Nut]

Anything that Mike (308Nut) says I'd listen.

 

Scott

 

Sorry! Maybe 'take note of' is a better choice of words. listen to is a bit much. Many a words and advice has come back to bite me. It is a very humbling experience and often times leads to the eating alot of sour crow soup.

 

I am facing the possiblity of eating some crow soup over at LRH.com as we speak. Next week, when I get my rifle back from my smith I will conduct a test and an experiment to verify if there is any validity to my 'observations' or if I have been making some pretty sizable mistakes for the past (10+ years). Hopefully the reality lays somewhere in the middle.

 

M

[deserthntr]

when i was shooting bergers out of my 300 win i used RE-22. that worked really well, maybe you just need to try some different powders. but i love RE-22, i would give it a shot

[mason a]

Thanks for all the help and comments. I did have a trigger job done the same time as the brake , its awesome. I think i'm going to also try r19 and r22.

I already looked into a bell and carlson from stocky stock , my model 700 is the adl model , no hinged floor plate. so its not available . options are H.S or McMillan not cheap. Maybe there are some other ones out there also.

Funny thing about my groups , they are all over the paper, not just a flier here and there.

Also

[sjvcon]

I started to respond "Don't forget a trigger job..." earlier and got side tracked. I see now that you have done that.

 

You'll pay a bitt less for the HS Precision and you'll get the full length bedding. That said, you get what you pay for, and most of the stuff I've read about McMillan is like the stuff you read about Swarovski ... if it's not absolutely the best, it's darn close. But a lot of guys I know swear by HS stocks too. Not so much on Bell & Carlson (though someone will probably say they love them ... it's all a preference thing I guess). I've stuck with Walnut myself ... but that's me.

 

If you're on a budget, which most of us are these days, you've kinda gotta take it step by step, but the trick is doing that without wasting money. Trying different powders, bullets and primers is easy enough, and may cure your issues. Good stock properly bedded is a good start toward customizing your rifle. You're not wasting money there. After that, there's action massaging (true bolt, lap lugs, etc.), lapping your existing barrel (or perhaps replacing it entirely with something from a premium maker), etc. That starts running into some pretty big bucks. Hopefully somewhere along the way, you find what you are looking for with the fewest dollars spent.

 

Good luck. It's a good base platform and caliber.