Best Factory Action

[Deleted member 46119]

There are many "factory" actions that are suitable. All have pro's and con's.

If it were me and I do this sort of thing all the time, it would be an action that can take any cartridge rim size smaller than a CheyTac. It would take a breech face with no cutouts. It would take at least a 3.75" COAL.

After that it's all about your smith or self getting things straight and tight.

Listed aftermarket parts are nice but with so much CNC machining just ask and you might get what you want for an unlisted action.

Of course I have my preference and it is known to the regulars:
Forged steel.
Flat bottom.
Integral recoil lug.
.720 or larger bolt nose.
Support for locals and a local company.

 

[Jud96]

currently the folks at Remington have the snipers rifle contract, but it's also not what the military really wanted. Been that way for at least fifty years, but when your well placed and have a huge lobby working for you, you know the results. Hathcock was known to say that he preferred the Winchester more than once. The current Savage snipers rifle is being used all over the world right now, and many tests have proven it to be the most accurate snipers rifle out there without dumping $10K into it.
gary

Well the Army just re-upped their contract with Remington and are now using the XM2010. Its a Remington 700 action with a chassis system style stock on it chambered in .300 WinMag. Seems they don't mind them. Hathcock used what he had and if you saw how his Model 70 shot then you'd wonder why he liked it so much. It shot 2" groups at 100yds and 24" groups at 1000yds. Not very accurate to say the least.

Scoff at the mausers if you wish. I have a Mark X, that I built for less than a comparable Remington costs off the shelf, that will walk all over any Remington you've got.

If you think the military buys equipment because it is the best available, you are delusional. My hate toward Remington comes from my personal experience with them. My Remingtons were built nearly a decade apart and had EXACTLY the same problems. I own a Remington varmint rifle too. It is very accurate. The trouble is, it's not straight. It is impossible to boresight a scope on it without using crappy windage adjustable mounts. It is in the hands of a gunsmith right now having the problem corrected. I haven't had that problem with any other make of rifle in my safe. My Remington VS was a premium model. There is no excuse for that kind of shoddiness. I was a big Remington fan until I started to learn what I was actually looking at.

Remington charges premium prices for budget quality rifles. Winchester, CZ, and Savage all come from the factory with better barrels. Fit, finish, features, and overall quality of a Winchester or CZ is far and away better than an out of the box Remington at the same price point or lower. Have you ever actually looked at them side by side?

If you are happy with your Remingtons, there is nothing wrong with that. I am glad that you got good ones and that you are pleased with them. Insisting that they are the best made, however, is a stretch to put it mildly.

I'm not saying anything against Mausers, just saying that a Model 70, Ruger, CZ are all Mausers. You may as well buy an old beat up sporter and build a custom out of its action if you like the qualities of the Mausers. And I don't know about that Mark X walking all over my Remingtons. My Dad's Varmint Special .222 puts five of them on top of each other at 100yds and the back of the .222 case covers the group! Our .243s also shoot outstanding but not like that .222 does!

You must just be unlucky with Remingtons. Have never had those problems and have never heard of such issues. Their fit and finish on their wooden stocked rifles have always been nice and I always liked their checkering pattern and the way they added the black nose cap on the BDLs. Could never see a noticeable outward appearance difference in the standard Model 70s vs the standard BDL Model 700 quality wise. I will have to say Remington has some fine factory barrels. They all shine like a mirror and shoot like customs.

 

[adam32]

Okay so back to the original question, which was the best factory action to build off of and match a custom action in quality.

The only way a Remington will even match a Stiller is by putting at least $300 into it.

Others are good to go out of the box as far a trueness, a 700 will ALWAYS need at least the lugs lapped and face squared.

Sako, CZ, Browning, etc...don't need a gunsmith to touch them, thread/chamber and go hunting.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

Weatherby.

It's gonna cost ~$800 and up for what you want. A true, strong action with a good to great trigger or aftermarket trigger. ~$300 and up for a barrel. ~$100 and up for a stock.

So while I'm sure it can be less, I think you are looking at $1200 and up. That's generally what mine wind up starting at.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

I can't and wouldn't argue with Savage out of the box accuracy.
My $269 Savage Edge in 223 Rem puts everything in 1/2" or less at 100 yards if I even close to do my job. And that's with a no name " litterly there is no brand name on the scope " 3-9×40.
My last model 700 . A VTR that I bought nib at Boondocks in Eagle River in 08 . A 223 Remington. Cost over 600$ and that was a reduced price. Would keep everything inside 1 3/4" at 100 yards with a Burris Signature Select scope. The Remington would jam at least 1 in 4 times.
I think I've gotten 2 failures to feed with the Edge out of around 500 rounds.

 

[Edd]

There is a reason that Remington builds all that quality into their actions. They can't figure out a way to build them any cheaper.

 

[Trickymissfit]

Okay so back to the original question, which was the best factory action to build off of and match a custom action in quality.

The only way a Remington will even match a Stiller is by putting at least $300 into it.

Others are good to go out of the box as far a trueness, a 700 will ALWAYS need at least the lugs lapped and face squared.

Sako, CZ, Browning, etc...don't need a gunsmith to touch them, thread/chamber and go hunting.

A Savage short action will nearly always check out in the sub .0017" error range on a surface plate or a co-ordinate measuring device. (compound error). I've seen them just slightly over .0013" and never worse than .002". Check the others and compare. The typical custom action is machined very similarly to the way savage does, and with similar quality machinery. A very good CNC lathe will cut the basic action to about .0005" to .0008", but if you do this same work off a vertical machine center and use a tap like some do; then you only compound the error. That's why some actions have to be trued up much more than others do. You add the fixture and machine alignment into the equation. Of course you can also get the samething in a CNC lathe if the machine is not square. There are some CNC lathes out there that can cut an action the size of a 700 well under .0005", but the custom guys can't afford them (a million+ a pop). Over the top for the typical gun manufacturer as well. Plus they fragile, and need to be setup in a controlled environment. Cutting ports and things like that are not a serious issue, and can be done with live tooling or a second operation on a CNC machine center.
gary

 

[7magcreedmoor]

I had a custom done on a savage action last year, and it turned out so well I am doing another one this year, a DIY project all the way.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Exactly and why I'm rebarreling my 11 lightweight hunter with a Bartlien and Manners stock (I can't bring myself to use a walnut furnitured rifle as a walking stick). Mr. Pierce flat told me he can't improve on the action or bolt alignment and he outta know.

I can always open up the magazine well if I need to (for bullet jump if necessary) but I don't see that happening at this juncture.

Maybe my trigger finger is as numb as my mind (at my advanced age) but the Accutrigger (while not a Jewel) feels just fine to me.... but what do I know. I'm just a consumer after all.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Scoff at the mausers if you wish. I have a Mark X, that I built for less than a comparable Remington costs off the shelf, that will walk all over any Remington you've got.

If you think the military buys equipment because it is the best available, you are delusional. My hate toward Remington comes from my personal experience with them. My Remingtons were built nearly a decade apart and had EXACTLY the same problems. I own a Remington varmint rifle too. It is very accurate. The trouble is, it's not straight. It is impossible to boresight a scope on it without using crappy windage adjustable mounts. It is in the hands of a gunsmith right now having the problem corrected. I haven't had that problem with any other make of rifle in my safe. My Remington VS was a premium model. There is no excuse for that kind of shoddiness. I was a big Remington fan until I started to learn what I was actually looking at.

Remington charges premium prices for budget quality rifles. Winchester, CZ, and Savage all come from the factory with better barrels. Fit, finish, features, and overall quality of a Winchester or CZ is far and away better than an out of the box Remington at the same price point or lower. Have you ever actually looked at them side by side?

If you are happy with your Remingtons, there is nothing wrong with that. I am glad that you got good ones and that you are pleased with them. Insisting that they are the best made, however, is a stretch to put it mildly.

That's funny...I hear of alot more Model 70's having horrific barrels. Not that I don't hear about Remington issues, but I think you owning 3 Rem rifled is not justifiable to say they are crap.

Maybe you just had bad luck strike 3 times... It's happened to me before, but not with Remingtons.

You don't hear me bad-mouthing Weatherby at every turn, but my 1 Accumark that costs about as much as your 3 Rem's did, has a crap barrel from the factory... That's a $2,200 MSRP rifle... How would you feel if that happened? Do I think anythijg bad about Weatherby...No. A lemon slipped through the cracks. It happens.

And when I say a crap-barrel...The rifle shoots 3/4-1 MOA, but it has several tight spots in the bore.

And to me, a rifle like that, of that price range, is not acceptable for it to shoot anything above 1/2" groups.

 

[benchracer]

If a given shooter likes Remingtons, I am not going to take issue with that. Claiming that they are the best is disingenuous. They are not even close. For the same money, there are plenty of better values, as previously stated.

 

[Varberger757]

You will hardly find anything better than the older Heym SR 20 N/G actions, just awesome!
As capable as the Heym but even harder to find are the wonderfull actions of the Norwegian "Kongsberg Lakelanders" or Swedish "Varbergers". These would be my first choices. If I had to choose something from the US I'd go with the W70. gun)

 

[7magcreedmoor]

Exactly and why I'm rebarreling my 11 lightweight hunter with a Bartlien and Manners stock (I can't bring myself to use a walnut furnitured rifle as a walking stick). Mr. Pierce flat told me he can't improve on the action or bolt alignment and he outta know.

I can always open up the magazine well if I need to (for bullet jump if necessary) but I don't see that happening at this juncture.

Maybe my trigger finger is as numb as my mind (at my advanced age) but the Accutrigger (while not a Jewel) feels just fine to me.... but what do I know. I'm just a consumer after all.

I tried the accutrigger on last years rifle before the rebuild, and it just wasn't for me. At any nice light pull weight, the trigger wouldn't take the bolt being run rapidly and the sear ended up on the safety blade. I like to think I gave it a fair trial- 600 or so dry fires at various weights of pull before junking it. I use the RifleBasix SAV2 now. At 1 pound 12 oz, I can drop the rifle butt first any number of times, never an accidental seardrop, and no matter how hard I run the bolt in rapid strings on the range I've never had a problem.

 

[gohring3006]

Nesika, is producing rifles at their factory now so should we include them? Just wondering....