BUYER BEWARE!

[ellerja]

My last thread was a topic titled helping decide what caliber. I went ahead and bought a Remington SPS in 270.win.I am posting this to warn others not to make my same mistake. I have owned two 700s in the past and they were fine rifles. This one is a down right piece of junk! The bad thing is once you buy it your stuck with it. The first thing is the stock It is completely plastic no aluminum bedding block nothing. Its like it came off a 20.00 BB gun! The stock is so flimsy its down right laudable if it were not for the fact I spent over 400.00 for it. The 770 had some issues with there bolt being rough to slide and engage but this is unbelievable. I have been proud owners of over 6 Remingtons in the past 3 rifles and 3 shotguns. I do not believe I will buy another new one from them again. Don't get me wrong I'm not here to brand bash but when you go by someone reputation for a great product you expect something from them.

 

[Smyrnagc]

What happen? You posted this on October 1st:

"Well I decided to go with the 270win.I got a 700 Remington in 270 win. I really like to input but decided if I ever go for something larger I have the option. Thanks for all the help."

 

[cayuga]

Could a person hand sand the stock and then glass bed it to the barrel to stiffen the stock and get that custom kind of fit you expect in a rifle of that kind of money?

I never had an issue with a Remington Arms Rifles. I still own an old 742 Woodsmaster Carbine Semi Automatic rifle that is a early sixties model. I lost count of how many whitetail deer fell to that rifle. I also have a .22 caliber fieldmaster pump rifle who's accuracy is just hard to beat. And when I was young my friends always went for the Model 700 BDL Bolt actions (they used to tease me about my semi automatic, yet it killed more deer then theirs). And their were always top quality. But I have no experience with the new models. I am kind of sad to hear they dropped their standards of quality.

I will admit that when I wanted a Bolt Action Rifle for elk hunting, I did go with the Ruger M77. I looked at Remington, Winchester and Ruger and just felt that the Ruger was a superior quality rifle. And the Ruger lived up to all my expectations for quality and accuracy.

What is the difference between the ,270 and the .280 Remington? When my friend purchased a whitetail rifle, he picked the .280 over the .270 caliber. He claims it was a little faster and harder hitting. But he also hand loads his own cartridges.

 

[ShawnT]

I bought a Remington 700 .243 several years ago at WalMart when they had rifles here on Long Island but were one close out for $300. It was the model that was Flat Black and it also had a cheap plastic stock. I had heard that guys had problems with the stock holding bedding material and supposedly the bedding would just "Pop" out of the stock. I bedded mine with Devcon Plastic Steel liquid (thinner than the putty so it flows better). Just really roughed up the action area with a dremel tool, then drilled small shallow holes at opposing angles in the bedding area and cleaned it up good with some alcohol. Once cured it never came out and the rifle shot very well.

The last Remy I bought was a LVSF (Light Varmint) (discontinued for the SPS series I think). It did have a neat synthetic stock that has sort of a "T" shaped pillar in it. I bedded it the same way. That rifle did have a problem with the trigger assembly though. If you pushed downward on the bolt when you cycled it home it would not stay cocked. Either the Mounting pin holes were drilled just slightly to far forward or the sear in the trigger was just a bit long. I also found that 2 of the trigger adjusting screws were "Froze" and I could not move them for the life of me. While troubleshooting the staying cocked problem I found that using one of my Timney Triggers would not have that problem, so it has a Timney in it now and the Rem trigger went in the trash. I also swapped out the Firing pin assembly in that rifle too for 2 reasons. First I hated the J-Lock and second the Firing Pin spring was just way too long which caused it to "wrinkle up" and that caused it to rub inside of the bolt body, just the thought of it drove me nuts. This rifle is in .221 Fireball. First load of RE7 and a 40gn VMax @3350fps shoots some little groups, and prairie Dogs just explode. 8)

So give it a chance, I know you maybe should not have to, but sometimes you got to spend some time to make the lower end 700s shoot. You might have been happier with a upper end 700BDL or Mountain rifle but then again maybe not.

 

[ellerja]

Well I wrote a long e-mail to Remington. I did get a response in the way of an incident report. I am planning on changing the cheap Chinese scope which has no name. I am also trying different ammo. The previous ADL had an aluminum bedding block in them. The new SPS has no block what so ever. Its just plastic and full of voids. To make it as light and cheap as possible. If I had known this I could have bought a Ruger weeks ago instead of waiting for the rifle in the caliber in which I wanted to come it. I passed over a savage and the Ruger for the Remington. I have read a detailed article from terminal ballistic research about bedding and stabilizing the stock. I may have to go this route.

 

[Widude]

I also feel the average Remington could use some attention to fix it up some. The last rifle I bought was a Browning X-Bolt in 7mm-08. It may a been a little more $$, but comes basically ready to go, just add a scope.

The only Remington I own is a 700 that was really just a donor action for a custom 22-250 build. It has a Shilen trigger & barrel and a custom stock.