Looking for a F-Class rifle

[MartinS]

Remington 700 PSS in 308.win about £1000. Sound about right??

[Mr_Logic]

Sadly, yes.

[20series]

Martin

My Remmy has been a continuous changing project as you can see from the other thread, when I bought it it was only going to be a play thing as I was at that time a serious prone small-bore shooter and I wanted to have a go at other things.

It has been a lot of fun but has had money spent in dribs and drabs, part of me wishes I still had the set up as it ended up before the rebarrel, it was a very accurate rifle out to 800 yards but started to go off past that and I wanted a rifle to shoot to 1000.

If I'm honest if I was starting fresh now and going out to compete at a sensible level straight off I would probably save up the money and buy a more suitable "off the shelf" competition rifle, perhaps a Savage or a custom built rig like Mik at Dolphin guns provides, or any of the other excellent gunsmiths that we have in this country, Neil Mckillop, Dave Wylde @ Valkerie, Stuart Anselm @ Osprey rifles to name a few.

HTH
Alan

[Dangermouse]

I have to agree with 20Series. We have both travelled a very similar path with our Remington 700's and were both trying to achieve the same goals.

If I was starting out again, I would save up and get a custom rifle built - easily My Remington, nick named the Mexican, has had £2000 spent on it (without scope) and it is still only a £600 Remington.

Just to point out, all the Remington 700 models use the same action and bolt. A few use the same, what they refer to as a heavy, barrel at 26" after that you are paying for the stock that comes with it.
The SPS Varmint being by far the cheapest stock and of little real use. I suggest that you get hands on with whatever stock you like the looks of before buying as there is little point paying an extra £400 for a Police model if you end up replacing the stock, which is the only thing that differentiates it from the SPS.
If you have access to ebay, search for Remington 700 stock and save it as a search so that whenever anyone adds a new item under this heading you get a notification. Someone sold a Choate stock on there recently and it went for a little over £100.
Now that Accuracy International have released a new AICS stock, there are a few people with the old stock for sale an they can be bought for a fair price.

Many custom actions are based on the Rem700 action, so should you decide to invest in a custom stock for your Rem700, you can use it If you later decide to buy a custom action and barrel. One of the best that I have seen, and I have been looking, if this system from Dolphin Gun Company http://www.dolphinguncompany.co.uk/inde ... Itemid=163

A word on barrel length,
To shoot at distance you need at the very least a 26" barrel, so do not go for a tactical model as they have shorter barrels.
I tried to compete at 1000 yards with A 26" barrel and although I could be happy with my scores when shooting alongside others with similar set ups, when I started shooting F Class comps where 32" barrels are the norm, I really noticed how much I was loosing out by.
Longer barrel equates to faster bullets which in turn are effected less by the wind which gives tighter groups / higher scores.
Should you be at all competitive then I return to 20Series point and suggest that you do not waste money on a barrel that you will quickly replace.
Borrow, beg, watch and learn for a season whilst saving for the rifle that can do the job,

As we often say on here, it is easy to spend others money for them,

All the best,

DM

[MartinS]

Martin

My Remmy has been a continuous changing project as you can see from the other thread, when I bought it it was only going to be a play thing as I was at that time a serious prone small-bore shooter and I wanted to have a go at other things.

It has been a lot of fun but has had money spent in dribs and drabs, part of me wishes I still had the set up as it ended up before the rebarrel, it was a very accurate rifle out to 800 yards but started to go off past that and I wanted a rifle to shoot to 1000.

If I'm honest if I was starting fresh now and going out to compete at a sensible level straight off I would probably save up the money and buy a more suitable "off the shelf" competition rifle, perhaps a Savage or a custom built rig like Mik at Dolphin guns provides, or any of the other excellent gunsmiths that we have in this country, Neil Mckillop, Dave Wylde @ Valkerie, Stuart Anselm @ Osprey rifles to name a few.

HTH
Alan

Thanks Alan for being honest.
I can see where you're coming from, I think it's going to come down to money like always. If I had the money I would go down the custom route it's just the stack load of money up front.

[ovenpaa]

As Essexboy suggested, using an older target rifle is not such a bad idea as a starter, they are long barrelled, have a twist to suit 155's and were designed for competition use. The addition of a rail, 'scope (one of Brian Fox's offerings) and bipod gets you comfortably into some accurate long distance shooting, it is certainly the approach I would adopt if I was starting afresh and truth be known is as cheap as re-barrelling my current 7,62x51 for F/TR use.

[MartinS]

I have to agree with 20Series. We have both travelled a very similar path with our Remington 700's and were both trying to achieve the same goals.

If I was starting out again, I would save up and get a custom rifle built - easily My Remington, nick named the Mexican, has had £2000 spent on it (without scope) and it is still only a £600 Remington.

Just to point out, all the Remington 700 models use the same action and bolt. A few use the same, what they refer to as a heavy, barrel at 26" after that you are paying for the stock that comes with it.
The SPS Varmint being by far the cheapest stock and of little real use. I suggest that you get hands on with whatever stock you like the looks of before buying as there is little point paying an extra £400 for a Police model if you end up replacing the stock, which is the only thing that differentiates it from the SPS.
If you have access to ebay, search for Remington 700 stock and save it as a search so that whenever anyone adds a new item under this heading you get a notification. Someone sold a Choate stock on there recently and it went for a little over £100.
Now that Accuracy International have released a new AICS stock, there are a few people with the old stock for sale an they can be bought for a fair price.

Many custom actions are based on the Rem700 action, so should you decide to invest in a custom stock for your Rem700, you can use it If you later decide to buy a custom action and barrel. One of the best that I have seen, and I have been looking, if this system from Dolphin Gun Company http://www.dolphinguncompany.co.uk/inde ... Itemid=163

A word on barrel length,
To shoot at distance you need at the very least a 26" barrel, so do not go for a tactical model as they have shorter barrels.
I tried to compete at 1000 yards with A 26" barrel and although I could be happy with my scores when shooting alongside others with similar set ups, when I started shooting F Class comps where 32" barrels are the norm, I really noticed how much I was loosing out by.
Longer barrel equates to faster bullets which in turn are effected less by the wind which gives tighter groups / higher scores.
Should you be at all competitive then I return to 20Series point and suggest that you do not waste money on a barrel that you will quickly replace.
Borrow, beg, watch and learn for a season whilst saving for the rifle that can do the job,

As we often say on here, it is easy to spend others money for them,

All the best,

DM

Thank you DM for all the info

I can see why it's false economy but as I said to Alan it's going to down to money. I can see why shooter's will buy something cheaper and customise a bit at a time when funds are available, even if it's wrong way really to do it. I had a look at the Dolphin custom rifles which I must say had some cracking stocks and with 32" barrels looked the biz!
It's a tough one to call really. Or I put the ironsight shooting on hold and just carry on with Musgrave with scope! I'm not sure I want to wait.
God if I had £2400 I would go custom for sure but I don't as it's been a expensive year for me as it is. :G
I know one thing which is I will not go running into the gun shop and just buy what I'm offered. So I'm going to wait until I'm back the range pick a few peoples brains up there and carry on getting as much info as possible before I spend anything. I'll keep looking on the website's you listed if something comes up at the right price.

Thanks again

[ovenpaa]

I see there is an AICS stocked Armalon Rem700 for sale on the Grove site.

http://www.grovesmallarms.org/gunad1.html

[ovenpaa]

Looking a bit more, advertised as a Super-accurate match rifle with iron sights, plain wood stock. Very little used.
Comes with selection of cleaning jags and nearly-new single-point sling. GBP350. I bet that would make the basis of a nice year one F/TR rifle.

http://www.grovesmallarms.org/gunad4.html

[MartinS]

I see there is an AICS stocked Armalon Rem700 for sale on the Grove site.

http://www.grovesmallarms.org/gunad1.html

That's seems quite a good price don't you think?
I will keep my eye on that!