175 SMK's and a $350 rifle

[danish]

On Black Friday eve I was one of a million other idiots waiting to get in a store for a good deal. The store was Dick's and the good deal was their 308 Remington 700 for $350. The main reason I picked it up was to start practicing long range and a cheap action for when I want to do a 6.5 CM or 260 build. I started to reload for it and recently shot this group:



I could not believe it. The only thing I have done to the rifle is an inexpensive Choate stock, adjusted the X-mark trigger down to a consistent 2.5# pull, and a Weaver Tactical 3-15x50mm scope. The load is 42 grains of Varget with a Sierra 175 SMK and a COL of 2.900. I am heading out today to chrono these and some 178 gr AMAX's that have been shooting a tad under .5 MOA. Once the weather warms up some it will be time to take it out to 300 yards and see what they do. My only regret was not picking up a 243 that same night since I will never set foot in Dick's again after their firearm's policy change...

[orkan]

This is fairly typical of a bone stock remington's performance. Never seen one do worse than .750 with handloads. Obviously you've got an acceptable specimen! Whether it will repeat that performance over and over again is the question.

As you start shooting more groups, you'll have some of them open up for no reason. This will be due to the stock most likely, with the trigger not helping either.

Then you'll notice the POI of a group will walk around the POA. This will be due to how you're operating the rifle, but also due to the stock/action interface.

If you were to bed that action in a good stock, and add a Timney 510... you'd really be set for success.

[danish]

Thanks for the words of advice. I am probably just going to leave the rifle as is since it is a budget rifle and focus any funds toward my next precision rifle purchase. I almost shit-canned this 175 SMK load since the first couple tries didn't amount to much but after I lengthen it out to 2.900 that made all the difference...

[Bluto]

Nice post with beautiful grouping!

What software is that? Sorry... New to precision shooting and don't know...

[sinister]

Factory Remington .308s normally all have a long throat to accommodate 200-grain round-nose ammo (lawyer-proofing).

Since it shoots that well I wouldn't change a darned thing! Add bullets and wear her out.

[Pappabear]

My opinion on these stock Remmy's is as follows. If you get a good barrel, it makes sense to invest in it. It's a tried and true action.
I would consider a timney trigger and stocky stocks BNC stock and a bedding job.

Now for under $1k, you get performance and enjoyment similar to $2k guns. And when the barrel dies, you can re barrel ......

The stocks and triggers may end up limiting your performance- consistency. And you can do each upgrade one at a time so it fun and affordable.

[danish]

I learned a lesson in load consistency today. I ran out of large rifle primers and had to use some magnums instead. Now I have used magnum primers befroe but small pistol and large pistol when I run short and have never had issues with accuracy in my 9 and 45 but they are not precision rounds. I went to get some chrono data so I got everything set-up and started shooting. I started with 178 gr. AMAX's that shoot 1/2 MOA and they blew out to a 2.5 MOA group just by switching the primers. The 175 SMK's were not as finicky to the different primers and merely opened up to 3/4 MOA from the 1/4 MOA. I went back to my parent's house (I shoot on the family farm that we have a 200 yard range) and loaded up 5 rounds of the AMAX's again but with regular primers that I scrounged up and proceed to shoot a sub-1/2 MOA group. Huge lesson learned. I did get chrono data for the SMK's and they are averaging around 2,650 fps with the 42.0 grains of Varget. Now off to buy $50/1000 primers...eck...

Bluto-The software is OnTarget

[Pappabear]

We did the exact same thing with our .223 load. We changed from Wolf primers .5 load to 2 inch loads. It really surprised me.

[Sgt_Gold]

We did the exact same thing with our .223 load. We changed from Wolf primers .5 load to 2 inch loads. It really surprised me.

What primers did you switch to?

[Pappabear]

What primers did you switch to?

We run wolf small rifle, the best there is, and ran out of wolf so we bought CCI , CCI BENCH..., 4 different quality primers. Nothing came close to the wolf performance and it surprised us.


I recently told a friend to try them on his load, his SD and MOA dropped in half on his loads. Wolf small rifle primers are top notch.