Lately I've been toying with the idea of building my own Remington 700. I've looked around a little and found a gunsmith that c

[benjaminwc]

Lately I've been toying with the idea of building my own Remington 700. I've looked around a little and found a gunsmith that can help me. Any thoughts on how to proceed from here? What barrels would be good? Stocks? Triggers? I'm a gun nut building roast. Baste me.

[Treestand]

Hope you have $3000.00+ to build your Toy..JMO~ If you have that Rem/700 just re-barrel and Chamber it to your Cal.Have the Bbl,Turned to fit that stock, change-out the trigger to what ever, the money you saved will buy a Great Scope and Mounts & Rings, and alter the Bolt Face if larger then an 06.

[jay]

Custom building a commercially available rifle? Are just talking about getting a barreled action and adding a trigger and stock?

[jhjimbo]

The idea from Treestand makes more sense. Get a nice 700 and tweak it to your liking. Trigger job, maybe barrel, square bolt face, different caliber, trigger job and you would still be ahead of starting from an action.

[mike0714]

I just built a .284 on a 700 action a few years ago. I used a Kriegar Barrel 1-10", Bell & Carlson mountain rifle stock, a Timney trigger, a custom bolt/handle, Talley rings, and a Swarovski Z6 scope. Took a while to save up for it but the hours of work and the money was worth it. It is the only big game rifle I have used in the last 2 years.

[jhjimbo]

mike0714
How much did you put in it less the scope?
I looked into putting one together when i was in Nebraska and it was a lot more than buying one off the rack.

[Edward J. Palumbo]

Brownell's has Model 700 actions for $500-549 (blued/stainless), which off course require they be sent to a FFL licensee. Barrels from Shilen. Pac-Nor or Hart will cost another $400+, a trigger assembly from Jewel or Timney will add a few dollars, and the spectrum of stocks for the Model 700 receiver can be expected to cost $180 to 500, depending on your taste and purpose. You will need glassware, a good scope, in quality rings & basses, and there are many possibilities there.
To summarize, it is no longer an easily affordable exercise to build a tack-driving rifle. When you do the math, it makes better sense (to me) to select a Cooper, Montana, Kimber or other premium rifle that's chambered for the cartridge yo want and the barrel profile you prefer.
Component by component, it's prohibitively expensive. I miss the days when it was easy to find M98 and Springfield 1903 actions, get a Douglas XX barrel and a Bishop or Fajen stock for it. That was before figured walnut cost a king's ransom, though I have a healthy appreciation for wood laminate these days. Good luck on your project, and post a photo of it on your profile when you've completed it!

[Jerry A.]

Lilja and Krieger make excellent barrels too.

[mike0714]

Buy a cheap 700 from Walmart or some other box store for around 300 dollars. Strip it for just the action and sell the rest of the parts to get some of your money back you can usually get the action for 100 bucks after selling the parts. I spent about 1300 on the gun but I pulled some favors with a gunsmith I know to use his tools and to pick is brain and did most of the work myself. you could probably do it for 2000-2500 depending on what you do yourself and who you know.

[mike0714]

his brain*

[DakotaMan]

Using the Rem 700 action, the barrel will be the most important element for accuracy. If it is a bench rifle for 100 to 200 yard competitive shooting, get a 22" barrel from one of the top barrel makers (Krieger, Shilen, Lilja, Hart, Hartlien, or Broughton). If it is for long range accuracy, get a 26" or longer barrel from Lothar Walther. Have them contour, chamber, thread and crown. Next in importance is the trigger... a Timney will do and a Jewell is even better. Glass/pilar bed in any stock of your choice with a free floated barrel. It should provide excellent accuracy even if you bed it in a pine 2x4. If you are interested in accuracy, the heavy barrel is your friend. It takes muscles to lug them but they shoot very accurately across multiple shots. You will need a good scope with no paralax and you will have to spend money for that. The least expensive will be the Vortex Viper at about $450, I use Leupolds in the $1000 range and for long range accuracy, the Night Force ($1800)is a great scope.

[WA Mtnhunter]

Why not just buy a new Nosler 48 or Sako 85 and spend the extra money for a good scope and rock and roll!

[jhjimbo]

DakotaMan
You did not mention Douglas Barrels in Charleston,WV. Was that a oversight or have you not used them?