Remington 700 SPS .308 Ammo/Upgrades

I shoot the Hornady Black 168 gr A Max. They shoot real good. And yes I use them on deer with great success in all my rifles

I had the same rifle. Bought it from a buddy a while back. From both of our experience, it shot the American Whitetail best. MOA or a little better. Even better than some of the match stuff. That was after he had a gunsmith shorten the chamber slightly. He couldn't get it to group at all and found the chamber had been cut too deep. After that it shot fine. I eventually sold it to fund something else.

my .308 likes federal fusion 150 gr better than american whitetail

I have the same rifle but in a 300wsm. However, mine was 10 years newer than yours (read this as "mine was much worse quality than yours").

When I first started shooting it I tried "premium" ammo. I could not get groups under 2.5" @ 100 yards. I switched to federal fusion (after a lot of wasted money and experimenting on ammo), and my groups "came down" to 1.5" to 2".

After some tinkering I found a lot of problems.
-The stock was a piece of shite. It contacts the barrel, so per Remington "to give consistency". What this actually causes due to the flimsy stock is the harmonics of the barrel change with every shot and temp change.

-The taps for the scope were out of line, causing the scope to be mounted non-parallel with the barrel. This causes you to use a lot of windage to get it "straight", by doing so you are using the least accurate / consistent part of the scope.

-The trigger was gritty and inconsistent. There was like a 1 pound variance in trigger pull.

I put a HS precision stock ($350), timmney trigger set to 2.5# ($125), and had a pic rail tapped to match the rifle taps plus good rings ($160). I was going to add a new barrel but decided to try to "burn" through this one first and save the $500.

What this all got me was my groups shrank to a very consistent .55 moa (<2.25") @ 400 yards and under .50 moa (<1") @ 200 yards and in. All with the same "budget" federal fusions for around $635. I am very happy with the gun now.

However with the price of the gun I could have bought a Browning X-Bolt (or a number of other brands) that shoots sub .75 moa. If I didn't already have the gun that is the route I would have taken knowing what I know now.

Sidenote: The two biggest positives for a heavier barrel are:
1) Less picky with ammo due to harmonics being more consistent
2) If you are shooting a lot at once, the heat of the barrel will have less effect on POI changes

Both of these are not as necessary with a hunting rig and can be avoided by: finding the ammo the gun prefers and you normally won't shoot enough in a hunting scenario to heat the barrel.


You could do what I did for a lot less. The single biggest change came from the stock, then the trigger. IF you went with:
The stocky's stock with aluminum bedding block for $180
A good trigger job for $100
That would get you pretty well on your way for under $300.


Don't discount trying the Tubbs Final Finish + TMS Loaded Ammo ProPack. It is a longish process, but I have heard great things about it.



Hope this helps.

You could also bed and reinforce the stock (I've seen where people took a very stiff arrow, routed out a channel in the stock, and epoxied it in to stiffen it up), sand off the "tabs" on the fore-end that contacts the barrel (to free float it), and do a sanding / smoothing trigger job yourself. That would probably get your groups to shrink to sub-moa...

I just personally wouldn't trust a "homemade" trigger job on those triggers with all the problems the are reported to have. But if you go this route at first and screw everything up, I still have my factory x-mark trigger and sps stock that would fit your gun. You could have them if you can make arrangements to get them.

quote:

---

Scope taps out of line? That’s crazy. Sad to see a great manufacturer fall apart.

---

No shite. I was pissed off when I realized how much of my windage was off from center. The smith offered to tap them bigger to pull them in line, but that would have made it more complicated getting rings and I'm not shooting competition so the stock screw size was fine.

That is when he suggested buying a non-tapped night force rail and having him tap it (off center also) to match up with the factory taps but also be perfectly parallel to the barrel. He did a great job and if it isn't perfect, it was within my margin or error to be able to tell the difference. I basically counted my turns and found the dead center and don't remember making much adjustment after.

ETA: Worst part to me was that the back to taps were perfect, the front two were off. That made the whole thing even worse. Not only was the scope not parallel to the barrel, but they were putting my scope in a bind.

Two things I'd do are like Rodfather said.

New stock - I'd suggest you look at the Magpul stock. I have a couple of them. They are very good for the money.

New trigger. I have the Trigger Tech special in one of mine. It's set at 1.25lbs and it's spectacular. I looked at the diamond but didn't think I'd need to go below 1lbs of pull on this gun.

quote:

---

Hope this helps.

---

Hell yeah it helps. I didnt want to start dropping money on a trigger, stock, etc if it wasnt going to do anything. My dad gave me this gun so it does have some sentimental value. I reckon I'll order a trigger first. Thanks


I checked with the recall and my gun was not affected.

quote:

---

imney trigger for $112 this last week.

---

which one? I'm finding them for around 180

LINK

I was looking at the JARD set triggers. They have a good reputation and I like the idea of a 2-2.5# trigger while hunting but a 8 ounce trigger for sighting in, long hunting shots, and long range plinking.