Remington 700 SPS Tactical, A Long Term Evolution

Remington 700 SPS Tactical 

A Long Term Evolution

About half a decade back I purchased a brand new Remington 700 SPS tactical in .308 Winchester from Buds Gun Shop (www.budsgunshop.com) and had them send it over to my FFL dealer.

The gun came equipped with all the basic standard equipment.  It featured a Hogue over-molded stock that left the barrel free floated, until you put even a slight load on the fore-end that is.   The stock is at least aluminum pillar bedded for the action screws though, and the stock was quite comfortable to shoot with due to its super soft recoil pad.

The rifle also came equipped with the fairly new X-Mark Pro trigger.  I'm guessing that the X-Mark Pro is Remington's answer to the "very good for an off-the-shelf" Accu-Trigger that Savage offers.  The X-Mark pro is an adjustable trigger, allowing you to adjust pull-weight, over-travel, and sear engagement.  The lowest I was able to safely adjust my X-Mark down to was around 4lbs.  The trigger was better than say a stock Ruger 10/22 trigger, but it was nothing to write home about, ever.

The barrel on the SPS Tactical is a 20" varmint/tactical contour, featuring a 1-12" right-hand twist.  The chamber also has a fairly long throat like most factory barrels, but it doesn't seem to mind the long jump all that much, and over-all accuracy was quite impressive considering all the little things it had going against it.  The rifle easily pulled off Minute-of-Angle accuracy with factory Federal Gold Medal Match (FGMM) in both 168gr and 175gr flavor.  

Trying (then) to keep it a budget build, when it came to optics, I cheaped out and bought a Falcon Menace 4-14x44 scope, mounted it in some very nice, not so budget Nightforce Ti rings and put that combo on an EGW 20moa base.  The glass on the Falcon scope was decent for the price point (sub $400) and the turrets and reticle allowed for good ranging and adjustments while shooting at unknown distances.  I did learn my lesson about buying cheap glass however when the turrets stopped tracking correctly.  I was able to get a freebie replacement through some connections and was quickly back up and shooting with an exact replacement of the broken scope.  This time though, the glass was a bit cloudy and the turrets felt mushy and a lot less positive.  My guess is that quality control over the years has degraded and resulted in a much less than stellar product for the money now-a-days.  Bottom line is though, the gun still shot well, and if I was able to easily see the target through the sub-par glass, I was usually still able to hit it.

Here is how the rifle looked during the first stage of it's life.

Fast forward a couple of years and the gun is still in the Hogue stock with a stock trigger and mediocre glass.  The gun is a decent shooter as it sits, but I got the bug to start making it a better shooter.  First on the list (and cheapest) was a new stock.

I began browsing some of the rifle oriented message boards online and came across a very good deal on a factory Remington 700-5R 'Mil-Spec' HS-Precision stock.  These stocks are very good for a factory stock.  They offer a full aluminum bedding block that holds the action very well and centers it quite precisely.  The fore-arm is very wide and flat on the bottom to allow for shooting off of a rest and it is light.  The barrel also becomes truly free-floated.

Because of all of the benefits that this new (to-me) stock offered, accuracy improved.  I began seeing 3/4 MOA accuracy with the FGGM ammo and overall comfort was improved as well.  Comfort behind a weapons system, as I began to discover, can be a huge compliment to accuracy, or an even bigger detriment if you don't have it.

The rifle with the Falcon Glass and HS Precision Stock.

Another year went by.  The gun was a good shooter and I was getting more and more comfortable behind it.  Everything was good... Except the glass.  

Continues in pt.2 (here)