30-06 finally home.

Ron Eagle Elk · Aug 10, 2012

Sometime back I bought a lightly used Remington 700 SPS in 30-06 from a forum member. It came with a broken scope and a Harris Bipod. Changed out the scope and shot it for a while and it was a dang nice shooter.

I'm never satisfied though. I saved some money and picked up a Shilen barrel in the white, 26 inches with a 1 in 10 twist. I also picked up a Holland recoil lug. Saved some more pennies and bought a Choate Ultimate Varmint Stock for it. After market stocks for long action rifles aren't as plentiful as stocks for short action rifles.

I found a gunsmith that would do the work for what I could afford. I had him true the action and install the recoil lug and barrel. I also had him shorten the barrel to 22 inches and recrown the muzzle.

I installed the barreled action into the stock myself, added a new Nightforce 20 MOA mount and put the old scope back on. Gave everything a quick coat of paint until I can afford a Cerakote job.

After 50 rounds break in as suggested by Shilen, I shot a couple 5 inch groups at 800 yards. Still playing with the loads. I'm a happy camper.

Here's the Remington.

Hopefully, this will be the last thing an elk sees except for the bright flash.

Spitpatch · Aug 11, 2012

Snazzy! Wondering why the choice for 22" barrel?

Ron Eagle Elk · Aug 12, 2012

That extra four inches of steel made it real nose heavy in any position except prone shooting supported and I may not always have that luxury. I don't think I lost that much ballistically by shortening the barrel.

Spitpatch · Aug 12, 2012

Understand. If it doesn't feel good to shoot, you won't shoot it good. Nothing smacked with a .30-06 is gonna know the bullet started around 120fps slower than it could have.

gunfreak · Aug 12, 2012

You could have put a naked woman in the pic and I wouldn't have seen her. Very nice, I too shoot a 700 in *06.

Ron Eagle Elk · Aug 13, 2012

gunfreak,

I mean I like my rifle and all that....well, I guess it depends on who the naked woman was. I dearly love that old 30-06 cartridge. Still playing with the loads to see what it likes to eat best.

Took her back to the range for an hour today. All the long range spots were taken so I had to settle for 300 yards. Shot a couple of pretty good groups after testing some ammo. I'll try to get a pic of the target up before I leave in the morning.