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I found a early Model 700 in a spot on my pawn shop/gun shop route i frequently go treasure hunting for cool old bolt rifles. I spotted a 700 in a case among a few other beat up old hunting rifles. the first thing i noticed was the notch in the top rear of the ejection port, then the two small threaded holes on the left side of the receiver, and finally, the ol tombstone safety. Being a fan of Rem Model 700s, i asked to see it. It was a long action, blind floor plate ADL, chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum. It had cool old school Baush & Lomb scope mounts on it, (the ones with the adjustments built into the mounts instead of the scope turrets), and a M1907/Turner Saddlery looking sling with dirty brass hardware. the stock was rough-scratches, dents, gouges, heavily worn finish. The bluing on the action and barrel was just as rough.

As I cycled the bolt, i noticed that although it appears to have been well used, the action felt smooth and tight. I turned the rifle on its side in my hands to take a peek at the barrel code and serial number, which off the top of my head, led me to believe this rifle had been manufactured in 1963-64. (BK barrel code, B=January, and K=1963, and the 48,xxx SN# supports that conclusion). I thought, "Cool old rifle but damn, its pretty rough..." I flipped the tag tethered to the trigger guard and saw the price was $349...I figured what the hell. I figured it would make a fun project. This process below took me roughly a week, a couple hours invested after my work projects were finished for the day.

I got home and went to work on my diamond in the rough, pulling the barreled action from the poor stock that had, of course, seen better days. I stripped the rest of the worn finish, did my sanding sequence, and after a bedding job, used a sealer/filler, re sanded, and lastly, applied the finish.

The barreled action got a chemical blue strip, then chucked up in the lathe remove some scratches with extra fine abrasives. After smoothing the surfaces, i went to work polishing the barreled action, bolt handle, Leupold ring bases, rings, and an old Weaver K3 scope ive had in a parts bin. It came out pretty cool. I cooked up some Sierra TGK handloads for it and slayed paper with it, and she shoots sub-1" 5 shot groups all day just seated to mag length with a conservative charge. I hope to put some meat in the freezer with it this elk season. IMG_0687.jpeg rem.jpg
 
Very nice! Have you gotten it to the bench yet?
I love that ol' K3 Weaver. I hunted with a K4 on my Model 70 for years until one day I shot it and everything went grey. The objective lens had somehow come loose and rotated 90 degrees so it was now edge on to incoming light! Dang! Stupid me, I just threw it away. Never even thought about having it fixed.
 
Good save!

Does this one have a stainless steel barrel? I know those were fitted on the 7mm's in response to the .264 Model 70's developing a (undeserved, it turns out) reputation for barrel wear.

I had an early 700 with the stainless barrel (so marked on the roll-stamp), and it showed a somewhat rougher finish surface than the polished receiver, and Remington's attempt at "bluing" stainless wasn't very durable (silver showed on all wear points).

But the gun shot 1/2" groups with handloads (the very first factory sporting weight rifle I ever saw do that). Traded it straight across for a pickup to get me home from the service. Can't say now if it was a good trade or not, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. :cool:
 
Good save!

Does this one have a stainless steel barrel? I know those were fitted on the 7mm's in response to the .264 Model 70's developing a (undeserved, it turns out) reputation for barrel wear.

I had an early 700 with the stainless barrel (so marked on the roll-stamp), and it showed a somewhat rougher finish surface than the polished receiver, and Remington's attempt at "bluing" stainless wasn't very durable (silver showed on all wear points).

But the gun shot 1/2" groups with handloads (the very first factory sporting weight rifle I ever saw do that). Traded it straight across for a pickup to get me home from the service. Can't say now if it was a good trade or not, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. :cool:
it does, i believe the magnum chambered 700s all did for a time, although not all have "STAINLESS" on the barrel rollmark. This '63 does not, but i have another 7mm Rem Mag from '68 that does. I learned this in my younger years when i tried to cold blue one not marked as SS haha
 
i wish. in my excitement, i neglected to take any. i usually do when i start a build/resto.
I once redid a Savage 110 for my Nephew. It looked so bad before I started I neglected to take a picture.
When I was about 1/2 way thru the job, I thought about it.... Wish i would have. It was horrible.
 
Nice! 1963 would be the second year of the 7mm Rem Mag and that rifle was probably in pretty high demand at the time. The 7mm Rem Mag started a craze that wasn't duplicated until the 6.5 Creedtard was released.
 
Near its introduction, it was often described as combining 30-06 bullet weights and 270 velocities.

There were several 7mm magnum wildcat cartridges often written about in the magazines. before its introduction.

The previous craze to the 7mm mag was the 6mm wildcats leading to the 243 Win and 244 Rem.

Bruce
 

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