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Remington 770 300 win mag questions

19K views 17 replies 14 participants last post by  1Calicocat 
#1 ·
I saw a brand new Remington 770 300 win mag in Wal mart last night for about $257 with a scope. I don't hunt, i am simply a range shooter and currently get 1/2'' groups at 100yds with my Savage Axis using cheap ammo. My questions are, will i get the same performance with the 770? Is the gun any good? Pros and cons?
 
#3 ·
My gut tells me "No". I think Remington is trying to recreate the 788 and that's not possible.

RJ.
 
#5 ·
308rifleman-- I've posted a PLEASE DONT SHOOT notice on those guns. Of course I'm constrained as to what I say but let's leave it at this: Do you see a gas vent anywhere in the bolt body? Is the bolt shroud (gas shield) made of steel or plastic?
What happens if it blows a primer?
 
#7 · (Edited)
I'd go with a tikka, but I also wouldn't get a .300 win mag. I've seen 2 of the Remington 770's take a dumb at the range. One of which broke the welded bolt handle off on a loaded chamber. The other wouldn't open the bolt to extract the spent casing.

How far are you shooting? If you aren't shooting very far then the .300 win mag is just a waste of money. The ammo will outcost that rifle in a couple range trips.

The .300 also has a lot of recoil for a range gun. If I wanted to reach out and touch something at the range and I had a Magnum itch, I'd get a 7mm Rem mag. It's much lighter on recoil, especially with the heavy target loads, it shoots flatter, and if you ever do decide to hunt the 7mm will do most everything you need. When shooting long range, I've seen some of the "economy rifles" do just fine, but a more precision oriented rifle is usually much better. The SAKO A7 long range is probably the best "take it out of the box and shoot" long range rifles I've seen right now. But if you're not shooting past 400-500 yards you won't really see much of the "magnum" effect as far as how flat they shoot. There is obviously a little but not much.

A7 Roughtech Range | SAKO

Here is the rifle, throw on a nice Leupold or Vortex scope for around $600-900 and you can get out there to those long ranges with good results. Some practice is required too though... :)

For Reference, you will spend more on 10 boxes of .300 win mag ammo than the rifle you're currently looking at. So I try personaly to save up and buy a nicer rifle. Most of these economy rifles are intended for folks who go out and put a hole through Bambi at 100-200 yards. They'll work for other things, but I always advocate for getting the job specific tools. If I'm going to be using the rifle at the range a lot. I get something with a heavy barrel built more for precision fun shooting and high volume round counts.
 
#9 ·
I owned a 710 for a little while, or at least until I literally wore the rifle out. Within a year everything started breaking, bolt shroud broke off (plastic). This resulted in the rifle being completely inoperable. In order to replace the bolt shroud the entire firing pin assembly had to be replaced, minus the firing pin. However, Remington did not have or offer the replacement parts. The receiver has a plastic liner on which the bolt travels in, that wore out and would cause the bolt to seize up. The lugs recess's are cut into the barrel, so rebarreling, if even possible, is a totally different process than with a typical bolt gun in which the lug recess's are in the receiver. I kept mine running by jury rigging the internals of the bolt, not a safe or proper fix, and it operated without a shroud in that condition.

The 770 is identical to the 710, except that some of the problems with the 710 were ineffectively addressed. They replaced the plastic receiver insert with a metal one, but it's still a weak and disposable design. The bolt shroud design is still the same and still breaks, thus deeming the rifle useless and inoperable when, not if, it breaks.

The 710 / 770 IS NOT a range rifle. Any type of extended use will literally wear the rifle out in no time at all. If anything, a shirt sleeve or twig gets in the way of or catches on the shroud, it will snap off, leaving you completely out of business. I simply can't understand why Remington has continued to sell those pieces of junk.

HBC
 
#10 ·
+1. This has been my experience with lower cost rifles. They're made for the guys who will go out and sight in once a year with a couple rounds then go put a hole in an animal out hunting. For that purpose they work wonderfully. Firearms made to handle high round counts usually involve better materials and designs suited to replacing parts like barrels and such as they're worn out. Most of these budget guns won't see this kind of heavy use.

I'm currently seeing this issue with a Ruger .22/45 lite. Mine currently has to have close to or over 90,000 through it now days. It's about 3-4 years old and I shoot it a LOT! I've got a 10/22 target that's got about half as many through it as well. The 10/22 is holding up just fine and is dead accurate. I've started to experience lots of problems with the 22/45 lite. Lots of things are wearing out and parts are fitting sloppier now. The gun still works fairly well but nothing like it did new. I was on average shooting 500+ rounds every weekend through the pistol for a long while. I'm still shooting 300-400 rounds every weekend through that 10/22 now. It's getting up there on round count too! :) Darn .22lr is only $3-4 for a box of 50! I can have fun all day long for $30-60! My usual target is a 4.5" plate at 200 yards but I switch it up to paper targets, soda cans, or clays for fun!

I'm about to take a venture into a Sako Quad Range rimfire rifle and set it up with a nice Leupold precision scope to try my luck at 300-400 yards with a .22. I shoot at 200-250 all the time with my 10/22. I don't have anywhere locally to shoot further right now though!
 
#14 ·
A couple years back I saw a similar 770 in 308 for about $15 less and bought it on a whim (too cheap to pass up) to see if it would like cast bullets. Without even sighting it in and just using hand loaded generic 30/30 jacketed projectiles at a cast bullet (CB) velocity, the group was .8 inches. The same day I tried the same load with 165 gr. CB's and it grouped 1.1" which is excellent right out of the gate for my hand crafted bullets. When I bought it I assumed that, while a low end gun, it would have the same barrel as any 700 series and that is apparently true. That is the good news. The bad news is that the scope that shot those groups is not exactly high quality so I replaced it with one a little better a few months later. Also, the magazine doesn't feed well and I don't like the flimsy plastic bolt stop. Since I am just punching paper, neither of those negatives means anything to performance. For me the rifle has been great fun and a fine experimental platform well worth what i paid.
 
#15 ·
Not a cartridge where it will pay you to go cheap

I haven’t heard much good news about recent production Remington rifles, and it sounds like some of these posts are from people who have examined the 770 closely and been totally underwhelmed by the construction and quality. I have to say I’ve never even held one, nor been seriously tempted.

Regarding the choice of calibers, I don’t understand all the uproar here. The .300 Winchester Magnum was, in its day, considered an exceptional long-range target and benchrest round. It sounds as if you’ll be doing most of your shooting with your own reloads, not new ammo. If you’re reloading, there’s no significant cost increase for the .300WM over any of the other common .308 cartridges. Even the brass isn’t that much more. I’ve been shooting and reloading this cartridge for nearly four decades, and I speak from experience. A whole lot of what everybody knows about it is nonsense. I will say, though, that it’s a cartridge I wouldn’t want to shoot in an action that was in any way suspect.

There’s a lot on the internet and even a fair amount in printed form regarding the kick and the performance of this cartridge, and at least half of it is suitable for fertilizing your rosebushes. Everybody knows the .300WM kills at both ends and everybody knows that it shoots well only with heavy bullets at extreme velocities. Like the vast majority of what everybody knows, this is pure drivel. Yes, it can be punishing to shoot if you shoot max velocity loads with heavy bullets, if you fail to pay attention to your shooting technique, and particularly if you do either or both of these with a stock that’s not a good fit for you. If you have a rifle properly fitted to you and you pay careful attention to your shooting posture, it’s generally a pussycat. Performance is flexible enough that you can back off on any loads that really rattle your teeth and not give up much, if anything, in the way of accuracy.

The lousy performance with light bullets is another myth. Some people tried it, had poor results and blamed the cartridge, usually citing the unusually short case neck as the cause. There are some tricks to maximizing accuracy; neck-turning your brass to make the neck thickness uniform is the most important one I’ve found, but I can get cloverleaf groups at 100 yards using the Hornady 130 grain spire points or the Sierra 125 grain spire points. I’m actually compounding myth-busting with that one, because I’d doing it with my all-time favorite centerfire rifle, a post-64 Winchester Model 70. You know, the one that all the pre-64 snobs like to tell you is an inaccurate, trouble-prone piece of junk.

All this said, why buy trouble, literally? If you shop around, you can find a Remington 721 in .300 H&H or a Howa in .300 Winchester Magnum for a couple hundred more, and you’ll have a strong, well-fitted rifle that will outlast you and your kids, no plastic allowed. A bit more will get you a Model 70 or a 700 long action. As I said, I’ve had a long and good relationship with this cartridge. I love shooting it, but it’s not one where you want to skimp on your rifle.
 
#16 ·
I saw a brand new Remington 770 300 win mag in Wal mart last night for about $257 with a scope. I don't hunt, i am simply a range shooter and currently get 1/2'' groups at 100yds with my Savage Axis using cheap ammo. My questions are, will i get the same performance with the 770? Is the gun any good? Pros and cons?
The Remington 770 is the worst made centerfire rifle ever built, with the possible exception of its predecessor, the 710.

The 300 Win Mag is a fine round for hunting BIG game, but it's too expensive, too loud and kicks too much for shooting at the range.

All together, this is a spectacularly unsuitable combination for your purposes. Don't buy it. Put the cash towards something that's actually useful.

You're welcome.
 
#18 ·
Has anyone shot the Ruger American magnum series? I have fallen in love with the American Ranch rifle in 300 Blackout. Light, eyeball popping accuracy and easy to handle make it a favorite knock-a-round gun. Just wondering if the magnum series is sufficiently "scaled up" so to speak to handle the magnum calibers well.
 
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