How important (or not) is it to have a Rem 700 action trued and(or?) blueprinted?

[SDHNTR]

Quit wasting time on it. Send it to LRI.

 

[Chris in TN]

That’s absolutely wild.

I’m a huge 700 fan but would have believed the receiver was warped before I believed you got two bad Criterion barrels in a row. Wow.

 

[TaperPin]

Well, shucks. I guess the Science is Settled(tm); transplanting the barrel to a different action that was known to shoot MOA-ish with the OEM barrel, did not change anything. Which I kind of expected, but at least now I know.

To be fair, I only ran 15 rounds through it (5 of which were 140 TGK's I can't get to shoot for s**t in anything, but 10 of which were 162 ELD-X's that should shoot pretty good), so I should probably do a little broader testing before I throw in the towel, but that 15 I ran shot exactly the same as they did when this barrel was screwed on to the Rem 700.

Maybe for one last test, I'll change up the powder band from the H/IMR 4350 to H/IMR 4831 ballpark and run some H1000 under 175 ELD-X's and see what that does.

Thanks for sharing - it’s always nice to hear how tests turn out.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

That’s absolutely wild.

I’m a huge 700 fan but would have believed the receiver was warped before I believed you got two bad Criterion barrels in a row. Wow.

To be fair to Criterion, I never tried the 30-06 barrel on the Rem 78 receiver, only the 700. From a pure science perspective, a lot of variables have been changed along the way, to the point we can't do a hard comparison in many respects.

For example, it's plausible that the 30-06 barrel may have been fine but the 700 receiver is warped or somesuch other receiver problem, and a SAAMI 30-06 throat likely has some accuracy limitations anyway, which combined could have been enough for me to be "meh" and send it back.

Then the 280AI barrel gets sent. If the 700 receiver is a problem, I've run 100 rounds down the pipe that never had a chance due to a receiver thing, then I transplant it to the 78 receiver. I have only tried 2 loads in the barrel on a good receiver, neither of which shot (but one of which might not be expected to shoot, given the bullet in question).

That's why as I've thought about it, I wanna give it one more go, in the 78 receiver, with some 175 ELD-Xs out of the same box that's been shooting near-magically-good in my 7x57, using a fairly slow powder for a 280AI (using a slower powder is what makes the magic in the 7x57, it's actually borderline 'meh' with 4350-ish powders and lighter bullets, it demands 4831-ish and heavy bullets).

Also to be fair, 2 bad barrels in a row would also explain the results I've seen, but I would 100% give Criterion some benefit of the doubt here, given the potential for that 700 receiver to Just Suck(tm).

 

[Chris in TN]

I look forward to seeing this play out further.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

I look forward to seeing this play out further.

Welp, H1000 did not solve anything, so nothing to play out any further, I don't think, this gets to go back to Crit for an exam and whatever they decide to do for me after. If I was them, I'd be thinking that NorthIdahoDude is a dumbass who can't shoot or something by now, LOL. But, the groups tell the tale:


57 grains of H1000, 175 ELD-X, .030 off the lands, got me this at 50 yards. It's done better with H4831 and 162 ELD-X's, but this is what the 175's have done every time, regardless of powder. I had 10 loaded up, but 4 was more than enough to convince me it wasn't gonna get better:




And lest we think NorthIdahoDude just can't shoot (hell, I've started to have my doubts lately, LOL), this was from the same session in the backyard (same target in fact, just some tape to cover the old holes) - this was a 46 to to 47.5 grains of N555 ladder/pressure test (2580 to 2645 FPS) in my 7x57 with 162 ELD-X's. They walked that vertical line as the pressure went up, I'm not convinced they wouldn't have gone in one-hole if they all had the same powder charge.