Only thing I can say about newer remingtons, is the rough barrels and inconsistent throat lengths. I can't stand bad barrel foulers, and new ones are. A few years ago, at an estate sale we picked up 2 1980 700 special BDL varmit editions. I mean these were fine guns. Fine walnut, nice precise checkering, barrels smooth as silk. Action was smooth. Blueing was deep. And both was the finest out of box shooters I have seen. I still have the 7mm-08.

In 2003 and 04,I went onthis quest with my trusty stoney point OAL gauge and two 180gr partitions and went around to different gun stores and measured the throat lengths on 10 different 300RUM's. The OAl varied from 3.7" to 3.85". Anyone that knows machinging, knows thats huge variance. Max you can usually load in a long action BDL was 3.66". Thats a big jump to the rifling.