Remington 700 ADL in 243
 

does anybody have one and if so how does it shoot... Also what ammo do you shot???

Thinking about getting one for deer hunting...

Also i hear the newer remingtons dont shoot that great...

Any info would be great

I have the same model but in 30.06. I think it shoots great and is a very well built gun. I shoot Rem Core-Lokt out of it.

A .243 is a good choice for PA deer, and the new Remingtons shoot very well (despite what some of the internet "experts" say). I have a few friends that have this rifle, and all seem very happy with them. The ADL stock is not extremely stiff, but that can be said of many other rifles also. You can always upgrade the stock later if you wish (many aftermarket items for a Remington). The bottom line is that it is a good rifle, at a good price.

I've got one. Shoots great. Have killed a number of deer with it. I use Remington's green box, 100 grain pointed soft point Core-Lokt ammo.

That should be a great setup. .243 is excellent round, and the 100gr core lock are very good as others mentioned. I prefer the 700's with a hinged floor plate, but the ADL is a great gun for the money, imo.

I just bought the ADL .243 a couple weeks ago and I took it out to the range yesterday to sight it in. I was impressed with the lack of kick that I thought it was going to have,so thats awesome. Still need to sight it in but im excited to take it deer hunting next season.

The Model 700 ADL in .243 Win. will do fine for deer.

I have two ADL's, but in much heavier rounds (300 Win Mag. and 338 Win. Mag.). I did have the tiggers adjusted to 2 1/2#. I have shot the 338 only a handful of times. I have shot the 300 Win. Mag. 100's of times. Both rifles are extremely accurate. I have had zero issues with either. I suspect that you will have the same expereince should you go this route.

My daughter uses an older Rem. 788 in 243 Win. She uses Federal Premium factory stuff that is loaded with a 100 gr. Game King. This ammo happens to be about as accurate as my hand loads for her rifle. She has killed deer cleanly out to about 150 yards. Which is about it down this way as far as a "long shot".

I bought a 243 ADL a little over a year ago. I want to get rid of the stock and put something better on it. It's cheap in every way of the word. The rifle wouldn't shoot as good as my older 243 BDL that I had and I attribute this to the cheap stock. It took many loading sessions to find a load that I was happy with. 100gr Sierra Game King over IMR 4350. Will now shoot under an inch with this combo. I also found a pretty accurate varmint load with 55gr Nosler BT and IMR 4895.

I have 2 700 ADL's one in 243 and one in 30-06 both shoot great. Killed ALOT of deer and other critters with both. The 243 likes Win. 100 grain power points best I get about a 1'' group with it at 100 yards the 06 like 150 grain core lokt's best I get about a 1'' to 1 1/2'' group at 100 yards. But you'll need to buy a few diff brand weight and bullet types to see which one shoots best out of that particular rifle. They all shoot a little different with diff brands of ammo.

You will love the .243 WIN caliber...while I don't have one in an ADL...I do have several of them and my daughter and niece both hunt with .243's.

We have hunted extensively with that caliber and have used several different bullets. The heavier bullets (100g) tend to perform better and be more consistent...I have had the best luck with the older Nosler soft-point bullets in 100g (they have been discontinued some time ago) but the 100g Partitions and Ballistic Tips and 100g Speer soft points have also performed very well for me in just about every .243 I have had. I have also successfully built 80 FMJ (Hornady) loads for my brother and 55g Nosler Ballistic Tips (varmint) loads for some 'yote hunts. My powders of choice for my .243's has been IMR 4895, H4831sc and IMR 4064 with Remington 9 1/2 primers.

I have one. I took the factory stock off and put a Boyds Laminate stock on it. Had the smith bed and float it and it's accurate enough for hunting with several factory loads. As far the 243 cartridge goes,it's killed deer as dead as my 30-30, .35 Rem. and 30-06. I like the light recoil also.

the remington SPS model 700 in 243 wpold be a good choice for deer. loads using 85 to 100 spirel tips will put a deer down. recoil is light for both you and the wife. also good for varmits.

243 is a great cartridge, but I definately prefer something with a little more snort.

I have the SPS DM model and shoot Hornady 95 gr SST's.

Works for me !

I kill coyotes with the Hornady 75 gr. V-max's........................ DRT !!!

I've owned a couple ADL's in the past and one of them was a 243 that i purchased for my daughter. It's a good gun for the money. I handload so i never really shot that much factory ammo from the gun maybe 20rds just to break it in and as i remember they grouped well. The load that shot best that my daughter hunted with was the Sierra 120gr PH with RL19. She killed her first deer and several others with that load with no problems.

120g in a 243????? Didn't know sierra made a bullet that heavy in 6mm. What was the barrel twist?

Me either! I think it may be a typo, as there is a 120 grain in 6.5mm, but I know of none for 6mm/.243. I don't know of any bullet that's over 107 grain for a .243.

Yeah my bad it was a typo. It was a Sierra 100gr PH, she shoots the 120 in her 260.

my little mossberg 100 atr eats these ballistic silvertips like candy. I have gotten 1in groups sitting down resting on my knees. Pretty stable shooting position down hill and laying down with my knees up (sit-up position) would work pretty well uphill. It (ballistic tip) destroys side beams on the tee-posts that i hang my targets on but the middle beam works enough to keep it as a target stand.

I have had one for a few years now. It gave me fits with trying to load the hornady Vmax and the barnes varmint grenades but with the sierra game kings in 100gr and the Nosler ballistic tip 55gr bullets I have had excellent accuracy. The ADL isn't as nice as they once were but they are still accurate rifles. The stocks leave a little to be desired but they are easily replaced if you choose to do so.

i have one of the older ones and its one of the best 243 ive every shot and i have 3 243 and i shoot winchester 100g or core locks

I have a Rem 700 ADL,but in .270. It is extremely accurate. I've had mine for 5 years and have killed numerous deer with it. You can really put it where they live with this rifle.

I found a 1974 Remington 700 .243 wood stock, shorter (youth?) barrel. It was rusting in my inlaws farm closet in a heavy canvas case for 2 decades. It was rusted to pieces and had a similar vintage leupold 3x9 scope. I took the rifle to a gunsmith and brought it back to life and sent the scope to Leopold. They regassed the scope and completely removed the "smoke" from the lenses. You have to love good customer service and a lifetime warranty. The rifle is beautiful and I just dropped a 140 lb VA 6 point buck at 130 yards where it stood with that rifle. Hornady 95 gr. SST's. The 100 Core Lokt shoot ok from the gun as well. I will shoot the Hornady's though, just because that deer dropped where it stood. I killed a doe year before last with the core lokt 100 gr. and it ran 50 yards but still expired. A great shooter, and an ideal whitetail gun

I know this is an old post, but...

My mom just picked up a 700ADL yesterday from Walmart for $377 in .243win and brought it to me to have me "get it ready" for her significant other for Christmas. He's not a gun guy, so she just wanted a decent rifle for him to haul around for opportunity shots on coyotes. I'm going to lap the locking lugs, bed it into a new Boyd's stock (purple & grey lam - Go Cats!), and do a bit of factory ammo testing with it to find a load it likes for him and get it sighted in. Turn key solution. If it doesn't pass muster after just bedding and lapping the lugs, I'll do a more intense blueprint to true up the bolt, receiver, and threads then set the barrel back, but I'll assume it'll be a 1-1.5MOA shooter out of the box.

Lap the barrel and give it a trigger job - No ?

Trigger job, yes. Mom's beau isn't a shooter, and this is a "hey, look! A coyote" rifle, so I will leave it at a nice 3.5-4lb set weight. I'll work what I can to get it as crisp and clean as possible with no over travel. Shouldn't need anything but elbow grease to get there though, so no jewel in his future. Not by me right now at least.

It's getting a Boyd's laminate stock, which will get pillars and bedded, 100% free floated since this is a light barrel (short chamber support only).

I don't believe that I'll lap the barrel on this one. Hand lapping is a pain, and this is a $380 rifle. If it doesn't shoot for squat, I'll scavenge the action and build a lightweight 7-08 and go buy a savage for mom's SO. It'll get a break in procedure as I search for a load it likes, but if it's not accurate, the answer would be a better barrel, in my mind. But I do fully expect it will shoot 1-1.5moa as it is already. My lead furnace is in storage so I have to have a pretty desperate need to dig it out, and making laps ain't it! Haha!

Since he'll be shooting factory ammo, from a factory barrel, I can't let myself get too carried away, but if it doesn't shoot, I'll blue print it and see if that helps it shoot for his barrel. If not, then I'll know it's the tube and I'll stick a shilen on it, more than doubling the price of the gun. That'll be over the "Christmas rifle budget" so it'd be mine, and I'd grab a savage 11 trophy hunter for him to replace it.

Those two (trigger job & lapping the barrel) I have always believed to be the two "best/easiest/least expensive" ways to improve the accuracy of a production rifle.

That is other than finding the ammo that the gun likes the best.

My late father used a 700 ADL in .243 for pronghorn. As expected, it worked well. I personally use a 700 Classic in 6.5x55 Swedish for most of my pronghorn hunting since I like a little more bullet weight than I can get in a 6mm.

IMO Remmys either shoot good or are horrible. But the 700 in any configuration seems to be good shooters as a whole. They do have problems with their less expensive models but not 700s. Lately I prefer Brownings or Tikkas

My dad has a 700 ADL in .270 that shoots MOA with factory ammo. All he had done was the trigger lightened up. His handloads have shot groups around 1/2", which is very impressive for basically a factory rifle.

They shoot great the only issue I have with the ones I have owned is the lack of hinged floor plate..

I would love to see a pic when you get it finished. Go Cats! EMAW

Stock's supposed to arrive today, should get to bed it by Saturday afternoon.

EDIT: Stock arrived this afternoon. Gotta get the missus home from work then I'm gonna try to get the inlet relieved and get the pillars set tonight... A week 'til Christmas so my mom can put it under the tree, so I have a lot of work to do in not very many days.

And considering that I bleed purple too, I had Boyds put a purple thumbhole stock for my Savage B-Mag on the same truck.

I'm posting this up in the gunsmithing forum too, but here's the before and after of the Wildcat 700!

Started out as a $377 Walmart bought Remingtion 700 ADL package in .243win with a Bushnell Banner 3-9x40mm glass on top.



Added a Boyd's Prairie Hunter purple & grey laminate stock, score high bedding pillars, Leupold 1pc base and rings, and Nikon Buckmasters 3-9x40mm scope.



Only had a few minutes before the range closed to take these shots, but the one group I did shoot was 4 shots into 0.72" at 100yrds. Barrel was super hot shooting them so quick, and admittedly, I wasn't shooting my best to fire so fast, but it'll do.

Not bad for a beginner ;)

Sweet setup! If I read correctly its pillar bedded? how hard is that to do? Still a low level shade tree gunsmith here,but put after market triggers in my remington,ruger,and DPMS rifles, so have done some work.

I did a bit more write up on this project over in the gunsmithing projects sub-forum:

HNI Gunsmithing Projects Sub-forum Thread: Quick and Simple ADL Spiff Up

It's not that hard to install the pillars, it just costs a bit to get the proper fixtures to do it, or takes a lot of precision set up time in your drill press to align it.

Be very cautious and go gently as your drill bits exit the stock, else you'll split chips out of the belly of your stock. I generally do all of mine with a variable speed drill bit at first, then turn the last bit with a T handle or brace.

The cheapest option is to buy piloted counterbores, like these below:

midway USA baker piloted counter bores.

Piloted counter bores work alright, but aren't perfect, since the pilot guide gets shorter and shorter as you drill through.

The better option is a hardened drilling guide like the Score High kit that I use, linked below:

Brownells Score High rem 700 drilling jig

The down side to this thing is that it's expensive if you're only doing one rifle. You also can rent it from score high, or at least you USED to be able to rent it from them.

Then you also need a set of stockmakers hand screws appropriate for your action and stock, or to make your own. These hold the pillars to the action while they're epoxied into the stock, then also hold the action into the stock when you glass bed the rest of the action.

Other miscellaneous common tools would include files, wood chisels, dremel/rotary tool, bedding tape, and of course, the epoxy and all of the accoutrement that it entails (Popsicle sticks, mixing tray, rubber gloves, release agent, and stuff to clean up).

I'll be doing a Savage B-mag and a few Ruger's this winter/spring, so I'll try to be better about taking pictures as I go through that process and post up another thread in the gunsmithing projects sub-forum just or bedding.

Nomercy,

Thanks for the link. Down the road I might have to pick up a cheaper grade Model 700, or Savage 110 and do a similar project. Guess if I did the savage I could do the barrel work. So many projects, so little funding for them......

Mechanically ANY of the 700s are great rifles but the ADLs have two faults, that cheap plastic stock & an even cheaper finish "quasi-parkerization"! It's NOT a true, chemical bath, acid etching parkerization like done on automotive & industrial parts. The finish Rem is putting on their low end guns is a sprayed on layer of junk that doesn't actually prevent rust but visual hides most of it! :s8: As long as you realize that & keep the gun properly oiled & maintained, the gun will give years of great service & they make great guns for "truck/tractor, knock about guns" but because of their cheapness they likely won't be pristine, well preserved heirlooms to be handed down.

Really the same can be said for the cheapest Savages, Weatherby's, Marlin XR, Mossberg etc...

My current Cabela,s sale flyer has a ADL in wood with a Bushy scope for 5 bills even.