Somewhere in recent months I saw a comment(don't recall where I saw it) that the quality of remington 700's is not what it used to be, not as good.
Would like to hear some comments from those who would know as I am considering buying a 700 CDL. Thanks.

I never realized the quality difference before I bought a slew of 700's from an Estate sale. These were bascially NIB 700's from the 70's and early 80's. The ones I kept, was extremely accurate guns, and in fact the most accurate I got. Even more than some custombuilt guns. And barrels didn't copper foul at all. Bluing was deep blue, and looked like a custom finish. You couldn't see any brush marks. Trigger was a nice 3.5lbs with no creep.

Compared it against some newer early 2000 model BDL's. Wasn't no comparison. my new ones have the roughest barrels I ever seen. Blueing is just ok at best. And not even. Triggers have to make their way to the gunsmith. And usually takes me mroe than 3 trips to the range to find a ok SubMOA load and sometimes that finicky with weather changes.

All I can do is tell you what I have expierenced. I have been buying a Remington 700 or two about every year since 1970. The last one I bought was about six months ago. From time to time I get one that has a few cosmetic flaws in finish. However without exception, I have had not one problem with any of them that required any repair. Every one without exception has shot as good or better than I expected and I have not seen one that once broke in and once its best load is found, that won't shoot one inch groups. And I am not a real good group shooter.

Quality control is probably not as good as it once was but thats not a Remington thing and I have seen guns from all gun makers slipping a bit in that department. I was looking at some Tikka and Vanguard rifles a few weeks ago and many of them had ballels that were not even close to being centered in the stocks barrel channel.

I have a CDL in 7mm-08 I think is every bit as good or a little better than the older Remingtons looks good, shoots excellent and is reasonably priced. I hope this helps chad

Yea, I can't believe what they did to Tikka. The whitetail and continential were fine guns.

I don't know how they would shoot but that sure jumped out at me. Abouit three out of five of them were that way.

My 2003 Model 700 and my 96 Model 700 shoot better groups than my 83, 86, and 89 700's. All shoot very well but the 2003 in 7-08 is a tad better. For what its worth the 83 and the 89 have the best finishes. The best part is...nary a problem with any of the above. I would like to get into some of the older ones to compare a little farther back though.

My reply is the exact same as that of "chma".

I purchased a 700 BDL in 223 recently. It would barely chamber a round. It was an extractor problem. It should never have left the factory. I had warranty work done on it, and got the trigger adjusted. It is shooting OK now, but not as good as an old ADL I had in 222.

I believe Rem. is not spending the money on quality control (inspection) that they used to spend. But neither is anyone else who makes firearms!

Now that USRAC is defunct, there's even less incentive for any maker to produce quality work, as the competition is dwindling!

The best buys today are oldies but goodies off of used gun racks and the auction sites!