RE: Which rifles "fit" you the best?
 

My 700sps which wears a 44mm zeiss needed med to clear, so not sure lows are an option with that scope!

Is the scope the reason for the fit problems or is it the rifle? Myself I prefer the fit of the 700 to the m77 without a scope, when it's scoped the preferences for the M700 are even more noticable. Appears your the opposite, which is fine but unfortunately your best bet is probably to sell or trade the XCR. If your unsure try shoulder your M77 and M700 keeping your eyes closed, if the feel of the rifle to shoulder is good with both then the rifle design is not the culprit. Now open your eyes, the sight picture should be clear tocheck scope and mounts. It is possible that your scope was just improperly setup for eye relief in terms of your shooting position, might be a matter of moving it forward or rearward to eliminate the black ring. If its too high or low then mounts need to be looked at. Before you start changing things make sure to try this exercise more then once;).

Best of luck

RE: Which rifles "fit" you the best?
 

Ive had the same problem because I'm 6'7" and nothing lines up right. After market stocks and different height rings have always corrected the problem. I prefer the Weatherby style stocks on my remingtons because the stock design allows the action to sit higher and more inline to my natural line of sight.

RE: Which rifles "fit" you the best?
 

The idea of rifle fit is very subjective. I really like the fit of my Savage 110 in 7mm Remington Magnum during most of the year. However, in the late rifle season, wearing a lot of clothes, the stock is a bit long for "snapping" to the shoulder. In those conditions, I really like the Ruger M77 Compacts in .308 or 7mm/08.

RE: Which rifles "fit" you the best?
 

Unless you are buying a fully custom rifle, you are getting your rifle off the "ready to wear" rack at thefirearms store, and most likely one size fits all. You want a US made high power hunting rifle? I'm guessing you are looking at a 13 1/2" trigger pull. You don't like it, you want a 15 1/2" trigger pull . . . tell me where you can buy one off the shelf, mass produced? You don't like it, you want a 12" trigger pull . . . tell me where you can buy one off the shelf. So it is with other fit parameters such as drop at heel, etc.

I hear a lot of people talking about a gun needing to fit you, but then I consider the actual state of the mass produced firearms product market, and I know there is precious little difference in the physical configuration of these guns. Obviously people are fitting themselves to the gun, not the other way around. I take that to mean that -- short of buying a full custom gun -- everyone is just learning to like the fit of the guns they buy.

I've read somewhere that the trigger pull of a rifle should correspond to the distance between the crook of your trigger finger and the inside of your elbow. For me that is 15 1/2". I actually have a couple of rifles -- built by my father -- that have this 15 1/2" trigger pull, and I like this feel versus rifles with shorter trigger pull. For example, my Remington 870 .30-06 and my Winchester Featherweight model 70 .243 each have about 13 1/2" trigger pull. I feel my arm is cranked back overly far with these. Nevertheless, I'm able to shoot with these rifles. When you think about it, you don't spend much time in shooting position, rifle planted to shoulder. I guess the answer is just adjust. Beats hunting with an atlatyl or one of those 19th century rifles with the outlandishly large drop at heel.