shooter50

I litteraly just got a Remington 700 VTR 223 on a trade. Brand new never fired. What you guys think of them? I will be loading some rounds within the hour and heading to the range. I will post a range report this eve. I was just wondering if any of you have any experience with the VTR's and how they shoot.

KT29

No experience with the Remmy;s, but have read only good reports about that model. Should be a very accurate and fun rifle to shoot. Let us know how it does.

dylan_b

when i was moonlighting at a local gunshop, we sold a number of these rifles. there are only 2 complaints against them. the first is the muzzleporting, most buyers expected the vtr porting to be as loud as regular porting but real world its about as loud as a average "pepper shaker" muzzlebreak. the second complaint against them is the muzzle. the muzzle is bored so some of them have rough crowns, more then usual in the remington 700 series. if you get any sort of problem in terms of accuracy from your vtr, get a smith to cut off the porting and give it a nice smooth crown.

shooter50

I was able to get to the range with some handloads I just threw together using Speer 70 GR semi-spitzers, winchester brass (new) and various charges of Varget. I seated the bullets into the rifleling .010" - .015" just to blow out the new cases and wasn't expecting any real accuracy but I got it. The worst group of 4 shots was maybe 1.5" (had a flyer) inches and the best was 4 shots that easily could be covered by a nickel (all touching) possibly a dime. All shots off rest and at 100 yards. Also this was with a 2-7-x32 leupold which I put on a 4-12x40 Nikon on it when I got home as my eyes did not like that 7x scope. It seemed to shoot better the more powder I put behind that 70 Gr pill as I kind of expected. Planning on loading tomorrow and heading back out Friday at some point. Going to shoot the 70 Gr Speers again with the once fired brass and gonna blow out some more new cases with some 55 Gr Hornady SP.

Terasec

curious if anyone experienced or heard of early firing with the rem 700?
watching TV other day, and they had an entire episode on problems with rem 700, dont know how valid the show/report was, not judging it based on the show,
but had some interesting reports in it, including military filming themselves at practice range showing rem 700 firing as soon as they released the safety,
the show could have been anti's propaganda, but was interesting to watch

dylan_b

on any of the old walker triggers (including the 40x walker), the trigger safety engaged the sear only. if the trigger was dirty and the trigger was set to light, the return spring wouldnt have enough tension to return the trigger back into place and could get jammed in the "fire" position if there was enough crud in there. when the safety was turned off the gun could go boom. also the trigger wasnt idiot proof. the sear engagement could be set so light that it wouldnt engage at all. it was a great design but one that had to be understood, something 99% of hunters do not. if they did they would know to have set the trigger to 0.020 sear engagement (not trigger blade travel, they are not the same) as per factory minimum and set the return pring heavy enough that the trigger would return to battery even with the rifle cocked.

the new trigger has a safety that engages both the trigger and the sear. it to can be made unsafe if buba was so inclined to get his hones out and start scratching the nickel plating off for a "smoother" pull.

now dont get me wrong remington designs safe triggers, in my opinion there wasnt a flaw in the original trigger because allowing the trigger to float instead of lock means it wont break under a sudden impact. and remington isnt the only ones that make a trigger that can be made unsafe. even the accutrigger can fail with the secondary blade safety. cz 550 triggers i know for a fact can be made unsafe if the triggers set option is made to light. winchester moa / browning feather triggers can be made unsafe with a handfull of sand poured in the right spot

long story short, factory triggers are just like factory barrels, only so much can be had from them even with good smith work.