How can I make my stock Remington Model 700LH in 30-06 more accruate?

Question

I have a stock Remington model 700 30-06 with a Zeiss 4.5-14x42 scope on it. I can shoot between .5"-1" groups at 100 yards but when taking that to 2 or 3 hundred it gets a little sloppy. My grandfather has a Vietnam era 30-06 that will shoot 1" groups at 300 so I know I am a capable shooter. I already have around $1300 in this gun with just the rifle and scope and I would like to keep that under $2000 after all is said and done. Thanks for all of your help!

Answer 1

Shoot at targets with George Bush or Dick Cheney's pictures pasted on them. You will become a sharp shooter in no time!

Answer 2

Well you might be thinking its the gun....Most do. Granted heat has much to do with trajectory shot after shot but it shouldn't get that sloppy at 200 yards. I have saw in a few instances that a poor quality scope or mounting job can result in less than desired groupings. Make sure you have a good quality scope ($$$ doesn't mean good quality. Even a Bushnell will do) and make sure you have the scope mounted correctly. You would be surprised how well the groupings improve with a scope capable of taking high recoil and proper mounting. I'm just saying thats the first thing you could check. 30-06 can get right out there but its going to be close to impossible to hold a 3/4" group at 200 yards. My AR-15 barely does. Shooting experience also makes a big difference.

Answer 3

There are plenty of things you can do. First thing would be to get the action blueprinted, trued and squared, by a gunsmith and replace your barrel at the same time. It is best to replace the barrel when you have your rifle blueprinted so it can be fitted to the trued action, the gunsmith can also rethread your old one if need be. You can also buy a new trigger system or have your stock Remington trigger tuned to around 2.5 lbs. Remington stock triggers are very good so just tuning that one is sufficient or you could look at Jewel triggers if you want to replace. Lastly you could have the stock changed to a Macmillan or comparable precision stock. Look at gaprecision.com to get an idea of how much some of these upgrades cost. $700 can inprove your shotgroups to 0.5 MOA at 300 yards easy. Read up on MOA and learn how to properly adjust your scope to different ranges according to the ballistics of your ammo. As someone already said only shoot match grade ammo, this is the easiest solution in the book.

He already has a good scope Kevin and sub MOA on a 30-06 is easy at 300 yards.

Answer 4

Use hand loaded ammunition, with a quality match bullet, using neck sized cases that are all the same brand, and all trimmed to the exact same length. Some folks even weigh the empty cases and group them according to weight.

Have your action bedded to the stock and your barrel free-floated by a gunsmith. Also, investing in a target trigger, or a trigger with a lighter pull and crisper break (like a Timney or a Jewel) will help a lot.

I would already be fantastically happy with the way that rifle shoots. Sub MOA groups out of a bone stock gun are rare.

Answer 5

I owned a 742 30-06 for a while...never had to fire a second shot in the woods. Remington built a couple of semi-auto actions that were a little hard to take down for cleaning... the 742 was one of them...the Speedmaster 22 was another. Any unchecked build up of crud, mung, carbon or other residues (like all that congealed oil inside... that we doused into an action with hopes it would run to the right place) will lock up any semi-auto action sooner or later. "5 minutes to close the action".... exactly, at what point did you decide you had a problem... any future breakage you have in this rifle will be your problem. IF you want to own a close fitting, precision piece of equipment learn to maintain it. Tommy Smothers once said, "if it doesnt fit- force it" and got the stink eye from his brother, Dickie.

Answer 6

FYI before a couple of you continue to sound stupid....MOA accuracy is 1" groups at 100 yards, 2" @ 200, 3" @300, etc.

There are 60 minutes in a 1 degree angle. Do some simple geometry and you can determine what MOA is.

I would have to see your grandfathers gun shoot less than 1" groups at 300 to believe it. Have you seen it with your own eyes.

Answer 7

I guess the easiest things to do are : free float the barrel and glass bed the action. Both of which you can do yourself. also, reset all the screws using blue lock tight, this includes the scope mounts rings etc. a smooth trigger helps too, but leave that to a pro to do, don't attempt it yourself. lastly, check the crown, any nicks etc? you might consider changing it to a target crown if that's what you are mostly doing.
One word of advice if you are considering doing the glass bedding yourself, use the kit from Brownell's, AND MAKE DARN SURE YOU COAT EVERYTHING FIRST WITH THE RELEASE AGENT!!!!! failure to do so, will result in the stock having to be cut off and destroyed. Glass bedding sticks to metal permanently!!!

Answer 8

If it shoots minute of angle, you need to leave it alone.
I had one 700 I had to glass bed, freefloat the barrel, and replace the trigger to get it to shoot (and none of these is expensive or something you can't do yourself). But if your gun is already more accurate than the average, you're as likely to hurt as to help accuracy by fooling with it. Don't be fooled by people saying their groups are as tight as your grandfather's rifle. Most of them are talking about their best groups, not averages. There's another name for that: luck. If your rifle shoots consistent 3" groups at 200 yards, that's about as much as you can expect, and more than you need, from a hunting rifle. I'm assuming here you're talking about serial five- or ten-shot groups. Three-shot groups are fine for working up a handload but not useful for the purposes we're talking about.

Answer 9

You didn't mention any, so I assume your rifle has no modifications so far. Most people would agree that your accuracy so far is pretty good for an out of the box sporter-weight rifle.
You may want to try a match-grade barrel from one of the following manufacturers:
http://www.shilen.com/productsRifleBarrels.html
http://www.riflebarrels.com/products/centerfire_lilja_rifle_barrels.htm
http://www.benchrest.com/douglas/our_barrels.html
Or you may consider sending your rifle to a company which specializes in accurizing treatment. This will include such things a bedding your action, reworking your trigger, truing/squaring your action and rechambering and recrowning your barrel. Here is one: http://www.accuratearmsva.com/html/accurizing.html

Answer 10

If this gun is to be used for hunting purposes, I think you are just throwing money away. If you want to target shoot, OK. The 700 Rem's from the factory are about the best accuracy wise and for most hunting situations the shooting you described is far more than good enough...

Answer 11

If you are getting 1/2-1" at 100yds mechanicaly, it should hold 1-2" at 200, 2-4" at 400, etc.. Have you tried different bullets? Bullet instability at longer rangers as the projectile slows down may be opening up your groups.