Quote Originally Posted by FJR86 View Post
You make excellent points. I think I will slowly build up a factory rifle. As my experience and skills improve, so will the rifle's performance.

I've heard good things about the 700 Police capable of 1/2 moa out of the box and under $1k.
I'm glad that you like the points, and that they make sense. Most of the time, people just aren't going to make use of a full custom rifle. Most of the time if you buy a good rifle to begin with, you won't ever quite outgrow it. You can add some features that you want, like the DBM, etc, but most people don't shoot enough or dedicate enough time to get better than a true consistent 5 shots in under .5 MOA. Honestly, that's the only accuracy you need to consistently get to 1,000 yards, after that it's all on the shooter.

Most people don't do too well starting out with a .300 winmag, unless you're not recoil sensitive, and already used to the recoil. No matter what people say, it takes a lot of work to shoot a lot of rounds from a .300 winmag and not let the recoil get to you. People go to flinching and building bad habits pretty quickly. Don't get me wrong, the .300 winmag is my favorite caliber, but there's a lot of reason why it's not the best "beginner" rifle.

Personally, I'd stay away from the 700P, and look at the Remington 5R and the Sendero, since you're talking about a .300 winmag. There's quite a few threads where I've hashed out the differences between the two. If you can't find the threads in the search, let me know and I'm sure some of us can toss up some links. The 700P's aren't anything really special, just a heavy barreled Remington 700 in a HS Precision or Bell & Carlson stock. Remington has stocks made by both, and they're pretty much interchangeable is why I list both. The 5R has almost the exact same stock, but what most would agree is a better barrel and gets more care. The Sendero also has a similar stock, but different barrel contour, and it's fluted; it'll be a bit more expensive than a grand. The price of 700P's will vary in different areas, but lots of times people want way more than what they're really worth because they want to play up the "police sniper" thing. I haven't heard of any current problems with them, but in the past some of them have had issues of being "long throated", and would not shoot. There's been some people comment in threads on this forum about how some of their department 700P's would not shoot and had to be sent back to Remington. Either way, don't believe all the hype, and look into the 5R and the Sendero before a 700P. The Sendero and 5R are both also capable of 1/2 MOA or better out of the box.