Remington Varmint Tactical Rifle

[largewhiteguy]

Remington VTR in .308

Opinions?

[Searcher67]

I almost bought it....I say almost because, I liked the way it looked. Tri BBL, ported...But I went traditional and bought the Rem. SPS and had my way with it..

If I didn't get the sweetheart deal on the SPS then most likely I would have gone with the VTR...

The tri bbl is supposed to cut down on weight and applies better heat disapation.
What I didn't like is what I read (somewhere on the net) the BBL makes contact with the stock and there is no bedding, its just "fitted" to the action and bbl. Mine is freefloating (now) even the SPS made contact with the bbl. First thing I did was to discard the stock.

[Tomcat088]

I almost bought it....I say almost because, I liked the way it looked. Tri BBL, ported...But I went traditional and bought the Rem. SPS and had my way with it..

If I didn't get the sweetheart deal on the SPS then most likely I would have gone with the VTR...

The tri bbl is supposed to cut down on weight and applies better heat disapation.
What I didn't like is what I read (somewhere on the net) the BBL makes contact with the stock and there is no bedding, its just "fitted" to the action and bbl. Mine is freefloating (now) even the SPS made contact with the bbl. First thing I did was to discard the stock.

The Remington 700 VTR is a fine rifle, although not really my flavor. I think that the triangle barrel looks like a half @$$ flut job. Either way it does cut down on the weight fairly aggressively and will add some surface area (not as much as traditional fluting). I have heard that they're rigid and shoot fine. Some people like muzzle brakes, others do not. I do not like how loud braked rifles are, and recoil doesn't bother me, so I usually just stay away from them. Either way, it does give you the opportunity to see hits in the scope with the smaller calibers if your shooting positions are correct.

Search brought up a point about the stock contacting the barrel, and mentioned that it even happens with the SPS. This is not something that only occurs with the VTR, this is something that also happens with the SPS, and some of the other Remington's with hogue stocks. It has to do with 2 things, sometimes the stock doesn't quite fit the action right, or since it's not bedded the action can shift and cause the barrel to touch the stock. The other thing is that all of the stocks mentioned are of the lighter material and will tend to flex. When a bipod is placed on them, they will usually flex and touch the barrel. As I said, this happens with the VTR, SPS, etc. Keep in mind that none of those rifles are glass bedded, so they can shift around. I don't own any of those models and haven't pulled an action out of a friend's stock, so I don't know for sure, but I don't even think they're pillar bedded (please correct me if I'm wrong). This means all of those stocks are about equal. One of the first modes that people typically upgrade on their SPS, VTR, Hogue, etc is the stock. They will shoot pretty good with even the factory stock, but there are sometimes some contact points. Either way, I've seen plenty of VTR's that would shoot, even with the factory stock.

[Searcher67]

Nope, not even pillar bed....I did buy a Jahn Plaster "ultimate sniper" stock which is pillar bedded and free floating...Shoots much better BUT that said, the gun did shoot VERY well with the factory stock. Right out of the box with a new Nikon scope. I have since upgraded both the stock and the scope. I kept with Nikon since I like the optics...

I want to have the bolt and the feed smithed, but when I get the extra money....Is there really such a thing now days?

I have been ordering .308 Match by 100 rnds a month at 131.00 per

[Tomcat088]

Nope, not even pillar bed....I did buy a Jahn Plaster "ultimate sniper" stock which is pillar bedded and free floating...Shoots much better BUT that said, the gun did shoot VERY well with the factory stock. Right out of the box with a new Nikon scope. I have since upgraded both the stock and the scope. I kept with Nikon since I like the optics...

I want to have the bolt and the feed smithed, but when I get the extra money....Is there really such a thing now days?

I have been ordering .308 Match by 100 rnds a month at 131.00 per

I didn't think it was even pillar bedded. The choate stocks are alright, at least they're pillar bedded and have a nice rail. It's too bad that it's so short and doesn't let you do everything that it could if it was longer. I'm a fan of the nikon scopes, for the money they're nice glass, reliable and pretty tough.

What do you mean exactly by have the bolt and feed smither? You typically don't have the bolt faced up and trued unless you are going to have the chamber redone so that it headspaces properly. Sometimes in truing up the bolt face, you will have to have the bolt retimed. By feed so you mean the feed rails on the bottom of the action, or the feed ramp polished at the front of the chamber, or did you possibly mean the bolt raceways? Typically if you have the raceways trued up, you have to go with an aftermarket bolt that is larger so that it fits the raceways properly.

Oh yeah, and if you're going through that much .308 at that price, might as well start reloading buddy. You can get just as good of performance or better for MUCH cheaper. After you figure out what it costs to reload, it won't be cheaper, but you'll get to shoot alot more for the same price.

[Searcher67]

I want to change the knob to a speed bolt...Plus, its not as smooth as I would like it to be...I want to have the bolt "polished" and "jewelled"

Is polishing and or jewelling going to do anything for me here? I do want the speed bolt....But, I am not sure that just polising is going to get me that smooth feel..

[Tomcat088]

Ummm, I'm not sure I know what you mean by speed bolt. I'm familiar with a tubbs "speed lock"; that changes the firing pin and shroud of the bolt. These work with lock time, but don't have anything to do with the smoothness of cycling the bolt, or the speed of cycling the bolt. "Polishing" the bolt body won't do much but make it shiny, as the same with jeweling will make it fancy but wear off with use and cycling of the bolt. Polishing the bolt body and jeweling it won't do anything for you there. Now having the bolt lugs polished and trued up with polishing of the raceways will affect the fit and how the bolt slides. It's not so much that it makes the bolt move faster, but just smoother. If you're wanting the bolt trued up and it's much off (anything more than polishing), then it'll affect the headspacing, which might require that the rifle be rechambered to headspace properly. Exactly what are you trying to accomplish with the "speed bolt" idea?

[Searcher67]

What I mean by speed bolt is the actual bolt head (the round knob that you palm to cycle the action)

I want a tear drop oversized one..This requires my bolt handle needing to be turned down to .313 and threaded to accept the one that I want...

When I say I wan the action smooth, It's new, less than 100 rnds. When I cycle the action it feels "grabby" almost sticky...I want this to be smooth...I want to replace the bolt knob simply because it looks cool, no really, I want a better feel rather than to have to grab that tiny bolt knob.

[Tomcat088]

Ok, so you want a tactical "bolt knob". When people refer to the "bolt head", they're usually talking about the lugs at the very front of the bolt that lock up with the aciton, just for future reference. Replacing a bolt knob isn't a big deal, I know some very popular gunsmiths that will do it for $50 for the install, and then add on the cost of whatever knob you want to put on it. Alot of people like the badger knobs, but I think they're a bit big for my preference.Depending on what scope rings you're using, you may have some scope clearance issues, especially if you're "palming" the knob. Most tactical LR guys will cycle the bolt in the "V" between the thumb and forefinger; keep the hand flat (palm towards action) and cycle it that way. Others will use the forefinger and thumb, but keep the other things pointed forward so that you don't get the pinky in the trigger guard and fire the round as you close the bolt.

If your scope rings aren't high enough, then sometimes the bolt handle will actually be against the scope. This means that you might have to get some pretty tall rings to accomodate the handle. That can then cause problems with your cheek weld that you had consistent before. So you might have to adjust your cheek piece, which may or may not be comfortable or consistent. I would just make sure to handle one before you settled on one, no matter what the brand is. The badger bolt handles do look cool, but many people don't realize how BIG they really are. If you like the badger handle but want it smaller, you can have the smith turn it down a bit and refinish it, or you could always go with someone that makes one a bit smaller.

The bolt travel will definitely get smoother as you work the bolt and it naturally polishes itself up some. Some people will add in "real" toothpaste (not the gel), because it has some abrasive properties from the diatom shells in it. You can do it with any type of abrasive, but IF you attempt to do this, I wouldn't recommend anything aggressive. Keep in mind that the reason things are smoothing up is because some metal is being removed, and you definintely don't want to lose too much. Just some things to think about.