GOOD AND HYPE - DEPENDING

Standard Remington 700's are in the same league as most rifles of similar cost. If you want an off-the rack rifle and pick up a nice BDL or similar model, then you will get your money's worth. It will almost always shoot well and sometimes you might get one that is very, very accurate. I have used some fine shooting military model 700s, some so-so, average Joe 700s, and I own one I need to get rid of because it is just plain junk.

There are reasons so many custom rifles are built on these actions. First, they have features that facilitate building a rifle: they are available for purchase as a bare action, they are easy to bed because the action is built from a tube, they are easy to barrel and headspace, and standard and custom parts are everywhere. Second, they lend themselves to "accurization" well: they are easy to "blue print" (true up), they are fairly rigid, and they have the best trigger and lock time of any standard rifle. Because of all the gunsmith friendly features, several well known makers are building guns on proprietary actions that are nothing more than modified copies of the model 700.

The US military sniper version of the 700 has a specially cut barrel with a special twist, "blue printed" action, special stock with built in aluminum bedding block, etc. It does a great job but it costs a lot more than one off the rack at WalMart. Many custom gunsmiths offer accurization services or complete custom rifles that have had the same type of specialty 700 work done to them. By contrast Mausers and Winchester 70's are more difficult and costly to get to shoot as accurately.

On the other hand, many of the cheaper versions of the 700 were pretty rough rifles without any special care. These were usually thrown into the cheapest of plastic stocks and sold to compete with the lowest priced rifles on the market. I have a 700 ADL chambered in 7x64 (YES they made a few). It is a piece of junk. Groups range from 6" at 100yds and go as large as 12" depending on the ammo. I have tried over a dozen factory loadings, most of which shoot very accurately in my two other 7x64 rifles. The front sight fell off between the 10th and 15th shot (it was held on by two screws) and the stock isn't fit for a toy.

You can buy one of the cheap 700s but all you'll get is junk. You can buy one of the higher grades of 700 and get your money's worth and a decent consumer grade rifle. And you can spend thousands more and buy a custom shop 700, or a gunsmith's custom made 700, and get one of the most accurate rifles available. But remember, the most accurate 700s use plastic or fiberglass stocks.