When you think of Remington, a few models come immediately to mind. Along with the 870 and 1100 shotguns, maybe the first gun you think of is the venerable Model 700 rifle. First made back in 1962, tens of millions of Model 700 bolt action rifles have been bought and used by hunters, target shooters, police and the military.
After the bankruptcy and dissolution of the old Remington, the first thing most gun owners wanted to see the new RemArms (the company now making Remington firearms) do is to turn out those very popular classics once again, making them with the build quality and tolerances generations of hunters and shooters had known and loved.
The oldest gun maker in America dropped the video above over the weekend, announcing an update to the Model 700. While we haven’t see one yet, Ron Spomer has and lists a dozen updates Big Green has made to the iconic rifle platform. Spomer writes that . . .
…the new Alpha springs from the M700 but includes many of the “upgrades” M700 fans have been asking for for years.
See his sight for the list of upgrades. The new model isn’t on Remington’s site yet, but it appears that the Model 700 Alpha 1 will have a lot of the features the old Remington included on some of its upgraded 700 versions, but will now be the new standard.
Details like release date, pricing and model specifications aren’t known yet. In the mean time, this appears to be a very good sign from a maker of guns that Americans have used and loved for more than two centuries.
Vaporware, maybe. Sorry to be skeptical. Seen this sort of thing too many times. May this one be true.
Same 700 footprint I hope??
What’s the bolt throw?
Not drop in. Magwell is longer, so backwards compatible with some fitting.
Has Remington worked out that whole QC thing yet? They were turning out some pretty shoddy merchandise.
my tac-14 seems solidly built enough but I can’t let go of that sour experience I had with two NIB Remlin leverguns that were pieces of garbage with horrible QC. The second of which was in the Marlin factory when the bankruptcy was being sorted out and it was sent back to me, filthy and not fixed with a list of places I could ship it to on my dime for repair. Ruger is going to have to do a bang up job before I would ever consider going back to a Marlin that Remington ever had its hands on. Knock on wood I’ve never had a Henry let me down.
Maybe good news for you. Ruger got Marlin in the bankruptcy, and the 1895 rifles they’ve started making are reportedly pretty solid. They’re modernized with stainless, laminate stocks, pic rail, and threaded barrel. You’ll have to wait longer if prefer blued and walnut.
And you should see what was exported. Chambers cut at an angle to the bore was not uncommon. Fine for the Fudd shooter who only fires a few rounds at a time. Competition shooters noticed these guns would string shots in the direction of the angle.
I bought I Rem VersaMax Turkey Tactical, $1,100 shotgun I got for $800. While building it for competition I found a extensive lists noting hammer replacement at 500 rounds because it snaps in half, extractor at 400, bolt linkage at 700, firing pin at 800 rounds.
I had shot 200 light loads through it and noticed the gas pistons started to mushroom out. Was extremely happy I didn’t spend full price and got my money back out of it. In all this I learned the classic Rem 870 pump had also succumbed to the horrible metallurgy. Then the Rem R51 flopped hard in the middle of this. Going to be a hard sell to get their reputation back. Probably a BUNCH of third party ammo dump tests is what would get me back to them.
Was it one built just before Remington went bankrupt? I have an 8 year old VersaMax Tactical that has more than 1,800 rounds through it. The only part I replaced was the the lifter, and that was because I wanted the competition lifter instead of the barbecue fork that kept catching my thumb.
Just make the BDL like it used to be made and call it good.
New and improved just means , ” We found a way to cheap it, cut corners, and still make it work.”
Possum, remember when a real BDL came with a great sling a a good set of sights? All you had to know how to yo do was use all three at the same time.
Commitment to pride over commitment to money. Remington was competing with the King of the Hill Winchester Mod70.
What you made had to be good or it wouldn’t have gotten sold.
Plastic gunms can be banged out in a basement cheaply. Who cares about mirror polished blueing or fine grained walnut anymore.
It takes money to get that kind of quality, doesn’t matter what year you pick.
What’s fucked up though is theres nothing new on the market now that can even compare to a Mossberg 800 series, and like wow, they was the cheapest of the almost’s.
Savage hit a sweet spot, nothing fancy, just accurate.
You folks are making me glad my only 700 dates back to 2001 or 2002 and has a Timney Trigger.
If you want a great Remington product you’ll have to buy used and it’ll have to have be no newer than the mid 80s manufactured.Sorry but Remington hasn’t meant quality in a long time.
I know people who bought a BDL or ADL just for the receiver and then went nuts with the Brownells catalog.
Very interesting.
The oldest brand in the industry? Hardly! Not even the most respected.
But that won’t stop me from buying one of these.
We still don’t know what a standard 700 will consist of. In Ron Spomer’s video he says that the Alpha 1 will be released IN ADDITION TO the 700 line. This is the “bait”, I can’t wait to see what they “switch” you to when you want a less expensive rifle.
I’m glad I’ve held on to the first gun I ever had. A 700 I received as a Christmas gift when I was 12. I believe it’s of 70s era manufacture. I got it in the 90s.
Having dealt with the Remington 700 (ND) trigger, I’m perfectly content with my Savage Axis.
I hope they added a 3-lug bolt, to solve the problem of the bolt throw on Remington 700 being so high that you bump your hand on the scope.
THANKS FOR INFOR ALWAYS
I have a Rem 700 in 300WM with a slender barrel and MagnaPort. I put a fancy pkastic stick on it then bought a good scope.
The neat thing is it is crazy accurate, better than a bull barreled 700 I had before and the recoil is surprisingly light. I concluded that the MagnaPort cuts pressure down much at crown and the slender barrel provides not much area to kick.
The fact that point of impact doesn’t move despite heavy steady firing is a surprise to me. I can get cloverleafs at 100 yards which I find remarkable for a hunting rifle.
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