Picatinny rail to the rifle back when it was new.) I always use quick-release mounts and normally choose the Leupolds – they’re high quality, take mere seconds to remove or replace the scope, hold their zero very well indeed on refitting, the issue that worries many people.
However, they’re relatively expensive and, as a chunky steel design, are on the heavy side. Whilst this is not an issue on the Remy Tactical, it is very much so on an F/TR rifle where I increasingly think like benchrest competitors - looking to save every odd ounce in things like mounts provided strength and quality are not compromised – ounces that are better employed elsewhere, that is barrel or bi-pod.
So, it was onto eBay to see what I could find and afford. After sifting through endless pages of £5- 15 airgun scope mounts I lucked onto a British retailer offering the 30mm Burris Xtreme Tactical product in various heights at just under £50 per set including carriage. This a light but substantial aluminium alloy 6-screw design attached to the rail using a sliding side-clamp as per the Leupold arrangement, but tensioned with a 13mm hex nut instead of thumb-levers. I’ve only got to remember to keep a small T-bar and socket in the shooting box or drag bag pocket.
Thanks to the F Class ‘Europeans’ getting in the way, there hasn’t been time to handload any ammunition and see how well the rifle performs with its new Armalon barrel and Sightron, just a quick sighting/ running-in session at 100 yard using Remington 60gn OTM ‘Premier Match’ cartridges as we went to press. This ammunition hardly produced stellar performance in the rifle’s original barrel running from one to three inches or even more.
101
MINI PROJECT RIFLE: THE REMINGTON 700 SPS TACTICAL
There was no sign of copper fouling at all in the first few rounds from the hammer-forged barrel and the sight-in group was a lot smaller than I ever got before with this fodder, so I’m hopeful. This is as far as I’ll go with the rifle in 223 form and have been impressed by how much you can improve a basic factory offering – now, it neither looks like, nor feels like the original SPS Tactical. So much so in fact that the brief sighting/running-in range session astonished me again as to how little resemblance the rifle feel and handling retains to its original form, I simply can’t overstate the degree of improvement!
The sighting- in target group shows promise despite the use of lacklustre factory ammunition.
To get there with your own factory Remmy, all you need do is talk to people who know what they’re about ..... and spend
money, of course! I’ve upgraded the
rifle and spent the money in a fairly short period, under a year but, I see this as being more about how the impecunious shooter can get started with a budget Remy and upgrade it, one step at a time, over a much longer time span - as and when finances allow.
Although the outlay has not been inconsiderable, it has still worked out at less than having a custom tactical rile built, and I don’t feel I’ve lost much – if anything – by going down this route so far. I’ll eventually cover 223 handloading in depth using the rifle in both Remington and Armalon barrelled forms but, as that’ll be some time off, I promise to return in two or three issues time with some test targets and maybe a McQueen competition result.
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