horsepower for you, then a long action version is available that should handle the 300 Win. Mag. and similar rounds. So far, I’ve taken gophers, magpies
and coyotes with this system, and with one exception it works great. The fl y in the ointment is the factory safety. The TAC21 chassis has a scalloped cutout through which the factory safety pro- trudes. However, the Remington safety knob is fairly low in profi le and there just isn’t enough meat to make safety manipulation easy or rapid. When I fi rst used the rifl e I didn’t load the chamber until I was in position and then used the bolt handle as the safety – up for safe, down for fi re. That worked satisfacto- rily, but I quickly came up with a more elegant solution. My muzzleloader has an external
Early spring gophers taken on a snow covered pasture with the Remington/ TAC21 system.
(Picatinny) rail machined as part of the chassis … and with 20 minutes of taper built in. And just in case you need to hang a lot of accessories on your rifl e, or have a rail fetish, there is provision for attaching Magpul L3 and L5 rails all over the fore-end. I hung a Harris bipod on the front and left it at that, but if night hunting is legal in your area, this would be a great way to install illumination equipment. MDT says any AR buttstock and
pistol grip can be used on this rifl e, so I decided to try one of the laminated wood versions made by LUCID Solu- tions of South Dakota. I opted for the black laminate and it has worked out great. I like the look and have found both units to be comfortable, stable and sturdy. Note that whatever buttstock you choose, you’ll likely have to add an empty buffer tube to attach the stock. That was the case with the LUCID stock and I just happened to have a spare tube in my parts box, so installation was easy. The only thing that’s close to be-
ing diffi cult in assembling the system is installing the Remington action into the chassis, and it is so only because the trigger has to be removed and re- installed to accomplish this. Of course, for most gun hobbyists, removing and replacing a Remington 700 trigger is pretty easy stuff. But if you’d rather not tackle that job, take notice. The instruc- tions that come with the unit are great, and in keeping with the times MDT has
Page 124 Spring 2012
a video on-line, showing how to do it. The entire assembly process took me about 45 minutes – but I spent 35 years working for the federal government and therefore can’t do anything fast. Most of the shooting I did was
with an unmodifi ed Remington 700 XCR Tactical barrel/action/trigger installed in the chassis. The factory barrel has a 1:9" twist, allowing me to shoot 68-grain Hornady BTHPs. There is plenty of length in the magazine, so I was easily able to seat the bullets into the rifl ing with magazine room to spare. The rifl e has been regularly delivering fi ve-shot groups in the half-inch range with the kind of stability you’d expect from a system like this. But that stability comes at a price,
and you’ll pay for it in the coin of weight. The bare chassis system weighs just over 3 pounds, and if you start hanging other parts on the rifl e you can end up with a 12-pound rifl e very easily. Of course, that soaks up what little recoil the 223 can muster, and combined with the straight back recoil design of an AR I can normally see bullet impact through the scope. This makes adjustments for the next shot a snap. However, carrying this rifl e a long distance is a real workout … but then it was never designed to be a walking varminter. This is a precision rifl e platform
and designed for going long. If you want to go really long and the short action 223 and 308 versions don’t generate enough
hammer equipped with a hammer extension that is nothing more than a grooved cylinder with a threaded stud on one end. I used the same principle to make an extension for the Reming- ton safety. A little rooting through my parts box located a small metal sleeve that allowed a 6-32 screw to just slide through. My plan was to drill and tap the safety knob and add this as an exten- sion. It worked great, except that I had to anneal the knob fi rst. For some reason it is hardened. However, the knob is small enough that a propane torch will easily anneal it. I added a drop of me- dium strength thread-locker to ensure it doesn’t get lost in the fi eld. This works perfectly. One question I’ve heard regu-
larly from people seeing the TAC21 for the fi rst time is, “How do you get the bolt out for cleaning?” The answer is, “It’s easy, but not obvious.” And that brings up another feature I’ve come to like about this system. The buttstock is quickly removable. This is because whatever stock the user installs is mounted into a butt cap that is held in place with a captive pin. Pushing this pin out – I can do it without tools – re- leases the buttstock assembly, allowing the bolt to be extracted just like every other Remington in the world. I timed myself and with the gun already in my hands, I can remove the buttstock in just fi ve seconds. Bolt removal allows cleaning from
the chamber, a necessity on a precision rifle. It also allows compact storage, a handy feature on a rifl e with a 26-
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