Help choosing 700 s/a stock

[Sir Toast]

You can get great deals on AI 1.5 or 2.0's. The skins help keep them cool along with the cheek pad. Get Viper Skins too.

[Guardian Mode]

I say, checkout the
Magpul Hunter 700 coming out soon for about $330 with a mag.
KRG Xray for like $600
Or an XLR Carbon in the $920 range.

[1859sharps]

Stay away from the mini-chassis or any of the other "no bedding required" chassis systems.

I am also doing some research on stocks for my R700s. Could you expand on the above just a bit. I am coming across different opinions, but very little that helps me understand why the opinion was formed.

if you have time that is, more details would be helpful and appreciated.

[LynnJr]

When the 700 Remington is polished for bluing the metal is no longer even. The manufacturers of the various chassis always tell you that bedding isn't needed but due to production tolerances of both the action and the chassis you are best served by at least skim bedding the chassis to the action.
These defeats the intent of the chassis and raises the cost as well.

[vliberatore]

Manners T4a with PTG stealth bottom metal.
Get it with regular pillars and bed it yourself.
Stay away from the mini-chassis or any of the other "no bedding required" chassis systems.

Any particular you recommend a T4 instead of the T6?

You have much more experience than me so I figure it's something about the flat read end of the stock that I am not considering.

[GJC]

Stay away from the mini-chassis or any of the other "no bedding required" chassis systems.

How come? Just curious, hope I did not screw up buying my Manners mini chassis.

[JMP]

Currently I'm leaning towards the AWT chassis because it's average weight, adjustable, AI mags (+ comes with 10rd'er), acceptable price (for fully adjustable stocks), and good size/shape.

One of the nicest features of the AI stocks are that they really do the best job with a folding stock. Most of the other folding stocks are too flimsy. You will want to get the folding stock feature. Otherwise, in general, you pay up a bit for features specific to AI rifles. The reason the folding stock is of great utility is that you can put on a 32"+ barrel and still be able to haul it around in a normal case. Once the length of a rifle gets any longer than about 50" there can be issues of practically in finding a bag/case for your rifle. I am assuming weight isn't a huge concern or AI would not be the way to go.

The turn offs for me are:
I'm concerned an aluminum stock will get very hot sitting in the sun.

It is well insulated with skins, so you will not notice any of the heat. Shooting the rifle is what will generate a lot more heat than anything.

Limited to using 10rd+ mags.

AI also makes five round magazines.

I've looked at traditional stock on stockystocks.com but the huge variety of grip angles, adjustment options per stock (or none at all), and features have overloaded me.

Personally, I prefer the old 2.0 model as I favored the thumbhole stock. Pistol grips and AIs don't go well together, but it ends up being fairly vertical as they have a version with a beefy handle. The AX is an absolutely baffling design as it didn't make any real performance enhancements to the stock, rather it seems to have simply added weight in the form of an abundance of accessory rails to a stock that was what may have already been marginally too heavy for it's purpose. That's why I'd go 2.0 old version or 2.0 AT if you want an AI stock.

The nice thing about AI stocks is that they are made to fit AI magazines. AI magazines are the most common aftermarket magazines for folks to use. This will save you $100 on a new aftermarket metal bottom and the cost to have a stock inlet to fit the metal bottom and accept the magazines. Thus, it is a good stock to start out on as it requires minimal gunsmithing since an R700 action with a barrel will generally very easily fit into the stock and screw on with the action screws provided. You may very well ultimately bed your action, but it will be functional by simply screwing it on. This costs absolutely nothing, and you can later bed the action. When you screw on the stock, just make sure you do not apply too much torque to the unbedded action as you can bend the action a bit, in particular the tang is susceptible to bending if you screw it on too tightly.

AI makes products of great quality. However, it would be best to make sure you try out the feel of an AI stock. Stocks are quite preferential in nature, so you should make sure it is something that will fit you before spending your money on what is one of the more expensive stocks. If you do not have a friend that has an AI rifle or a rifle on an AI stock, you can probably quite easily get your hands on one to feel as they are abundantly common.

That's one of the problems with just asking for advice on a forum without physically inspecting the product is that you cannot feel it. There are many "experts" that will have a preference in stocks, and they will make recommendations based on their preferences. This induces a herd mentality of thinking that a particular product is superior to another when this is not the case. There are a lot of good manufacturers. In the end, you should choose based on what feels good to you.

[1859sharps]

Pistol grips and AIs don't go well together

First, thanks for the info. Kind of leaning towards an AI for one of my rifles.

But I was leaning towards the pistol grip vs the thumbhole so I am curious if the above quote is simply a personal preference or if there is more to that comment?

[JMP]

First, thanks for the info. Kind of leaning towards an AI for one of my rifles.

But I was leaning towards the pistol grip vs the thumbhole so I am curious if the above quote is simply a personal preference or if there is more to that comment?

Personal preference. Though, I felt an early model with the small pistol grip and it was awful. Most of the ones I have seen folks use have the large grip and that corrects the issue. If you notice the modularity of the stock, you can change the handle grip. I think it's pretty much standard now with the large grip.

[1859sharps]

thank you for the reply.

I was looking at the AT version. Is that the newer pistol grip you are talking about?

The reason I was leaning away from the thumbhole style was I was worried things would be snug to tight for my hand.

one more question if you don't mind. can you remove the bolt without removing the cheekpiece on the 1.5 stock?

[JMP]

thank you for the reply.

I was looking at the AT version. Is that the newer pistol grip you are talking about?

The reason I was leaning away from the thumbhole style was I was worried things would be snug to tight for my hand.

The truth is that there isn't a significant difference as the various styles of grips are interchangeable and do not affect the structure of the stock. The stock is modular, and it was originally designed to accomidate the AI rifles so that you could have easy access to whatever particular part. The AI was designed for each part that removes to be easily accessed and worked on in the field. You can see that the "thumbhole" just pops off and isn't really part of the stock. There aren't significant differences in the old design vs. new designs in terms of actual structure.

one more question if you don't mind. can you remove the bolt without removing the cheekpiece on the 1.5 stock?

The answer to that is that it depends on your action, bolt shroud, and the height of your cheek weld. I'd always opt for a 2.0 as one of the top reasons to get an AI stock is they have the strongest and most easy to use folding hinge of any stock that I am aware of. Having the folding stock becomes a large part of practical utility if you like to use long barrels (30"+ and you'll start to have difficulty finding a bag for your rifle as it gets longer than 50").

Here is an example of how it does not work with an AI bolt, especially when the weld is raised as the square shroud and protruding pin get tangled.



Here is an example of an R700 bolt where the smaller shroud allow it to come out, especially when the weld is raised.



Thus, with a 1.5 version you will have to see and it may dictate the shroud you use for your bolt. I don't have experience with the 1.5s, but if it was an issue, I imagine that you could remove a small portion of the front of the cheek weld since it would be completely catastrophic and unacceptable if you needed to remove the cheek weld to get the bolt out as you'd need to reset the height each time.

[milotrain]

$1000 and under, hopefully well under

Puts the Eliseo chassis out of your range. Too bad, they are excellent. The RTS is $1020. I don't know anyone who's had a problem with heat transfer through one of his stocks but I do know a lot of guys put something on the cheekpiece, like cork. Support hand has a glove on it anyway.

[bsumoba]

Magpul R700 stock

XLR Element Chassis

If you can find it, AICS stock 1.5 (older version)

[xsefan]

Budget ? McMillan. Check out tactical operation .25 moa thats, the stock they use. Marines too

[JMP]

What I don't understand about the Eliseo tube chassis is why the tube extends so far back, even covering the bolt upon extraction. This doesn't make sense to me on an R700 configuration. It seems that the tube that houses the bolt knob is superfluous and could only be of obstruction for operating the bolt and ejection. The only time a continued tube makes sense is in a bullpup configuration. Then, out of personal preference, I don't like the AR grip on a bolt gun. It does look to be of solid construction though.