Which Remington 700 in .308 to get? What length?

[em9sredbeam]

I am starting to look around for a 700 in .308, and I noticed there are a lot of different models. I have seen the Tactical, and the R5, and there is a major price difference. What are the pros and cons and is it worth it to spend the money? How much of a difference does barrel length mean at what distances? I have a 22-250 that I have shot 200 yards no problem, but I want to work my way up to much farther, and .308 is supposed to be good for that.

[phish]

since that's out of the way, I would get a 26" barrel

now for the PhD dissertations...

[zack30]

It all comes down to personal preferrence. If you can, hold as many as possible and whatever fits best is most likely going to shoot best from your hands. Most modern guns are going to have the ability to shoot better than anyone can personally, so if you are comfortable shooting it, chances of you shooting it enough to get very skilled are much higher than attempting to shoot something you are not comfortable with.

[russ69]

...now for the PhD dissertations...

Thank you, doctor. The 308 needs all the velocity it can get, to get you past 900 yards. 26 inches is a good length.

[NapalmCheese]

There are better and worse choices for shooting things far away than .308.

What's your intended purpose? Punching paper at 1000 yards? Just want to tell people you have a 'sniper' rifle? Long range hunting? Silhouette matches? Punching paper at 200 and occasionally finding some place to shoot farther? General hunting plus marksmanship practice?

[em9sredbeam]

There are better and worse choices for shooting things far away than .308.

What's your intended purpose? Punching paper at 1000 yards? Just want to tell people you have a 'sniper' rifle? Long range hunting? Silhouette matches? Punching paper at 200 and occasionally finding some place to shoot farther? General hunting plus marksmanship practice?

Honestly A little of all of the above minus the "sniper rifle" part. I don't have the money to buy several different rifles, so I would like one decent one that I can do a lot with and .308 seems to be a versatile and fairly easy to find round. I end up in the desert to play every once in awhile and have the opportunity where the only limiting factor on distance is me.

[sintax]

I'm a realist, Rem 700 LTR is what i think i'd get.

Shooting 700+ with a 308 is not in my idea of fun.

[NapalmCheese]

Honestly A little of all of the above minus the "sniper rifle" part. I don't have the money to buy several different rifles, so I would like one decent one that I can do a lot with and .308 seems to be a versatile and fairly easy to find round. I end up in the desert to play every once in awhile and have the opportunity where the only limiting factor on distance is me.

Before going out of state for a deer and antelope hunt I decided I wanted a new rifle. I agonized over how I could get a hunting rifle that would also be a target rifle, since I shoot paper and clays way more often than animals, and at that, I mostly shoot pistols and shotguns. I bought a Tikka T3 Lite in 7mm-08. It's a great hunting rifle, and it has shown me that if I want a target rifle I would change a few things. Not to mention, cost of ammo being what it is, I only take the T3 out every so often to stay proficient, spending most of my time shooting my girlfriend's .22 or my BB gun.

If I were you, I would take a long look at what I'm realistically going to be using this rifle for. You may find that you want a hunting rifle and a target rifle. Or maybe you want a 90% target rifle 10% hunting rifle? Maybe the other way around.

Essentially what I'm getting it is, if you want to be competitive in any of those target oriented disciplines, you might as well just get a target rifle. If you are just doing it for fun every once in a while, you might as well buy the rifle that is most comfortable to hold and most fun to look at, and get it in whatever caliber makes your heart go pitter patter. If it's just an occasional thing you aren't going to run through that much ammo.

Order and weight your priorities, then pour through Remington's site (or even expand your search to different rifles) and put them on a continuum from target specific in target calibers to hunting specific in hunting calibers. Based your weighted priorities find the appropriate point on the continuum.

[cfusionpm]

I've had great success out to 600 yds with my 20" heavy barrel SPS Tactical. Haven't had a chance to shoot out farther, but I can hit 4/4 pretty consistantly at the 600 yd plates at ASR.

The longer the barrel, the more muzzle velocity you will get and theoretically the longer range you will have. I would love to take mine to 1000, but it would likely struggle compared to some of the 24 and 26" barrels.

If you're not doing competition shooting and just dinging steel at distance for fun, pretty much any model will do. Plus that will free up funds for better optics. I only spent $500 on my rifle, but three times that on the scope.

[JMP]

I think cfusionpm's modelling, ahem, model rather, is good. I'd get a model that has a threaded barrel if you are going to use a muzzle break as that will save you money in the long run. 20 inchers are great for the convenience, as the 26" versions can't be tossed in the average size soft bag. But, you do give up some velocity. The one thing that I'd seriously recommend upgrading first is the trigger. The triggers on the 700's are a POS.