Few sporting rifle designs have the historical significant of the Remington 700. Arguably the most popular bolt action sporting rifle ever designed, the Model 700 has been in production since 1962. After seeing service by both hunters and militaries worldwide, the Remington 700 is the standard that all new rifles are compared to.
Design Ethos
Throughout the 1950’s, most popular bolt action rifles were either copies or derivatives of the Mauser 98. As militaries transitioned away from bolt action service rifles, there was a surplus of affordable Mauser 98 actions available. The Mauser 98 design is excellent, but it is expensive to produce.
Remington saw an opportunity to create a rifle with the performance of the Mauser 98 at a lower cost. The Remington 700 features a round bottomed receiver, non-integral recoil lug, and a clip ejector. These characteristics allowed the Model 700 to undercut the bolt actions made by Winchester and Browning. Furthermore, the new design was very intrinsically accurate. The Model 700 quickly ascended to the top of the sales charts and created sweeping redesigns by competitors trying to keep pace.
Strengths
To this day, the Model 700 retains many of the attributes that made it initially successful. The round bottom receiver is easy to bed, and in general they are forgivingly accurate. Aftermarket triggers allow for Remington 700’s to be tuned to have some of the best triggers of any rifle. The two position safety allows for the rifle to be unloaded while on safe. Notably, early versions the safety did lock the bolt.
In the decades since their release, the aftermarket for Remington 700s has grown to be the largest on earth for a bolt action rifle. Virtually all stocks, triggers, bottom metals, and barrels are made with a compatible option. This has made the Model 700 a popular choice as a base action for custom rifle builds. Over the last decade, the popularity of this has declined as boutique custom action manufacturers have taken over a share of the market.
Known Issues
However, the Remington 700 design is not perfect. A known issue with the earlier vintages has to do with the Walker trigger design. A tolerance stacking issue caused some rifles to occasionally fire when the safety is disengaged, without the trigger being pulled. A recall was issued and a new trigger design implemented, but some older guns may still have the Walker trigger.
Another potential issue is with the small clip extractor. While I have not personally witnessed a failure, there are reports of the extractor failing to extract stuck cases, particularly in icy conditions. For those who hunt the far north where ice and snow abound, a rifle with a Mauser or Sako-style extractor are a better option.
Finally, the Remington 700 has been plagued with fluctuating build quality. The rifles built in the 70’s and 80’s are superb, with excellent feeding, smooth actions, and resilient finishes. Newer models with a parkerized finish are prone to rusting, and the actions can have a cartridge hang up on the feed ramp from time to time. Additionally, Remington has experienced a number of bankruptcies in recent years. This raises concerns over whether the company will be around to provide support for new production rifles for years to come.
Competitive Options
Within the context of modern hunting rifles, the Remington 700 is a bargain hunters rifle. At new prices, hunters are better served selecting a Bergara B-14 or a Tikka T3X. Both of these designs offer similar customizability and better quality control. In fact, the Bergara B-14 is a better build-quality Remington 700 clone with an upgraded extractor. For older rifles this gets a bit more nuanced. On the used market, a Remington 700 built during the 1970’s-1990’s era provides a lot of value and can be found for very reasonable prices.
Closing Thoughts
In closing, the Remington 700 was a revolutionary design in its day. Many of the attributes that were pioneered by the Remington 700 can be seen in modern designs, such as the Browning X-Bolt, Bergara B-14, and the Tikka T3X. However, due to quality control issues a newly built Remington 700 is a poor value proposition. That said, the older examples of the Model 700 are exceedingly well built and are still perfectly suitable for the modern hunter. Candidly, I would not buy a new Remington 700 in 2026. Nevertheless, there are still many excellent rifles in consignment racks and gun safes around the world.