The Remington 700 has been the gold standard for bolt action rifles since, well, ever. But there are still cheap bastards like me out there that would rather gamble with a lesser piece of kit than pay the extra couple hundred dollars, which is where the 783 comes in. It’s not quite as expensive as the regular 700, but the el-cheapo version has some improvements . . .
The 783 doesn’t feel too bad, actually. The stock suffers from the same issue I have with almost every other bolt action rifle on the market (that the cheek piece is too low), but that’s unfortunately par for the course. What’s different about the gun is the receiver, specifically the shape of the ejection port.
The original Remmy 700 was designed to be a top loading gun, so there’s no metal going over the top of the bolt. But for the 783, it’s designed to be magazine fed and therefore has a smaller ejection port. This adds a ton of rigidity to the frame, and also would appear to cut down on machining time in the manufacturing process.
MSRP is around $450 for the base model, which puts it lower than the normal 700s but still not quite in spitting distance of the 100 ATR and American Rifle models that are fighting it out for the cheapskate dollar.
The only thing I’m not sold on is the bolt handle. It’s plastic, and while I get that it’s cheaper to make, it just feels, well, cheap to me. I would have much preferred having to shell out a couple extra bucks for a metal bolt handle.
In general, the rifle feels great. It’s solid, seems well built and comes from a great heritage of firearms manufacturing. But we’ll have to test it out to see if it lives up to the hype or if, much like Marlin’s nosedive into the gutter, is the beginning of a Freedom Group-inspired tailspin.
Please, please do a side-by-side with the Ruger American Rifle….
Nutnfancy has done reviews and prefers it over the American Rifle
If you have been considering buying one, make sure you buy it before the gun control people declare them to be dangerous “high-powered sniper rifles” and ban them.
A *plastic* bolt handle? That’s so revolutionary, it just revolved me away from this rifle.
The bolt handle is not plastic. It is steel and it is brazed on to the bolt body, also steel.
So… is the bolt handle plastic or not…? O_o
This. Plastic or not? A plastic bolt handle would keep me from buying one. My Cabelas points are piling up and I could use a new hunting rifle. This is intriguing, but if it has a plastic bolt handle I’ll buy a Savage.
I held one of these rifles yesterday. The first thing I noticed was what I thought was a plastic bolt handle. I LOOKS like plastic but it isn’t. Apparently, the “brazing” process described above gives the metal an odd appearance that looks plastic.
Four words:
Accuracy and reliability test.
Get to work, please.
I would like to see a comparison to a Savage. What I’ve seen so far is that the 783 has an accutrigger and a Savage barrel nut system…
The 783 trigger is not an AccuTrigger. While they both have a safety “blade” nested next to the trigger, the triggers and safety are mechanically different. The AcuTrigger blocks the sear, the 783 trigger blocks the trigger. Seems like a few other companies are using the saftey blade deal as well. According to Remington, the 783 trigger is similar to the Marlin X7 trigger.
Remington 700, the “gold standard” for bolt action rifles?
Um…. I don’t think so.
The Rem 700 is an atrociously cost-reduced shadow of what Herr Mauser designed over 100 years ago. The 700′s receiver (in the magazine-fed versions) is more flexible than a Model 70 or Mauser 98′s, the 700 has no integral recoil lug on the receiver, the bolt is soldered together from three pieces, the extractors have had issues over the years… the common solution to those extractor problems is to cut into the bolt and install a Sako extractor, which compromises the “three rings of steel” marketing Remington has been blathering about for decades…
Give me a moment or two and I’ll come up with some other complaints.
Oh, yes… let’s not forget the wonderful issues with the Walker Fire Control Group trigger … or Remington’s handling of same.
Remington and Remmy fans have created a cult around the 700… which it hardly deserves. If it were “all that,” there wouldn’t be over a dozen clone action manufactures out there, making Remington-like or Rem700-compatible actions, cleaning up all the problems that the 700 has, and selling just these actions (with bolt and bottom metal) for more than Remington sells an entire rifle.
If I had to pick one bolt gun as a “gold standard” of what a civilian bolt gun should be, it would be the pre-64 Winchester Model 70, and especially those made before WWII.
Wow. While the 700s aren’t perfect, your criticism is off the deep end. You seem to be digging for things to complain about.
What?
Nobody likes Browning A bolts?