Remington LVSF in .17 Rem

[blue]

It arrived Thursday.
All in all a very nice little package. It is rather petite in size with a 22" but actually feels smaller than it is.The action and barrel are stainless and it has a very good "blasted" finish to it. The barrel is fluted and this has been done well. The crown in recessed and again very well machined.
It has a Bell & Carlson stock on it that is dark grey/black with a good raised finish. The pistol grip looks very shallow, but in reality is quite steep, and easy to get a repeatable grip on. I find that shallow rakes on pistol grips make it very difficult to get a "perfect" grip each time.
Having picked up Tikka and Steyr rifles, the actual quality of some synthetic stocks is quite honestly shocking. They seem to flex and the finish is, in my mind too flat, i.e. no texturing. The remmy is absolutely solid in every area. It is capped with what I think is the best available butt pad (I think it is called a decellerator) that works and is very comfortable.
The barrel channel needs relieving as it is floated, but not back far enough.

To be honest, I have avoided 700s as Remmington just do not do it for me. I think some of it is to do with the sheer number the make, no attention to detail would be made. I do a fair bit of load development and have used CDLs/BDLs and always felt that they were mass produced and overpriced. They have all, however been extremely accurate.
This little rifle is quite different. The quality is superb, the bolt, although still stiff has virtualy no play in it at all, better than my Sako LSV that I owned. The magazine is also excellent and worked perfectly (despite being a blind box design and a pain when cleaning). The magazine will hold 5 rounds by the way.
All in all it is a very nice rifle, I think retail is in the £800 make so realistically it should be good.

Shooting it gave no real suprises, I think most American guns need a few 100 shots to get them going properly, unlike Sako and Tikka's that seem to start well.
Overall the 20 grainers were giving about 2" at 122 yards and the 25s about half that with Benchmark and 205 primers. Oddly enough, this gun grouped in around an inch using Berger 30s and that is strange as all of the factory .17s I have used will not entertain them.

I will take another 150 shots with it as it stands and then it's off to Airmasters for the bedding, threading and trigger work. Dave can get Remmington triggers working better than any I have used before, far better than the Timney or Rifle Basix ones (in my opinion)
I was using a Swarovski 6-24 x 50 on high mounts but will change this to a Zeiss Conquest or Swarovski AV 6-18 x 50 to correct the balance.

I expect great things of this gun. The BDL I have worked on recently was shooting 4" groups when new. Some load help from ".17 Heaven" on the BBS and a few hundred round has that shooting stunning groups.

£800 will buy you a fair range of rifles and puts it in Sako territory. For what I want, I think it fits the bill perfectly, despite the magazine. If I were after any other calibre than .17, I would probably gone for something else. However it is actually a very well thought out gun and I think it is well worth considering if you want something lightweight.

Thanks to Guesty who was trying to spot 4.5mm holes at a distance in a 40mph wind with 8 mag binos

[rossandjet]

Enjoy Blue, I love my VLSF but not the ADL bit

[.17 heaven]

Enjoy Blue, I love my VLSF but not the ADL bit

the adl bit is a pain, i use a score-high benchrest follower to convert it to single shot " better"

[nice one]

how do you bed the stock

[blue]

how do you bed the stock

That is for Mr Welham to decide
Seriously though, I think it is done exactly the same way as with a wooden stock. Remove material around the action profile within the stock. Add some bisonite and all is well.

[shepp]

how do you bed the stock

yes wood is pretty much the same you just have to be more careful

[Baldie]

Fore end is not always free floated about an inch in it touches underneath the barrel from the front.
Nice rifle though with desirable velocities .
Axl

Mine wasn't either. [Full write up on page 2].

Had Andrew at Riflecraft remove material, including barrel supporting 'pips', to fully float my LVSF barrel. Made no difference to accuracy either way that I can see, though Remington were insistent it would shoot more consistently with the 'pips' left. (Less barrel vibration.)

[baz]

Mine wasn't either. [Full write up on page 2].

Had Andrew at Riflecraft remove material, including barrel supporting 'pips', to fully float my LVSF barrel. Made no difference to accuracy either way that I can see, though Remington were insistent it would shoot more consistently with the 'pips' left. (Less barrel vibration.)

Some rifles are designed with "pressure bedding" usually around an inch from the end of forend

Baz

[moth]

The only major problem i have with these things is spotting thems tiny weeney holes in the target.