I thoroughly cleaned the 300 last night with Barnes CR-10 copper solvent and Kroll oil. Afterwards I decided to take the rifle apart for the first time and continue my cleaning a bit more. Don't ask me why I thought this was necessary but now I'm regretting the decision. After reassembling the action & stock I proceeded to check the float of the barrel by running a piece of paper the barrel and the stock. Unfortunately the paper wouldn't go in at all and I was furious. I tried several more times after loosening, adjusting and retightening the action but to no avail. So currently my barrel is not free-floating as it should so my accuracy is going to be crap until I find a remedy which is incredibly frustrating.
Wasn't impressed with the fit & finish of the barrel to stock from the beginning as you can see it's not stellar.
First this this morning I called up Remington to get some answers. After waiting on hold for 5-10 minutes I spoke with an associate in repairs named Andrew. I told him the whole story about taking it apart and reassembling only to find that my barrel was no longer floating.
I also told him that when I purchased the rifle in 2008 I took it home and after a thorough inspection I wasn't impressed at all with the fit and finish of the stock around the barrel. On the right side the space between the barrel and stock was about 1/32 of an inch whereas the left side was about 1/8" of an inch. I took it back to Gunnies in Orem where I bought it and explained. They said that as long as a dollar bill can easily be passed between the two it should have no effect on the accuracy. At that point we tested it and though the dollar came out a bit dirty, it did indeed slide between the two without a problem. Being still unimpressed with the fit and finish of my brand new $1200 rifle that supposedly is Remington top of line and has one of the best aftermarket stocks on the market I asked if I could swap it out for another one, given that it was unfired. Unfortunately they had only ordered one in 300 Win Mag and it took over 4 months to arrive so getting another one was going to be a long process. After already waiting so long I wasn't about to do that. In hindsight I wish I had being it took me 3 yrs to save enough to buy the scope I wanted and finally be able to shoot the rifle. At the time I had the intention of selling the original stock anyways and getting another that was even more target/tactical in it's design and features such as the McMillan A-5 or A-4 or the Bell & Carlson A-5 Medalist that comes on the Model 700 XCR Target Tactical .308
McMillan A-5
McMillan A- 4 (Thicker Forend)
Bell & Carlson A - 5 Medalist
After my story Andrew took the serial number for the rifle and after a few minutes said that he would have a new stock to me in 2-3 weeks as well as return postage for my current one so I could send it back. I was impressed. They hardly asked any questions and just took care of business. The only remark I have would be that 2-3 weeks is a rather long time in today's ultra competitive market. I think they could get it to me in a week if they really wanted to but I'm just happy that they had such a great "no-none-sense" approach to my problem.
I'll update when the new stock arrives in a couple weeks. Hopefully this one
Great Customer Service at Remington - Thanks Andrew.
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