Enfield Rifle

Tactical Stocks – Instant Accuracy For The Rem 700

The Remington 700 is the World’s most popular bolt action centerfire hunting rifle. The Model 700 draws its popularity from its entry level price, amazing strength, inherent accuracy and easy upgrade path.  The Remington 700 is the sniper weapon system of choice of the US Army (M24 and XM2010), US Marine Corps (M40) and US Navy SEALs (Mk 13 Mod 5). The US Army, Marines and US Navy SEALs all operate their own M700 version as their issue Sniper Weapon System. A whole industry has built up supplying aftermarket parts, accessories and cloned actions and rifles offering various enhancements over the original.

The Remington 700 is probably second only to the AR15 as the World’s most upgradeable rifle. An unfortunate facet of this is the cheap, throwaway plastic stocks that the manufacturer insists on fitting to keep the price of their entry level configurations down. A new or tuned trigger should be your first priority; the next best thing you can do for the accuracy of your rifle is to bed it in a decent laminated or synthetic stock. The best bedding you can get for a hunting rifle is to torque it down onto an aluminium bedding block or chassis. These stocks aren’t inexpensive but will revolutionise the performance of your rifle and you won’t have to worry about rain, damp, cleaning chemicals or the occasional bump destroying your rifle’s bedding.

Bell and Carlson’s range of stocks are light, rugged, hardwearing and affordable. Bell and Carlson mill an aluminium pillar bedding block and layer a selection of composite materials including fiberglass, aramid fibers, graphite, epoxy gel coats and laminating resins; and polyurethane reinforcement with milled fiberglass. This results in an utterly rigid but very lightweight ( 2.5 lb.) construction that is profoundly different from the cheap, non free-floating stocks the factory sells with its baseline models. The Bell and Carlson Light Tactical stock is typical of their models and represents a good option for right hand short action 700s used in a varmint or predator control role. It features a cut out under the rear of the stock for the left hand, offering more support to the rifle and control for the shot. The exterior finish is a non-slip texture which will not be removed by exposure to rifle cleaning products. You can bed this stock for a perfect cosmetic fit, but it is not necessary for accuracy.

H-S Precision provide the US Army with the stock of their M24 Sniper Weapon System and also went with a machined aluminium bedding block bonded to structural polyurethane foam reinforced with fiberglass. This perfectly aligns and cradles the barrelled action. As with the B&C Light Tactical Stock, H-S hand laminate using Kevlar and fiberglass cloth along with uni-directional carbon fiber particles to create a perfectly stiff stock only 2 lb. oz. in weight. H-S stocks are completely environmentally stable. H-S protect their stocks with a baked on polyurethane finish that is non reflective and textured for a firm hold in wet conditions. H-S precision’s PST series stock was chosen as the Remington 700 Police stock and is listed in conventional hinged floorplate and detachable magazine versions in either black or desert tan color.

Both the above stocks are rather conventional in format and won’t add much to the weight of the rifle, resulting in a package that is still relatively portable. Accuracy International on the other hand put aesthetics last when they designed a no compromise sniper rifle to win the British Army’s contest to replace the venerable Lee Enfield L42A1. They wanted the most solid possible bond between the action and chassis and went the whole way, gluing it permanently with incredibly strong epoxy resin to make it a single unit. The result was an insanely accurate rifle that very few civilian shooters could afford. Despite their rifles soon becoming standard issue to the British, German, Belgian, Dutch, Australian and Swedish forces, AI realised that it needed to get into the US civil market. To do this they adapted their chassis system to take Remington 700 short (.243 and .308) and long action (.300 Winchester) rifles.

AI’s ‘civilian’ stock, the AICS, is machined from a single billet of aerospace quality aluminium onto which the glass reinforced polymer panels are bolted. The action is aligned perfectly by the V-shaped bedding block, torqued down with the two bolts supplied with the kit. The curious flat sided ergonomics make the rifle surprisingly easy to carry and AI offer a shoulder harness style sling that attaches to H&K style recessed attachment points. Mounting points are included for AI and Harris bipods. A thumbhole grip accommodates all sizes of hands with or without gloves and an adjustable cheekpiece caters for different heights of day and night vision sight. Body armour and winter clothing can be adjusted for by adding or removing bolt on spacers. Doule stack five and ten round mags are available for the .308 and .243 Winchester and a 5 round single stack unit for the .300 Winchester. The rifles are available in Stage 1.5 (fixed) and Stage 2.0 (folding versions), each of which is available in long and short action format and with panels in black, greed or dark earth. All of this robustness comes at a price, which is up to 5 lb. 11 oz. and (as of January 2011) $1100 in long action folding format, but you are getting the prestige of a system adopted by the US Navy SEALs as the Mk 13 Mod 5.

Copyright Chris Pieterman January 2011.

1000m/1100yd shoot with the Lee Enfield Rifle