Remington 700 Rifle Forums banner

SPS Tac .308 Free Floating or not ?

11833 Views 18 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  erpd527
hey guys going to pick up my sps tac 308 next week , have been reading that technically the sps tac has a free floating barrel , but from everyone i've spoke its really not , they tell me the minute you put a bi-pod or sandbags on / under the forearm that it ends up resting against the barrel ?

someone else also told me its common for people to try to dremel out their stock to provide more clearance ?

oh ya .. new to the boards... look forward to posting..
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
You've pretty much got it. The construction of the Overmold stock makes for a foreend that has pretty much no stiffness. It will flex enough to contact the barrel if you load it on a pod or if you rest out towards the end of the stock.
I Dremeled mine out and got more clearance, but it still flexed enough that contact was made.
I ended up getting an H-S LTR stock. If I find a good deal on a PSS stock I may go with that.
I've also seen people use aluminum rods down the longitudinal axis of the Overmolded stock with bedding compound around them to stiffen it up. Way more work and weight than I would be interested in.
Go and get a HS Police stock as soon as you can, or any other type of stock that feels good to you, will be a good investment.
SNIPER CENTRALS review of that weapon,Mel stated he did not feel that the contact interfeared
with the accuracy of the rifle,but did say it was a no-no for a precision rifle. contact on the bottom
of the barrel is usually not as critical as side to side contact. actually some mfgs. actually put pads
for the barrel to rest on.Such as my 700 VLS 22-250 and my VTR had 3 which I thought if removed
would increase it's accuracy. I used a dremel to remove them,accuracy became worse! Called
Remington,they informed me the pads were there to enhance accuracy.in fact accuracy became
so poor I traded the rifle. (it was actually 1/2 to 3/4 in rifle before the mod.) So my point is
shoot it first and if shoots well.........you can decide rather or not to modify it or get a different
stock.I personally do have HS PRECISION stocks on my 308 PSS,(CONVERTED TO VS) did not
like palm swell on PSS stock, as well as my 223 VS. My VLS has the laminated stock and is a 1 hole
gun, it is the most accurate rifle I own and it has a pad that the barrel sits on right above
the front swivel stud. BY THE WAY WELCOME !
See less See more
Contact with the barrel, if it is consistent, may not affect the accuracy of the barrel but in general contact should be avoided if it possibly can be. The Garand and M14/M1A are capable of very good accuracy, and they have barrel contact. But in match configurations steps are taken to make the contact consistent and repeatable.
I don't see how it can be said that contact doesn't interfere with accuracy but is a detriment to precision unless he's saying that the SPS T isn't accurate enough to be thought of as a precision rifle. If that is the case, I've seen a few too many SPS Ts that are well within the realm of precision to believe that statement. The problem with the Overmold stock is that if you rest the foreend on a pack, the pressure/contact will be different than on a wall or tree limb, and different than on a pod. When you're shooting from a pod, the pressure will vary depending on the amount of cant, up or downhill slope, contour of the ground, etc.
Even with the poor OEM stock, the SPS T is still capable of very good accuracy in most cases and it may not be worth every shooter changing them out. I've seen some bone stock SPS Ts shoot well even with the Overmold. For myself, I wanted to eliminate the play in the stock and go with something that was more solid and consistent.
It may be that the pads are needed with that odd triangular barrel, I don't know. I would think that if pads helped the accuracy across the board Big Green would be slapping pads on the M24, the PSS, the 40, and all their other high-end rifles. However that is not the case. Pads where you describe are likely to prevent inconsistent stock pressure on the barrel, so I can understand that being used with heavy barrels and stocks that are more prone to flexing and those pads (because of their positioning and composition) provide repeatable conditions and eliminate incosistent pressure by isolating the barrel.
As for the palm swell, it is the one thing I miss with my SPS T. I really like the compactness of the LTR with the short barrel, but I would really like to find a PSS stock to put on it.
See less See more
THAT PRETTY WELL SUMS IT UP,I WAS NOT SAYING,THAT THE SPS-T WAS NOT A PRECISION
RIFLE ,TO THE CONTRARY...MY SON HAS ONE ,IN FACT AND IT SHOOTS A WELL AS MY PSS.
WHICH IS NOW A VS ,BECAUSE THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE VS/PS/PSS/P
IS IN THE STOCK . IT HAS WIDER FORE END AND PALM SWELL. IT JUST DID'NT FEEL CORRECT
IN MY HANDS AND I TRADED A FRIEND OF MINE FOR HIS VS STOCK AND IT STILL SHOOTS
EXACTLY THE SAME AS BEFORE.
I didn't mean to indicate that you were saying it, I was refering to the review that you mentioned and the apparent contradicition the author makes, although he later states that no contact is desired.
I understand with the stocks. A perfect example is the AI stock series. Lots of people can't stand the way they feel, others love them. That's why H-S makes so many different versions.
m24shooter said:
I didn't mean to indicate that you were saying it, I was refering to the review that you mentioned and the apparent contradicition the author makes, although he later states that no contact is desired.
I understand with the stocks. A perfect example is the AI stock series. Lots of people can't stand the way they feel, others love them. That's why H-S makes so many different versions.
YEA, MY SON CAN NOT STAND THE FEEL OF THE HOGUE OVER MOLDED STOCK ON HIS SPS-T
HE DOES'NT LIKE THAT LATEX FEEL,WANT'S SOMETHING DIFFERENT,THINKING ABOUT A BLACKHAWK
AXIOM.
My solution to the 700 Remington stock's has been to replace them with the Remington 40X stock. The basic configuration is about the same as the M40 stock but it is made of wood rather than the lighter composite.







They sell for about $50.00 from Numrich Arms. They are used and need to be refinished. I'm cheap and just hate to spend a lot of money on furniture.
See less See more
3
Oh wow. You just spent $50 of mine. Now I just need to get another 700 to put in it.
CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN TO ME THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE 700 AND 40X ACTION AND
TRIGGER. I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED A 40X?
The 40X came out when I was a very young man and "was" the perfect rifle in my mind back then. Lots of better stuff out there now.

http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/Remington40X.asp
jerrschmitt said:
The 40X came out when I was a very young man and "was" the perfect rifle in my mind back then. Lots of better stuff out there now.

http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/Remington40X.asp
THANKS FOR THE INFO,SORRY, I THINK I GOT US KINDA OFF TRACK.WHAT SHALL WE TALK
ABOUT NEXT?.........MAYBE ABOUT SPRING AND BLOWING THE WINTER STINK OFF?
I may have to check out that 40x stock... For $50 it seems like it would be a fun project to accomplish.
SemperFi said:
I may have to check out that 40x stock... For $50 it seems like it would be a fun project to accomplish.
Just remember that they need to be refinished. Even the ones that say they are refinished.
Since we're on the topic for stocks, I was looking at the Bell and Carlson Medalist Varmint/Tactical Stock. I also want to install a detachable magazine. CDI, H-S precision, and Wyatt has good reviews on midwayusa's website. Which one of the three would be plug and play for the B&C stock?
so pretty much exactly what i thought ? i guess for the money 5 hundred and change , i cant really beat the barrel / action combo , the stock is only a temp until i can pull some more loot together for a mcmillan a5 , or find a used one.. i would eventually like to try to marine tex bed this 700 as i have a friend that sent his to g.a.p and it came out unbelievable .. im kind of rough on my gear or i'd really not have any interest in the sps tac stock at all , but every wood stock i've ever owned , i've damaged or abused one way.. all my guitars (wood) have wear and damage marks , as long as i can keep the rubber from fraying or shaving up im ok with it i guess. .like i said ideally mcmillan is my goal but if im gonna pay to have it done , then im also gonna pay for a barrel to be done at the same time as the bedding.
See less See more
hey guys new here but not the 700's. I got me a 5R stock and its a perfect fit. i have had no problems with it. the Hogue stock is pretty much no good for free floating the barrel like stated its weak in the front end........ but ! but! there is a pretty simple mod that can be done. you take marine tex and two long steel rods or bars what ever you want and carve out the center of the foregrip. then insert the rods on there and use marine tex to cover up the whole front end hollowed out grip. its a pretty good temp fix for this stock and will do until you get something better. also from what i read from a few posts here and there the HS precision is a better stock than the B&C stock just a thought. i like my HS and especially the palm swell.

here is mine :D

See less See more
The Houge stock is junk, it flexes, the first thing I did when I got my new 700 was take the stock off, I bought a Choate stock and put on it, it shoots really really well now, I would like to get a Mcmillian stock one day..
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top