Remington 783 Accuracy

I'd been reading about all these inexpensive rifles in the last few years that got generally good reviews.  When the Remington 783 came out it had some interesting features I was having trouble ignoring.  The Savage like floating bolt head and barrel nut, a fully free floated barrel, pillar bedded action, and adjustable trigger.  I had myself convinced I needed a 260 Remington, but the closest the 783 came was in 243, so a 243 it would be.  I could always change out the barrel later if I still had to have a 260 Remington.  Three hundred and fifty dollars later from Buds Guns and twenty bucks to my local FFL and I had the rifle in hand.

My first thought after seeing it was "hmm, looks pretty cheap".  Well, I guess it is cheap at $350 delivered.  What did I expect?  It has plain mat black bluing and a synthetic stock.  There is some heft to the gun and the stock is somewhat stiffer than I expected.  It has a nice soft recoil pad also.  I'm not going to get into a real review here since it has been done all over the net.  What I haven't seen was any accuracy testing outside of the questionable honesty of the normal mags, so that's what you'll get.

This isn't any custom barrel here.  In fact one writer said the bore resembled a coal mine.  With that in mind I slathered some JB on a patch and wrapped it around a nylon brush.  I gave it thirty strokes and reloaded a new patch with JB and gave it another twenty.  Cleaned it up and was good to go.  the scope is a Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44.  I may review the scope in another article because I'm very pleased with it.  For now let's just say it's mounted on inexpensive medium rings and everything clears, but barely.

I ordered a box of Sierra .243 100g Gamekings and started loading.   I have about 55 rounds through it now.  You can see my best group so far below.  That is a 5/8" five shot group from 100 yards.  I shot six five shot groups that day.  Of them all the biggest group was 1-5/8", and if you took away the flyer in that group you were left with a nice four shot group of 5/8" again.  Yes sir, this 783 can shoot!  If Remington comes out with a polished blue version with a nice walnut stock I think they'll sell tons of them, no matter what the model 700 fans claim. 

17 HMR Acurracy Again!

I've been doing a little more shooting again, this time with a Remington 783 in 243 Winchester.  On my second time out to the range I figured I'd warm up with the 17 HRM before shooting groups with the 243.  I've been working on my technique and wanted to make sure I was in the groove before getting started with the 243.  I put ten rounds down the barrel, two groups of five at a hundred yards.  Here is the target.

 

I realize there is a shot pulled in each group.  What surprised me was the group on the left has four shots in about a half inch, and the group on the right has four shots in just under 3/8"!  You can bet I'll be testing the rifle out again on a nice calm day!