Something worth mentioning is Remington’s decline in quality over recent years. After ordering my initial rifle for this project, I almost swore off Remington forever. The matte black finish wasn’t overly attractive but that was just a minor part of my problems. It was easily apparent that either the barreled action or the stock was completely off kilter. I spoke with the good people at Bell & Carlson and they had yet to hear of any issues with this particular run of M40 stocks. After further investigation, I determined that the barreled action was to blame. Somewhere along the line, the mating up of the barrel, recoil lug, and action wasn’t concentric in the slightest. Luckily, instead of wasting time sending it back to Remington for a presumably lengthy ordeal, I was able to sell the rifle to someone who was just after the 700 long action for a custom build. I then took my chances by ordering a new 700 LR and was pleasantly surprised in finding the replacement to be in far better condition and straight as an arrow.
