Remington 700 CDL SF

[ter]

I see that Remington lists the CDL with a stainless fluted barrel in 260. Would that be a good turn key hunter rifle? I also saw a CDL in at a local shop in 7mm08, but I don't think it was fluted. So what would be better, the fluted or not fluted?

[Bob Mc Alice]

The .260 or the 7-08 would be excellent choices for a hunter rifle. As for fluting....worthless. It does nothing for accuracy , removes very little weight, adds expense to the manufacturing process and in my opinion looks bad. Improperly done it could make an otherwise good barrel shoot badly. Some believe fluting makes a barrel stiffer and less prone to whipping but this not so. Another myth is less metal with fluted barrels is that they cool more quickly. Maybe, but they heat up faster, too. Fluted barrels and the Remington VTR triangle shape ones are just marketing gimmicks to sell guns.

My answer....not fluted. But, an off the shelf stainless .260 M700 would be mighty tempting.

[redmist25]

Did you happen to find out what twist Remington is using in the .260 these days? Most people find the 142 Sierra or 139 Lapua definitely shoot better out of a 1 in 8 twist.

[rich56]

I have the 700 LTD CDL 260. I bought it because the listed weight was 7 5/8 lb with the fluted MAGNUM WEIGHT barrel. It was delivered at under 7lbs with a 24" Magnum Weight barrel. Not bad for a factory hunting rifle but not what I hoped for. It is nice and accurate enough but not because of the flutes. This limited edition rifle was made about 2 years ago. Remington does not make a 260 in the 700 at this time. You would need to go 7mm-08, not a bad choice but not a 260. With the 7mm you have a choice of 24" sporter barrel or 26" varmint barrel (I saw this at Dicks Sporting goods) Good Luck on your quest. PS the twist is listed as 1/9. I've only shot up to 129s with it.

[bwilliams]

i bought a Rem 700 cdl 260 for my first entry into highpower. Worked well but didn't shoot great. problem was I could oushoot the gun, twist was 1-9 . Gun looked great for a hunter class but stock felt short for me and comb was too low. X mark trigger ok @ 3lb, but inconsistant @ 2lb. End result was new Hart #5, 1-8 twist, Jackson trigger, re & re stock. Now shoots very good and outshoots shooter.
Brett

[Finprof]

The CDl in .260 is a rather rare limited edition. They go for well over $1000 for collectors who want one of everything. For that money you could re-barrel a regular 700 in .260 with a premium barrel.

[rich56]

No crap! I like it, don't love it, mine will do under MOA. For +1K mine's available with extra stock. Daddy needs a new toy

[yankee]

Remington is up to some old tricks. The "magnum barrel" has the same muzzle diameter as the old 700 BDL. The fluting job remington does is poor, all the ones I have seen have had a notch or size change about 8 inches in front of the receiver ring. They say this is up to spec. If you want a barrel to cool quicker you need more surface area--chuck it up in a lathe and cut a .001 or .002 deep thread the entire length. Just enough to sand you finger nails on.
The CDL stocks look nice but are made for open sights. Remington hasn't learned a higher comb is a lot more handy for using a scope. The old BDL stocks were higher and for me a bit more comfortable to shoot. The 9 twist remington is using could be marginal on some of the 142 length bullets, usually the 120 and 140 work great.
There have been a lot and I mean a lot of silhouette targets knocked over with a rem 700 in 708 with 22 and 24 inch barrels, don't be scared of them.

[rich56]

That thing with the "Magnum Taper", The barrel is heavier midway but sporter/hunter dia at the muzzle as you say. This is my second fluted barrel and yes the flutes are stepped, I don;t know if they have ever been any other way. I don't know abot "old tricks" I'd say the fluting is mostly cosmetic but it does allow a .660 muzzle diameter, 24" barreled rifle to come in at well under 7 lb. Yes this is a cool rifle and it was Remingtons only choice in a 700 in 260. I agree with statements about the stock. Mine now resides in a walnut BDL stock without black forearm tip, I would go 7mm-08 or 308 in a SPS Stainless if I could do it again. PS I've had one Remington 600 and 6 700s from .223 to 35 Whelen. All would do MOA, 4 would do about 1/2 MOA. For my money, I've got no complaints.

[ter]

I have the 700 LTD CDL 260. I bought it because the listed weight was 7 5/8 lb with the fluted MAGNUM WEIGHT barrel. It was delivered at under 7lbs with a 24" Magnum Weight barrel. Not bad for a factory hunting rifle but not what I hoped for. It is nice and accurate enough but not because of the flutes. This limited edition rifle was made about 2 years ago. Remington does not make a 260 in the 700 at this time. You would need to go 7mm-08, not a bad choice but not a 260. With the 7mm you have a choice of 24" sporter barrel or 26" varmint barrel (I saw this at Dicks Sporting goods) Good Luck on your quest. PS the twist is listed as 1/9. I've only shot up to 129s with it.

The catalog has the 260 listed this year with the new trigger. I don't know if they are actually making it, but it is listed. I saw a CDL in 7mm08 in person, but I did not look at it. Some guy is buying a few rifles from me, and I may get a quick replacement. I also have a 700 in 308 with a jewel trigger, but I never fired it. And I have a factory 7mm08 heavy barrel for it, but never had it swapped in. Maybe it is better to work with that action, or just shoot the 308. Again, I was just doing this on a whim, just to shoot once or twice a year.

[RBriscoe]

The .260 or the 7-08 would be excellent choices for a hunter rifle. As for fluting....worthless. It does nothing for accuracy , removes very little weight, adds expense to the manufacturing process and in my opinion looks bad. Improperly done it could make an otherwise good barrel shoot badly. Some believe fluting makes a barrel stiffer and less prone to whipping but this not so. Another myth is less metal with fluted barrels is that they cool more quickly. Maybe, but they heat up faster, too. Fluted barrels and the Remington VTR triangle shape ones are just marketing gimmicks to sell guns.

My answer....not fluted. But, an off the shelf stainless .260 M700 would be mighty tempting.

Bob,

I share your conclusions about barrel fluting. The fluting that Remington produces is just cosmetic, a sales device for those who find the appearance appealing.

There have been studies of fluting and barrel cooling and fluting does not improve cooling to any meaningful degree, largely because fluting does not increase surface area in a significant amount. The study did observe an increase in cooling for a barrel which had been aggressively sand blasted with coarse media though. Even so, the barrel got hot enough that the increased cooling really did not change anything.

The late Skip Otto was a proponent of barrel stiffness being increased, actually a reduction in barrel droop, (in benchrest contours) by fluting for a barrel of a fixed weight. In other words, the fluted barrel was a larger contour than the unfluted one, but weighed the same amount. He constructed a jig in which a threaded barrel was mounted and centered the measurement while in the vertical. The jig was then rotated to the horizontal and the droop measured. The very same barrel was then fluted (taking off a significant amount of weight) and returned to the jig. Following the same procedure, the observed droop was less. The vibration node of the barrel was moved higher, out of the range which affected things. Again, these were benchrest contour barrels, not contours which we use, firing benchrest cartridges whose purpose is to shoot very small groups in paper, not knock over silhouettes. The differences in performance achieved are of no benefit in a silhouette rifle.

In short, I very much agree that the only real purpose of fluting the barrel of a silhouette rifle is to reduce weight, though some people might do it for appearance. If a rifle can be built to weight with a conventionally contoured barrel, the cost of fluting which was not performed can be put toward more powder/bullets or a new barrel when you shoot this one out.

I say this as one who has been through the process of fluting barrels to make weight or get the rifle to balance at the desired point. It is a lot of effort for no real benefit.

Rick

[BCloninger]

Thanks for setting this straight! It has always been hard for me to pay for flutes because I believed they only added cost and cool without function.

[BCloninger]

Okay Okay - you guys win! No flutes! May I go with a rough finish?

[Bob Mc Alice]

Here is what Shilen says about fluting.

http://www.shilen.com/faq.html#question8

[RBriscoe]

Before Skip's passing, if you spoke with the good folks at Shilen, you would get the spiel that Shilen Barrels, Inc neither flutes barrels nor recommends that you do so...but, if you must, call Skip Otto.

Skip would drive the occasional engineer crazy because, by definition, removing material from a barrel (by fluting) makes it less stiff and some of them had difficulty thinking "outside the box" and even more difficulty facing hard data that contradicted what they expected.

That said, in the benchrest world the top competitors do not shoot fluted barrels. (Many of the top competitors go through more than a few barrels a year and when they find one of exceptional ability unscrew it and save it for big shoots.)

To quote one acquaintance, "barrels are like bullets, they're expendable".

P.S. The last fluted barrel I intend to use is the last one Skip fluted for me. It is a 7mm number 6 contour fluted to make weight as a number 5 contour for a hunter rifle. I would not do it again. A number 5 contour is plenty stiff enough (and will make weight with a light stock). Even a number 4 contour is and it will make weight with a heavier stock.