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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Hunting Gear > Gear Review - Breaking in the New Remington 700 ADL
Gear Review - Breaking in the New Remington 700 ADL
Brad Swadley - JHO ProStaff
- Dallas, TX
April 05, 2009
Recently, I purchased a Remington Model 700 ADL rifle as my next “tradin’ rifle”. I picked it up at Academy Sporting Goods and received a $40 discount coupon as a bonus. Final price was $389.00 after the discount and before taxes. For the money, it looked to be a good buy for a basic hunting rifle. The rifle fit me well and I enjoyed the light weight of this particular model.
All set up to shoot
The Remington ADL isn't much to look at, but the author found that it shot just fine. |
The ADL models were discontinued in 2004, so I thought this was a bit curious to have found one. I contacted Remington to find out what the situation was. The answer from them was that they still do special runs for large wholesale chains or large sporting goods stores on the ADLs… just no normal production.
Looking at the rifle, I find it hard to tell the difference between it and the SPS. I had purchased an earlier model 700 ADL in .243 back in 1997. Visually, the only difference is that the stock grip patterns are different and the trigger has a dull chrome look to it and that my .243 model had iron sights. The reason the trigger looks different is that this is the newer, X-Mark trigger that Remington introduced back in 2007. It is a plated trigger so it has a dull stainless look to it, due to the plating process. The features of this new trigger also include 45% lower trigger pull settings from the factory and the safety blocks both the trigger and the sear.
To complete the new rig, I selected the Nikon ProStaff riflescope in 3-9X40. It comes in a black matte finish, which matches well with the black matte finish of the rifle. I have never really used a Nikon before, so I was curious to see how it would perform. The first glance through it at the scope counter showed the clarity and crispness of the optics. I went to visit my hunting buddy and we mounted it to the rifle using Leupold mounting rail and scope rings. We bore sighted the rifle and made it range-ready.
Next my buddy worked out a hand load for the rifles. We had a few Nosler Combined Technology bullets to start with. He had recently picked up his own new rifle in 7mm-08, so we didn’t have enough bullets to really warm the rifles up. I ordered some 140-grain, Nosler Accubonds from MidwayUSA to finish out our loads. This gave me about ten rounds with the Combined Technology bullets and about thirty rounds of the other bullet type to utilize at the range.
I then looked for a good day to head for the range. The weather finally cleared up one Sunday and permitted me to go and blaze some bullets through the new rifle. The local range is only about two miles from the house, so I got there early to beat the crowd. I selected a bench with dual ranges, 50 and 100 yards. I like to shoot a few rounds at 50 yards on a bore sighted gun, then once dialed in, move on out to the 100 yard targets. The range provides one target, and you can get another four targets for one dollar. I also took my gun rest and tool box with me. I like to clean the new rifles in between every three shots to start with as a way of breaking in the new barrel. That’s the way I break in a new barrel, even though there are several other procedures touted by folks in the gun industry.
I set up my gun rest and spotting scope and readied the rifle to fire. I had brought along my .243 as a reference point between the two ADL models while shooting. Unfortunately, I had not cleaned the bolt release in a long while and it was sticking on me. I didn’t want to take the time to clean it there, as I didn’t have any tools handy to remove the stock. The .243 got to sit in the gun rack while I shot the 7mm-08. I have cleaned it up since, and on the next visit to the range, I will run a few rounds through it as well.
Once setup, I decided that I would shoot the rifle in as-is factory condition. In other words, I wouldn’t clean it until after running the first three rounds through it. I eased one of the Combined Technology bullet loads into the chamber, pulled the trigger and punched a hole in the paper at 50 yards. Amazingly, it hit the bullseye. I have to admit, the first thing I noticed about firing the rifle was the trigger. I have several Remington rifles, and I have gotten used to their stock triggers which aren’t very light or smooth. On the .243, I have some creep and it has a little gritty feel to it and the poundage is a little heavy. On this new rifle, there was little to no creep and it was a clean, crisp break on the trigger. The lighter poundage on the trigger was just about right for me as well.
I finished the next two rounds at 50 yards and had a grouping of around 1.100 inches. I was impressed already, and I hadn’t even done a thing to the rifle except mount the scope on it. I have to give a brief shout-out to my buddy who bore sighted the rifle, even though I will have to listen to his bragging on his monumental bore sighting skills for the next several months! I will also admit that for a 7mm round, this gun didn’t kick much more than my .243. So I would have to say that this round performed as advertised.
I then proceeded to clean the rifle, running a bore brush and cleaning cloth through it with the Remington Bore Cleaner. I then ran some patches through until they came out clean and topped it off with a light dusting of oil. I utilized the bottom part of the target to preserve the first three shot locations, and was pleased from the results as I was grouping about .750 inches between holes. I took three more shots with the grouping coming out again at .750 inches. I decided that after the next cleaning I would move to the 100 yard target and switch to the Accubond loads.
Respectable grouping
With groupings in the range of .75" at 100 yards, the rifle shoots pretty well, right out of the box. |
I ran two more rounds through it at 100 yards. They were a little scattered but still grouped at about 1.500 inches. I then ran four more shots through with a little tweaking to the scope. One hit the bullseye and the others grouped about .750 inches above that.
Overall, the accuracy from this rifle and load are quite impressive! The X-Mark Pro trigger is a great addition to an already great rifle. It had a small amount of creep with a crisp, clean break and light pull. While not the prettiest gun on the block, the Remington Model 700 ADL can get the job done, and weather will not be a problem with the matte blued finish on the barrel and the synthetic stock. Accuracy was better than I expected; a respectable .750 inch grouping or less at 100 yards from a factory production rifle using hand loads. I would imagine with good factory ammunition, the gun has the capability to achieve 1.5 inch groupings at 100 yards.
In conclusion, the 7mm-08 chambering paired with the light rifle had little kick to it and should have plenty of knock-down power for deer and hogs here in Texas. I can truthfully say that this combination will be my new go-to hunting rifle. If you are looking for a reasonably priced bolt action rifle, check out the Remington Model 700 ADL with the X-Mark Pro trigger. For the money, it will be hard to beat.
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