i just got a rem 700 varmint..22-250 just looking to see what your 700's like to shoot? any pet load's?
any pics of how thay shoot?

i have varget and speer TNT 50Gr whats a good O,L the book say's 2.350????

the varget should work. i couldnt get the tnt to shoot in mine, but every rifle is different. mine liked the 52 gr amax and varget.

I have two buddies that shoot with me alot, neither of which handload. Both shoot Remiington 700s...one is a SPS the other is a VSSF II I believe. Since I didn't get the opportunity to work with each gun for any great length of time they both got the same proven load. Medium dose of H380, CCI LR primer, 50 gr. Vmax. So much for load work up..... Both rifles are deadly on small varmints out past 400 yds. and neither has shot more than a dozen or so holes in paper.

well i have a prob......v-max 55GR and 55GR PSP will not load in my gun...the bolt is way hard to shut....whats with this....? but the 50GR speer will shut...but stiff to shut the bolt?....is this norm for a new remington 700 vsf

Tight headspace and/or short throat.

It will loosen up slightly with time. I have had similar problems with some rifles I have purchased in the past, normally the better shooting ones. But there is a point where too tight is too tight. So I would say if it is really unbearably tight get a head space gauge and make sure it meets the min.

Just my 2 cents

The O.A.L. that "The Book" quotes is just an industry standard. The O.A.L. for your particular rifle will depend on the bullets that you are using and the chamber in your rifle. You can buy a gauge to check the O.A.L. in your rifle, or you can easily make one (a lot cheaper). Here's what I do for each caliber rifle that I reload for. I take an empty case, then using a cut-off wheel in a Dremel tool (or a hacksaw), I cut a vertical slit in the case from the mouth of the case neck to the point where the neck meets the shoulder of the case. Next, I drill out the primer pocket flash hole so it is large enough to push a 16 penny nail through it. To use this tool, insert the bullet you want to reload into the modified case and leave it longer than the typical O.A.L. that you have listed in your reloading manual. The bullet should push in easily (that's why you cut the slit in the neck). Next, put the case and bullet in your rifle and close the bolt. The bullet will be pushed back into the case when it hits the lands in the barrel. Open the bolt and carefully pull the bolt back until you can see the case. Hold the case in the receiver with your finger while you pull the bolt back, otherwise the case will go flying and disturb the location of the bullet. You will have to try this several times to get a consistant reading. Measure the O.A.L. of your "test round" and that will be the O.A.L. where the bullet is just touching the lands of the barrel. I usually start my test loads about .020" shorter than the maximum O.A.L. that was determined using my homemade gauge. Oh yeah, that hole you enlarged in the primer pocket/flash hole, is used to push the bullet out of the case each time you want to check it. I use a 16 penny nail, but a small phillips screwdriver or some sort of punch would work too. Let me know if you have any questions!

Ditto skb2706's nod to H380 (36.5g was most accurate in mine, work it up and see), LR primer, and ~55g psp or whatever. Not too hot, plenty of range.

Handloads & once/twice/3times fired brass?? If so the shoulder might need bumped back a touch.

2 times....how do i push it back?

If you are using full-length resizing dies, the instructions will tell you to run the press ram to the top of it's stroke and screw the resizing die into the press until it contacts the shellholder. Then resize the case at that setting. Some more advanced reloaders will only screw the die down until just the neck of the case is resized. You will be able to see how the neck is burnished from the top of the neck to the junction of the neck and the shoulder of the case. Now, try the case in the rifle. If the bolt does not close easily, screw the die down some more and try it again. When you get to the point that the bolt closes easily on your resized case, the shoulder will be in the right place.

Here she is. An older VSSF in 22/250.



And her is what she likes.

Don't use OAL as a measure. You should be using the length of the cartridge measured from the base of the case to the ogive. The Stoney Point bullet comparator system (Hornady now owns the company) is a good way to check out where the bullet is seating in comparison to its distance from the lands. The gauge can tell you when the ogive of the bullet first touches the lands. You can then transfer that reading to your caliper to tell you what the OAL length is to the ogive, then transfer that reading to set your bullet seating die. It is also a good way to check for proper headspace in your rifle so that you can adjust your sizing die. Different bullets have different ogives, so using the overall length alone tells you nothing about how far the bullet is away from the lands. Get a Sinclair Catalog and some of the loading publications. Sinclair's catalog has color pictures and their customer service is outstanding.

Same load I use. I shot a Prairie Dog at 836 yards with it in my 700 VLS. One problem I had was my RCBS dies were oversize and I had to send them back. They wouldn't size the case down enough after a firing or two but the chamber was in tolerance. RCBS fixed the problem.

Chances are that your headspace is not adequate. Push back the shoulders of your cases until the bolt just closes, then add another .001" of pushback on the die. Check your cases for proper bolt closure before you complete your reloading. Do the same thing with your bullet-seating depths. The problem usually is with the case prep, though. Also, if you have been using used cases from someone else's rifle, you should full-length them before shooting them in your rifle. Also, over-the-top powder loads will cause too much case expansion, sometimes causing difficult extraction. So: (1) push back your shoulders a bit until the bolt closes, then (2) seat your bullets where you want them, but not jammed into the lands. In varmint rifles of smaller calibers, you can get away with seating the bullets on or close to the lands; on large hunting rifles the freebore is often much higher (.200 on my .270 Remington). This is not abnormal in large caliber rifles. You can check all this stuff with a Stoney Point gauge, sold by Hornady. If still having problems, call the bullet maker and ask the tech.

The Hornady tech told me that the OAL lengths given are measured from base to tip of bullet and that the powder figures given in their manual correspond to those lengths, as opposed to the OAL as measured to the ogive. The reason he gave was that the OAL given in the manual corresponds to the powder amounts they publish, and they evidently throw out any freebore considerations. Also, they must consider total cartridge length since there are different magazine lengths that they must consider. In other words, the freebore will most likely be huge when using their OAL (or "C.O.L" as they call it)--at least for large rifles, but the cartridge at least will fit in any given rifle...supposedly. Not a problem with large rifles, but for smaller caliber varminters, I alway use the OAL as measured to the ogive---not the bullet tip---since ogives differ and bullet tips can be different due to nicks and variations in the tips. Who knows....maybe the differences in measurements are so small that the C.O.L. can be used with confidence. Personally, I am just used to going to the ogives. It is easier when using the Stoney gauge, and I always know where the bullet is in relation to the lands, then I don't have to worry about variations that might occur with OALs. I am talking about smaller caliber rifles, using a bench rest type of thinking. Maybe I am wrong.