Remington Model 770 in .308 Caliber – Review

I recently purchased a Remington 770 in .308 for my son’s graduation present.  He was home the other day, so we took it out to give it a try, and I thought I would post our impressions of this rifle.  Pictured below: The Remington 770

First off, if you are gun as work of art type person, this is not the rifle for you.  If you are a gun as tool type person, then read on.

The Remington 770 is a very plain utilitarian type of rifle.   It is bolt action with a synthetic stock and comes with a factory mounted 3 – 9 x 40 scope.  The 770 that we bought has a matte black barrel and stock and is chambered for .308 Winchester.  You can see at a glance that it is not a fancy rifle.  No burled walnut, skip checkering, ivory inlays, or etc.; but on the plus side it does not carry a fancy price tag.  You can pick one up for around $300.

Before you fire it you need to give this rifle a good cleaning.  The bolt in particular needs to be de-gunked, and it wouldn’t hurt to work it over with a little 0000 steel wool.  The bolt is not a tight fit in the receiver and the play causes it to feel a little rough sometimes when you are cycling the bolt.  Don’t misunderstand, the bold locks down tight and solid.  There’s no safety concern here.  It’s just a matter of not operating as smoothly as you might like.  Pictured below:  top, the 770 receiver; bottom, bolt drawn back

Pulling up a small lever on the top left of the receiver allows you to withdraw the bolt for easy bolt and barrel cleaning.  Pictured below: top, bolt release lever; bottom, bolt withdrawn

The 770 has a four round box magazine which is easy to remove and load.  I like this feature.  Pictured below: The detachable box magazine

The scope has been bore sighted at the factory so when we started off at 50 yards we were at least on the paper, only about three inches off center.  When you sight this rifle in get some sand bags and do it right.  At a dollar a round you don’t want to burn a lot of ammo getting sighted in.  Pictured below: Factory mounted scope

The rifle shoots fine.  Accuracy is well within our deer hunting needs.  We were a little worried about recoil since the synthetic stock makes this a very light firearm, but it was not bad at all.  Pictured below: top, Rifle sighted on target; bottom, rifle in recoil

This is not a gun that you would want to buy if you are going to shoot a thousand rounds a year on the range.  It just wasn’t intended for that kind of use.  But if you are going to run a box of shells through it every deer season, it will still be in good service when your grandchildren are ready to use it.

All in all we are happy with this rifle.  It will do the job that we need it for, and it didn’t cost an arm and leg, so what’s not to like.