Remington Model 700 Mountain SS

Remington’s Model 700 is one of the most copied guns in the world — and not without reason. Bruce Potts tests the latest stainless steel design

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There is a perception with shooters that bigger is better but I’m not so sure about that — after 40 years of stalking and shooting, I like to be as efficient as I can. That means packing as little as I can get into hand luggage on an overseas trip, to smaller capacity cartridges, smaller sound moderators and definitely carbines or lightweight rifles.

It’s the first shot that counts and a nimble, agile rifle, even when a scope and moderator are fitted, really helps these days.

Stock

The Mountain’s synthetic, weatherproof stock has a great feel to it. It maintains its structure under compression so that, regardless of hard use, recoil and temperature change, your zero stays the same.

For this model, Remington uses the excellent Bell & Carlson Aramid fibre stock, with a weave of Aramid fibres adding strength yet maintaining a lightweight. Overall the rifle weighs a little over 6lb.

I like the solid feel of these stocks with their stippled, grippy surface texture. The black background colour and grey spider’s web are really appealing.

The beauty is not only skin deep because the stock also hosts an integral aluminium chassis that J. P the action is bolted to. Again, this enhances accuracy and consistency, and stops warping caused by extremes of temperature.

I have used these stocks on custom rifle projects and had excellent results, though the length of pull is a little short at 13.5in. Two sling swivel studs and a SuperCell recoil pad complete the stock.

Barrelled action