Remington 700 Titanium: Remington's new space-age rifle offers everything you like about the Model 700 — and less

Guns Magazine, March, 2002 by Dave Anderson

The Remington M700 Titanium is an impressive rifle. Its basic design is that of the famous Model 700, which is America's most popular bolt-action sporting rifle and boasts a production of well over 4 million units. The key feature of the new model is, of course the titanium receiver which helps keep rifle weight down to an amazing 5.5 pounds in the long-action and 5.25 pounds in the short-action. This light weight is achieved in a standard-sized rifle, 42.5 inches overall with the long-action, and a 22-inch barrel. The stock's length-of-pull is 13 3/8 inches.

A Remarkable Material

Titanium has been used in the aircraft and aerospace industries since the 1950s. Initially, the relatively high price of titanium compared to metals such as steel and aluminum kept its popularity from expanding to other applications. In recent years, the cost of titanium has dropped and the material has been used in a broad range of industrial applications.

Titanium is the fourth most abundant metal in the earth's crust; its density falls between steel and aluminum. Alloys vary, but typically for the same volume, titanium's weight is approximately 2/3 that of steel and approximately 3/5 more than aluminum.

Titanium's strength depends upon how it's alloyed and heat-treated, just as with steel. For example, the steel that is used to make soup cans is certainly not the same as the steel used in tank treads. Commercially, pure titanium has a strength of around 25,000 psi, while a heat treated titanium alloy can have a strength of 200,000 psi, which exceeds most steel alloys. A suitable titanium alloy has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any readily available structural metal.

Titanium has other desirable properties as well: It's highly resistant to corrosion and erosion, and it can be cast, machined, forged, heat-treated and welded. Producers of titanium like to boast that current production comes mainly from countries with stable governments (unlike metals such as nickel and chromium), which leads to stability in both supply and price.

There seems to be an impression with some shooters that all the metal of the M700 Titanium is made from titanium. Actually, only the receiver is titanium. The barrel is stainless steel in a lightweight contour similar to that of the popular Mountain Rifle.

Also, to reduce it's weight, the rifle has a blind magazine without floorplate. Otherwise, the action is the time-proven M700 with twin locking lugs, boltface extractor and plunger ejector. The safety is a two-position safety that doesn't lock the bolt handle. Trigger is the standard M700 adjustable design.

Getting The Details Right

The list of features doesn't really tell the whole story. Remington has done a terrific job with the M700 Titanium. It didn't just substitute a titanium receiver for a steel one, keep everything else the same, and then bolt the barreled-action in a cheap injection molded stock. Remington got the details right.

The stock, by Bell & Carlson, is a composite of carbon and aramid fiber -- trim and lightweight with a well-designed, high straight comb to reduce muzzle jump.

The barreled-action is pillar-bedded in the stock. Remington says the action isn't hand-bedded, but fit of the action to the stock is very good, with both evidently made to close tolerances. For the accuracy fanatic, nothing really replaces true hand-bedding of the action, but this fit is certainly more than acceptable.

Interestingly enough, the lightweight barrel isn't completely free-floated. The barrel doesn't touch the stock from the area ahead of the chamber to near the end of the forearm. About an inch back from the forearm tip is a V-block in the stock that puts a few pounds of pressure on the barrel. On the test rifle, it seemed to take about 5 to 6 pounds of pressure to pull the stock away from the barrel.

Arguments about forearm barrel pressure versus free-floating never end. Custom gunsmiths tell me that some pressure usually enhances accuracy with light barrels, provided that the stock is stable and the pressure is consistent. If the forearm moves around due to temperature or humidity changes, the result can be changing point-of-impact. Free-floating barrels may not always provide the best accuracy, but they do provide a way of getting highly consistent performance.

At any rate, the M700 Titanium does have the forearm V-block, and accuracy was certainly acceptable. Should the owner prefer to free-float the barrel for any reason, it would be a simple matter of sanding the block down flush with the rest of the barrel channel.

The stainless-steel bolt is lightened, too. The bolt handle has been skeletonized on the inside, the bolt knob hollowed. Spiral flutes on the bolt body further reduce weight, help retain lubricant, and channel dirt into the flutes for smoother operation.

The sample rifle on loan from Remington was a long-action model in 30-'06. Barrel twist in this caliber is 1:10. Overall workmanship and fit is as nice as I've seen on a production rifle in many a moon. Metalwork is excellent -- lines crisp and straight, barrel and receiver polished to a smooth yet subdued finish. Bolt operation is slick as grease. Even the trigger-pull is better than I've come to expect from factory rifles. It's a bit heavy at a little over 5 pounds, but it's crisp and clean with minimal takeup and overtravel.