My prior experience with the Remington Model 700 CP was with a 300 Blackout 10.5″ barrel version. The firearm was very good, but the combination was lacking. Supersonic velocity loads were short range deer worthy, but it is a lot of gun mass for thet level of power delivered. Subsonic, it was terrific with heavy for bore handloads as the bolt action could be made to perform in a very quiet fashion. Unfortunately, I had no waiting application. With no subsonic objective, the 308 Winchester 2″ longer barrel version offers greater potential. While 6 lbs is not particularly light, there are few 308 Winchester firearms that are as light, but none as short and compact.
One lightweight bullet as a concession to medium varmints hunting…
The Hornady 130 grain soft point is thin skilled and made for varmint hunting. While lower pistol velocity would make its expansion less than explosive, it is too thin skinned to perform reliably on deer size game. The next two, L-R as they appear top to bottom on the table below, are good for hogs, deer, black bear and similar. The last is a penetrating, thicker jacketed bullet suitable for more heavy body game such as moose… within a reasonable range.
Warning: Bullet selections are specific, and loads are not valid with substitutions of different bullets of the same weight. Variations in bullet length will alter net case capacity, pressure and velocity. Primer selection is specific and primer types are not interchangeable. These are maximum loads in my firearms and may be excessive in others. All loads should be reduced by 5% as a starting point for development where cartridges have greater than 40 grains in capacity and 10% for cartridges with less than 40 grain capacity following safe handloading practices as represented in established mainstream reloading manuals. Presentation of these loads does not constitute a solicitation for their use, nor a recommendation.
| Cartridge: 308 Winchester (62000 PSI MAP) |
|
| Firearm | Remington 700 CP |
| Barrel Length | 12.50″ |
| Min – Max Case Length | 2.015″ +0.0″/-0.020″ |
| Min – Max Cartridge Overall Length | 2.490″ – 2.810″ |
| Primer | CCI 250 |
| Bullet Diameter | 0.3090″ +0.000″/-0.0030″ |
| Reloading Dies | Redding FL |
| Bullet |
Bullet Weight Grains |
Net H2O Grains Capacity |
COL” | Powder Type | Powder Charge Grains |
Muzzle Velocity fps |
Muzzle Energy ft/lbs |
| Hornady SP |
130 |
51.3 | 2.690 | Reloder 15 | 50.0 | 2723 | 2141 |
| Hornady SP |
130 | 51.3 | 2.690 | IMR 4895 | 49.5 | 2785 | 2239 |
| Hornady SP |
130 | 51.3 | 2.690 | Win 748 | 50.5 | 2741 | 2169 |
| Nosler Partition |
180 | 46.5 | 2.770 | Reloder 15 | 44.0 | 2344 | 2197 |
| Nosler Partition | 180 | 46.5 | 2.770 | Norma 203B | 44.5 | 2396 | 2295 |
| Nosler Partition | 180 | 46.5 | 2.770 | Win 760 | 48.0 | 2406 | 2314 |
| Speer Hot-Cor | 200 | 46.9 | 2.800 | Reloder 15 | 43.0 | 2247 | 2243 |
| Speer Hot-Cor | 200 | 46.9 | 2.800 | Norma 203B | 43.0 | 2277 | 2303 |
| Speer Hot-Cor | 200 | 46.9 | 2.800 | Win 748 | 42.0 | 2229 | 2207 |
| Sierra Pro-Hunter | 220 | 45.2 | 2.730 | Reloder 15 | 41.0 | 2129 | 2215 |
| Sierra Pro-Hunter | 220 | 45.2 | 2.730 | IMR 4895 | 40.5 | 2172 | 2305 |
| Sierra Pro-Hunter | 220 | 45.2 | 2.730 | Win 760 | 45.5 | 2204 | 2374 |
Handloading process was routine, although new brass was used. Which loads were compressed to some degree? The question, more suitably, might be, “Which loads were not compressed.” All were moderately compressed, the Nosler Partition Reloder 15 rounds were compressed the most.
No difficult extractions, no damaged brass, no tattoos of significance on case head faces. trace of primer flow on the Reloder 15 130 grain and 220 grain loads.
3 shot, 100 yard accuracy was between 1″ and 1.5″ across the board, accomplished with any powder type noted and a little tweaking of charges. Greater accuracy is probably there for a more skilled handgun hunter.
A lot more than a tad more power….
Looking at data recorded with the 300 Blackout and 10.5″ barrel, the 308 Winchester Model 700 CP generated a solid 600 fps to 700 fps more velocity. That puts the 308 Winchester version chassis pistol into medium and big game hunting territory.
On the varmint shooting side, the 223 Remington chassis pistol version covers small and medium size nicely. The 308 Winchester, for handgun hunting applications, makes sense as the next useful increments. Whatever the 300 Blackout version can do for a hunter, could be done as effectively with a much smaller 357 Mag or 44 Mag revolver.
Personality
If you hear or read about someone going on about harsh recoil and muzzle blast, chances are they never shot a Remington Model 700 CP. The 308 Winchester was well behaved. With a silencer or a brake in place, recoil was reduced to a slow, progressive recoil that is easy for just about anyone to shoot. In fact, I have owned very lightweight 308 Winchester rifles that were truly unpleasant to shoot, but that is not the case here. At 6 lbs before scope and ammo, it has a decent amount of heft.
Because I use them infrequently, handgun scopes require a bit of reorientation and practice before I can shoot acceptably with one. That said, the sight had good image quality, the optics were bright and shooting was done from a rest. In field use, I have no doubt that a compact red dot would be selected, or peep sight with the front sight mounted to a stub rail on the handguard. I did neither during this project, but I did with the 300 Blackout version.
The Remington 700 CF did not run hot with the silencer in place, with the exception of the silencer itself. I have gotten so used to ARs burping bore residue on me and getting too hot to touch. A cool running bolt action was appreciated.
Still can be found as NOS and used. I am sorry Remington is gone. They took a lot of good firearms with them.
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