Remington XP100

ColbyBruce

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These guns are not commonly found in my area; I haven’t seen one for sale in years. I have seen some nice varmint rifles made utilizing these actions. I wouldn’t even know who to trust with such a project or how to figure a total expense.

Any suggestions?
 

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I have 2 XP100s one a stock 221 Fireball, the other came to me as a 7mmBR which I rebarreled using a model 700 barrel in 6mm Remington cut to 15". (I have 2 model 600s in the same caliber.) Model 700 barrels thread into 600, 660 and XP100 receivers. The head space is set by adjusting the thickness of the lug piece that fits between barrel shoulder and receiver. You can also pick up a Boyd's stock thumbhole stock for these. If you run an Heavy barrel the stocks barrel channel can be opened up for that.

Here is a Mohawk 600 sporting a model 700, heavy, 6.5 Creedmore barrel.

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The bench rest crowd preferred the XP actions believing that having no magazine cut out they were stiffer. Which is probably true, but how much it effect it has on the accuracy of your typical light recoiling BR calibers is debatable.

I love the XP, 600 and 660s The 6.5 above will shoot a .75" groups at 100 yards with the right ammo. The one I have re-barreled to 223 and the 6mm all shoot around an inch. I have killed a lot of deer and a couple elk with one in 308. My wife and step daughters have all got several deer with the 6mms. The one I have in 350 Remington mag will knock down anything on this 1/2 the globe.

The 308s latest
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When I first read about the XP100 in a novel decades before the Internet , I thought it was a hoax created by the author. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was real.
 
I have an XP-100 that was originally chambered in 7mm BR. Jim Cloward rechambered it in 7mm-08. It is a handful to say the least.

OP, yours appears to be a .221 Fireball. I'd be inclined to shoot it as is and find another Remington 700 donor for a custom rifle. The .221 Fireball is mild and a lot of fun to shoot. I'm guessing the cost to turn your .221 action in a custom rifle isn't cost effective these days.
 
I remember seeing photos of the XP100 in gun magazines when I was just a kid. Between the curvy stock, the bolt action, and the .221 Fireball chambering all the right buttons were pressed. It was way too many years but I did add one to the accumulation. it is lots of fun to shoot.
 

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I never got very heavy into handgun metallic silhouette competition, but I do remember that some shooters used the XP-100, rebarreled to a larger caliber such as .35 Rem. I used a Model 29, did not do very well with it.
 
I'm a 221 Fireball guy, but my gun is a 10" Contender. I can give you some data and info on the cartridge though.

Brass: Small cases need absolute perfect brass! Reminton brass is nowhere close to that. One of my friends made his from reformed 222 Rem cases by Lapua (Don't use 223 cases due to a stress point from the shoulder. ) Necks must be turned to .010"! Nosler 221 Fireball ammo and brass are Midway exclusives, and hard to get. I use this! The Brass is available in multi levels of "Ready to load". The true Ready to Load brass and the empties from Nosler Factory ammo are so close to perfect, it isa waste of time to do typical BR type prepping! Neck wall thickness within .001" Case overall length from 3 lots is all within .001"! When I trued the primer pocket and internal flash hole deburring. 300 cases produced a few tiny filings!

I have worked with many different brands of small primers. Fed 205 M are good but too powerful! Rem 6 1/2 is the perfect primer.

My best ammo is a Combined Technologies 50 grain Ballistic Silvertip. Powder IMR or Hodgdon 4227 15.4 grains (each load weighed.)

My 1" Bull barrel has a 3 power by 1" scope. At 100 yards I was getting 3/8" centers.

Ivan
 
The XP-100 was actually pretty common in my area growing up. Contemporary to the Nylon-66 22 rifle, both had synthetic stocks. My home town had a Dupont Nylon factory, so sporting goods made with native chemical plastics were encouraged, even discounted to Dupont alumni.

Fired one that a friend had in about 1966 at a hunting and fishing club for Dupont members. Only handgun that I ever hit anything at 100 yards. Four .221 rounds in the black of a short-range paper target stapled to the 100 yard backstop. The friend took a deer with it that same season.
 
I would not modify an original XP-100

The original .221 is fun to shoot, lots of flash and bang with little to no recoil. If you have an original XP in the old Zyrtec nylon stock I would enjoy it for what it is. If a larger caliber is desired you can sometimes find those floating around.

I have formed .221 brass from .222 brass. It will require trimming and some neck turning, just go slow and go easy on the case lube to prevent shoulder denting.

My XP has the nicest factory trigger, breaking at just a hair under two pounds. Off a rest it is not hard to hold under a minute at 100 yards. Have easily taken gophers at 180 yards with a 40 grain nosler ballistic tip over H110.
 
Colby,
If your set on turning your XP into a rifle you might want to try contacting Mike Deloach at I believe Nine gun run in south east Ga.
Have a Savage Striker he worked on and have read he does excellent work.
 
Costs
First, the bolt in your 221 is for the small head cartridges. So, the 222, 223 sized cartridges is about the limit unless you replace the bolt with one from the same size as the 243, 6mm or 308 family of go big and find a 6.5 or 350 mag bolt. Maybe the bolt face and extractor can be modified to accept a larger case head. But, that would probably cost as much as a bolt. Then you need a trigger. The trigger group is the same except the XP has the trigger moved forward and it operates the group via an extension piece. The factory triggers are actually quite good. Their are aftermarket triggers that will fit.

Barrels. any barrel that will fit a model 700 will fit a XP, 600 or 660. But they are not long actions. The only way you could uses anything longer than 308 length is vial removing bolt every shot. In fact although my 2 6mm Remington 600s eject live rounds fine, I had to clearance the XP action I made into 6mm Remington slightly so the tips of 105 rounds wouldn't hang up if I ejected them. Empties of course being no problem.

I bought the 6.5 Creedmore conversion above as a 308 for $550, the Boyd stock was $300, the new model 700 heavy barrel was $200 and the 6-18 scope was another $250 or so. So with shipping and things like an extra barrel lug I could use to set the head space. I probably ended up with about $1400+ in it doing all my own work. Having a gunsmith convert one and upgrading some of the pieces your looking at 2K up

You can find one in 222 Remington for $6-700, rend a 223 finish reamer and head space gauges for $60 and a reamer extension handle for $12 from Reamer Rentals - 4D Reamer Rentals and have a pretty accurate 223 bolt gun if you stay below 55 gr bullets as I have always found them stock barrels to be accurate.

PS. I also vote for leaving it alone. You can buy good actions and even decent varmint rifles for less than the value of a stock
XP100. If you keep an eye on Gunbroker you could pick up a 600 with a 243/308 bolt face for $6-800 and then have an air gauged Douglas premium varmint barrel in the caliber of your choice fit on it for $5-600. Open up the barrel channel and your set or spend another $300 for a Boyds stock.
 
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XP 100

If it was mine, I would leave it as is.
Having said that, I had one back in the 80's that had been converted to a 7mm08 with a 14" barrel.I shot this "pistol" in the unlimited class in metallic sil. matches at Rio Salado range in Mesa, Az.
Back then, this was a common modification and equipped with peep rear sight and globe front sight was a holy terror on the steel range. I shot several 40's, cleaning the course with this set up.
 

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This is my original X-P 100 in .221 Fireball chambering. It's been fun to shoot - will handle .22 LR for economy using a chamber conversion unit. Very accurate and will handle medium sized varmints out to about 100 yards with ease. Definitely NOT for sale! I wrote all about it in my book 101 Classic Firearms, which is available from Dillon Precision.

John
 
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