I think LaOtto222 has hit the nail on the head. In another forum, a fellow was "bragging" about ordering a new rifle and having it shipped directly to his smith to have all sorts of work done to it. I thought that wasn't the smartest move he could have made. Without shooting it, how could he know what needed to be done.
Perhaps your winter project could best be researching the different kinds of Remington rifles. It is the vogue to bad mouth Remingtons but I have had very good luck with mine. Things I have learned are: A trigger job is obligatory. The Remington trigger is a good one and can be adjusted to a very crisp 3# (or a little less but that's what I like for hunting) but they come from the factory with a lawyer attached and break at around 87#. Remington makes a good barrel. I don't believe in barrel break-ins. Not like Laotto222. I've tried it both ways. What I do is when I get a new rifle, I take it apart and look it over for anything that doesn't appear right, make sure everything is tight, there are no errant wood chips or such to disturb accuracy and then, using a bore guide, give the bore 500 strokes of JB paste. Every so often, during this ritual, I clean the JB out and start over. When this is done, I mount an old T10 Weaver I have on the rifle and start my load development. If it's just a hunting rifle, I may just mount a hunting scope, cobble up some decent ammo, and go hunting but usually, I don't like to be rushed.
Anyway, only after I've shot it, do I have a baseline of information about how I'm going to get the best accuracy from the rifle.
The scope is where you are gonna have a real head ache. Trying to pick the right one that isn't too big for the one use and big enough for the other. I would think that a 4x16 would be max. But the higher the power, the bigger and clumsier the scope so, like I said, that's a hard call. There is a lot of brand loyalty among scope users that usually produces much more heat than light. My take is there are a lot of medium priced scopes on the market that will get the job done. I even know a fellow that shoots bench rest with a BSA on top his rifle. After he got everything else, that's all he could afford. His only complaint is the cross hairs are too course. My only suggestion is to go to a big box sporting goods store and have them line them all up and look thru them. I hate the 50mm Obj lenses. They have to be mounted too high, they contribute to rifle cant, and they make a rifle look like something from "men in black". Others swear by them.
You are goning to keep us posted as things go along aren't you? 'else we won't have anything to argue about during the long winter.
