Remington 783 Rifle, a 2 Minute Review: The first thing I noticed about my Remington 783 rifle is that it’s built for functionality. The design is simple, but solid, and American-made. You have two options for stocks, synthetic or walnut, and I went with the former to see if the lower price affected the quality.
As usual, my first thing was to see how it fired and I have to admit that I was extremely surprised at its performance. The stock’s pretty thick and the recoil pad’s more firm than some rifles, but I thought it did a good job of handling the recoil of the 30-06 rounds.
Some parts of the rifle are plastic, like the trigger guard which is also an unusual shape or parts of the magazine, but I only had a problem with the sling points. Because they’re not steel or something tougher, they might break off under enough wear.
Speaking of the trigger, though, I was surprised that a gun this inexpensive let you customize the CrossFire system for better trigger tension. With that said, the standard pull is about 5 or 5.5 pounds but you can supposedly get it down to under 3.
I prefer a little more weight to my shots, so mine was closer to 4 pounds, but the trigger feels clean and shoots smooth. I loved the action on the bolt to put in the next round and it didn’t jam or have any misfires after about 40 rounds.
The last thing I didn’t like was the motion of the safety, but it was loud enough that you can’t miss it when it’s ready to fire. I said earlier that the 783’s design is simple, and the rigid build makes it a highly accurate weapon for the price.
I started out inside of 100 yards and got the groupings down to 1”, so I increased the distance. Once I zeroed it, the 783 was hitting targets at 2 or 300 yards downrange with no problems. I did mount a scope on there for the longer shots, though.
On that note, I recommend using a different scope than the stock one because the Remington is a capable weapon. It comes with a 4-round box magazine and didn’t have any issues with the feed after 10 reloads.
The rifle weighs under 8 pounds, but after I mounted my scope and loaded the mag it was a little over 9. Either way, the weight didn’t affect my accuracy or make my arms tired. Honestly, I’ve fired worse guns for a higher price.
Overall, the Remington 783 is a steal for the quality and accuracy you’ll get out of it. It’s a solid addition to any rifle collection and it’s better than some more-expensive guns. It’s more affordable because of the plastic parts, but it doesn’t feel cheap.
Richard Douglas writes on firearms, defense, and security issues. He is the founder and editor of Scopes Field, and a columnist at the National Interest, 1945, Daily Caller, and other publications.