Once World War II had finally ended, an engineer of Remington Arms named Merle Walker started to create a cheaper alternative to the popular Remington 30. His creation would become the Remington 721. This particular rifle model featured a cylindrical receiver that was constructed with a piece of cylindrical bar stock. A lathe could be used to turn the stock too, instead of using various milling operations to machine it. This method would ultimately lower the production costs of the weapon.
Also, the 721 contained a lot of smaller metal components that were stamped, like the bottom metal. However, the finishing of the stocks was not as impressive as it was with the older Remington models. Walker continued to develop upon the 721 bolt-action rifle a lot further, resulting in the Remington 722 and 725 models. In 1962, the Remington 700 would be born.
Walker wanted the rifles to be more accurate and the lock time to be faster. When the Remington 700 was finished, it was mass produced just like the Remington 721 was before. There were originally two versions of the Remington 700 produced by the company. There was the Remington BDL and Remington ADL, which had long-action rifles and short-action rifles available. This let users chamber cartridges that were different from each other.
By the year 1969, Remington Arms released numerous upgrades for the Model 700, such as a rear bolt shroud that was longer, better finishing for the stock, and a jeweled bolt. In 1973, Remington even produced versions of the Model 700 for left-handed shooters. This was their way of competing with another rifle for left-handed shooters, the Savage 110 model. Left-handed rifles had only been produced by Savage at the time, so it was big news when Remington started doing it too. More Model 700 versions were released shortly after, like the 700ti which had a titanium receiver, the CDL, and the 700SPS. The Model 700 had been mostly designed as a hunting rifle, but it still had the capability of being useful as a sniper rifle for police and military operations. In 1966, the U.S. Marine Corps ordered the M40 rifles for its troops. Twenty years later, the U.S. Army would begin using the M24 sniper rifle.