Remington 597 .22LR RANGE REPORT

I bought one at a garage sale a few years back with no mag. So I found some on e-bay (plastic). I had sever different kinds of ammo and sure enough it only like a few kinds. Mine loves the American Eagle. When I mean "loves" I mean that it doesn't misfire or FTF or FTE. I can put all 10 rounds in to a bingo dobber size mark at 25 yards which is perfect for a grouse's head size target. Go ahead and let Rem. give you a new mage but try some other ammo, I'm sure you'll see a big difference once you do.......Hopefully you have other 22s taht you can shoot up the ammo the 597 doesn't like. However I still agree that weapons shouldn't be so finicky about certain ammo brands.

Mike

I have some experience with an earlier production 597.

It had cycling problems from the get-go but I replaced the extractor with a
3rd party unit, went thru both mag upgrades and did the guide rod adjustment combined with general fluff and buff to the extent that's possible with an action that is primarily plastic. I seem to recall replacing one other action part but for the life of me I can't remember which one it was now.

I also swapped out the hammer to reduce trigger pull but that's not germaine.

Anywho, the mods I performed made the unit reliable. After all that was done, Remington changed the extractor and came up with the 3rd generation mag.

Summary: The 597 was let out of the barn too soon. Way too soon IMO. While I see posts that indicate newer production units function much better than the old units there still seems to be a significant % of rifles that are not reliable.

I would call Remington and see what they offer. You may be able to send it back and get it repaired or replaced disappointing as that may be.

Summary II: My problem-child 597 ended up Ruger-ized by adding a .920 barrel, laminated stock etc. which was the plan to begin with. I am not gunsmith but tinkering with that rifle was an education.

I really liked and miss the way the original handled. When the local Wally World has the camo units on sale again for $139 I plan to pick one up as I feel reasonably sure I can smooth out the wrinkles if there are any.

S-

The 597 magazine is not a true double stack

Just an idea - when you load up the magazine check the rim position of the cartridge. Make sure they seat correctly and stagers back and forth. Tap the magazine in the palm of you hand firmly a couple of times. I bought my daughter a 597, our first trip to the range was not the best either. The 597 does have a break in peroid. Since then we have cycled at least 500 - 600 rounds. It seems to get better w/ each outing. My daughter can place 10 in a row in the size of a quarter at 75 feet, (Note: that is w/ a cheap $16.88 BSA Wally-World off the rack scope). She thinks she can out shoot ol' Dad. Maybe next year !!

Goog luck & good shooting - Take your girl shooting, she will love you for it !!

There should be some sort of support group where we all sit in a circle and say "Hi, my name is xxx, and I spent money on a remington 597."

I've had a Marlin 60 that was did this type of stuff... which is why I steered clear of the Marlin this time... My 597 has been anything but unreliable... but then, like I said, I just went out first trip, first mag and just let it rip for the first magazine... fired 10 as fast as I could squeeze them out... 10 holes in the paper... but I wasn't looking for groups... just showing who's boss...

Don't know where the rumour came from about Walmart.

Plenty of guns in our stores and still have the special order list online.

http://www.walmart.com/guns

Hate to rain on your parade but Wally World has gone the way of K-mart and is no longer selling firearms.

Click to expand...

May be true in OK but not everwhere and I bet not even everwhere in OK. Only selected WMs stopped selling firearms esp if they were not moving inventory but many still do and many still will. My local Wally World is doing very well selling firearms, ammo and other sporting goods. No plans to stop from what the sales people have to say. Are you in a metropolitan area? If so that may explain it.

If you think they all nixed firearms nationwide you are in error.

S-

A few walmarts stoped selling firearms and the reason they did was because someone stold alot of ammo at one and shot the place or something like that.

problem fixed (please read)

well, first off, i had the same problem. but simply clean bolt face,extractor,magazine,and guide rods. and if u want the chamber face and inside. i did and i can pull trigger as fast as i can and it wont jam. if u want i will make a video and upload it if u want and show how it works after.

CCI MiniMags are almost always the answer. I can't remember the last time it didn't go bang. It hates Remington ammo though. Go figure...

Does anyone know why remington quit producing their infamour nylon 66? That was a rifle that rarely had any issues of any kind. That was a stupid move on remington's part.

Remington

I don't know what Remingtons you people are shooting besides the 597, but my model 7 in 7mm-08 shoots 1/4" groups at 200 yards with Remington corelokt ammo...

As far as rimfires go, my 10/22 shoots well with every type of ammo that I have used in it except FEDERAL. Take that for what its worth...but buy a 10/22!

I'm glad I got an excellent one. I traded for it not knowing a thing about 'em other than I'd seen 'em at WalMart. It's a magnum model in .22 mag which I'd never had before, got four .22 long rifles and counting. This thing has yet to have a jam other than on the weak as hell Winchester Dynapoint magnum loads. CCI maximag feeds flawlessly and the Varquartsen hammer Iput in it, well, the trigger is the best I have in rimfire, awesome. I read a lot of bad about the 597. Guess I got lucky. My mags are plastic, too, and both feed fine. Really fun gun to shoot and awesome accurate. My 10-22 would need 300 dollars in goodies to approach its out of the box accuracy.

As to Remington, the 870 is a POS IMHO now days, mostly the express. I have a stainless M7 in .308 I ain't tradin' for nothin'! It's my favorite hunting rifle by far, accurate, light, handy, rugged, and good lookin'. To each his own and Remington has really gone down hil in recent years, I can agree, but they still built a nice rifle IMHO. Perhaps the 597 isn't one of 'em, but mine is pretty awesome. Were I looking for a .22LR rimfire to plink or whatever with, I'd look to Ruger or Marlin, though. They don't cost any more than the Remington and FAR less chance of a lemon it seems.

I bought a 597 a few months ago. I took it out of the box, mounted a scope and a sling and carried it down the hill and started shooting it. It jammed one time in the first magazine, and hasn't since. I didnt clean it, oil or anything. Still haven't. It just works. I've only put a couple hundred rounds through it, but did kill a couple of squirrels with it before the season closed.

I can't say it's any "better" than the 10/22's I've got, but the one I've got seems to work pretty well.

I can't offer you any advice on your's that you haven't already gotten. Hope you get it to running right, or get what you want for it when you sell/trade it.

351 W -

Re: the Nylon 66, I've read that Remington stopped producing them because their tooling wore out.

I'm skeptical because they sold the tooling to a brazilian company who then manufactured look-alikes. On Nylonrifles.com I've read that there was no material difference between the two rifles.

Dunno.

I've got two. I've also got a 572. All are fine rifles. But why get a 597 when you can get a Marlin?

i have a rem 788 it works great i also have 597 with a synth. stock i just got yesterday from big 5 for like 160 anyway it also jamed so i cleand it and everythingwe will see but i have found that in the army with our m-4s they are junk unless you clean them every time you shoot them so my idea is alittle love and alot of CLP makes every firearm work good also do any of you guys know where i can get a pistol grip style stock for this 22

Why don't you call Remington up and send it in? I'm sure that they'll want to fix it.

I have three 597s: 1) .22LR with heavy barrel and thumbhole stock; 2) .22WMR, heavy barrel, aftermarket thumbhole stock; 3) .17HMR, standard barrel, synthetic stock. All are scoped. For whatever reason, from day one all three have operated flawlessly with great accuracy.

For the .22LR I mainly shoot CCI Mini-Mags but I have regularly fed it Winchester high velocity and target as well as WallyWorld Federal bulk. The only failures I've ever experienced involved Remington Goldens; none of my rimfires like the stuff anyway so I don't buy it.

The .22WMR mainly gets fed CCI Maxi-Mag, but it does quite well with Winchester Dynapoint and Federal FMJs.

I'm still experimenting with the .17HMR, but so far it likes anything I've fed it. My best results to date are with CCI TNT and Winchester Supreme. But it also happily shoots Hornady and Federal V-Shok.

It saddens me to hear others' horror stories with 597s. Mine have given me many hours of trouble-free enjoyment at the range. For one, I'm a fan of the 597.