Remington 597 extractor spring

[vintovka]

After a 4 month wait i was finally able to have a few Remington 597 extractor springs custom made to complete repairs on a friends rifle. This was probably the longest parts wait ever. The 597s have a peculiar tendency to toss (lose) the extractor, spring and plunger at the most inconvenient time and location. Needed to have just a half dozen of these springs custom made as they have been out of stock forever. Remington reportedly knew of the issue but went under before doing anything about it. The original Rem. Spring was reportedly made weaker than needed to aid in reassembling the bolt. The extra power spring i spec'd is designed to be carefully trimmed so it can be adjusted to a tight fit with a Volquartsen performance extractor. Assembly is a biatch even if trimmed carefully but worth it as extraction is now flawless with even .22LR mini-mags. Untrimmed does well with .22 mags. Thumbs of steel and assembling in a plastic bag are a must if parts loss is to be avoided. I will say I am not fond of this rifle. Seems the utube folks don't care for it either.

 

[LoonWulf]

Interesting, never had an issue with the springs on my 597s. I did usually swap in a Volquartsen extractor. Two of mine were early 597s, one was a 2018. I found the fit and finish on the 2018 gun to be severely lacking.

 

[vintovka]

I have seen 2 others missing all the extraction parts and many reports of this happening. I understand that poor machining and inconsistent depth of the bolts spring hole is to blame. When parts were cheap and available many just replaced them and gone on. Now that Rem. is gone (and factory parts have dried up) many products are just parts themselves. Beyond poor machining there's a number of issues with these that make 10-22s look really good. Again its the first rifle where a plastic bag is required to assemble without parts loss.

 

[Nicky Santoro]

I bought a few different general purpose spring assortments from Wolff and have often found suitable replacements for otherwise difficult to obtain springs in those assortments. FWIW YMMV

 

[vintovka]

wolf had zilch and no interest in a special one. Must not be alone as only one left all others sold fast.

 

[john mcgookin]

I know this is an old post but could anyone help me source a spring and plunger for my 597 extractor

 

[vintovka]

Found spring here : https://store.centuryarms.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=597

Not sure on plunger. Good luck as i will NEVER shoot, buy, or work on one of these again!!!

 

[Kp321]

Good luck as i will NEVER shoot, buy, or work on one of these again!!![/QUOTE]

AMEN!

 

[Zarthab]

I have 2 597s and the only time I had the extrator come out was due to a OoB that popped the rim.
I later installed a Volquartsen and dont recall it being all that difficult. I have 10s of thousands of rounds through each. The worst problem I was having was keeping the bolt handle in one, might be fixed now.
I dont get the dislike for working on the 597...?

 

[vintovka]

Glad you have yours fixed. The recommended process for assembling the extractor parts back in the bolt begin with "first find a plastic bag big enough to fit both hands and the bolt in". Lost count of number of tries and the bag trick works to contain flying stuff. . I dislike the the design and found i was not alone. The AR 15 "look alike " variant is also seems overly complicated. and IMHO not worth the price. One smith here absolutely will not work on them thats why i got to find out why. Recently found out that they still take them at LGS but pay very little when extractor is gone. When repaired with Volquartson extractor and custom made plunger they do sell but with without warranty of any kind. I under stand they farm out repairs to a thud party,