Remington 597 range report

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Guvnor

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Bought the grey synthetic model for $169 at Cabelas. I have read alot of mixed reviews in the past so I was kinda taking a leap of faith.

I went to the range today and put about 200 mini-mags through it with no jams. I did take the gun apart beforehand, wiped down the insides, and when reassembling...tightened the guide rod screws to just barely snug. Ive been told alot of the jamming issues with these rifles originate from the guide rod screws being too tight. Reinstalling the action springs is pretty tricky at first but no sweat once you get the hang of it.

The magazines are the proper 3rd generation metal type. They are neat little double stack mags. However they get VERY tight when you load them to full capacity. I couldn't even get the 10th round in any of them. So I just loaded up 8 rounds in each mag at the range. Hopefully they will loosen up with use allowing me to fit all 10.

The sights are actually pretty decent, a white-painted bead front with a fully adjustable U-notch rear. I hate having to drift-adjust rear sights so this was a big plus. The camo stock version has nice fiber optic sights but I didn't want to shell out another $60 for it.

The trigger is not bad, but is very heavy. A Volquartsen hammer is available that supposedly remedies this.

Overall I am pretty satisfied for $169. Once I finish breaking in the gun with mini-mags ill see if it will like the cheap bulk stuff.
 
Bought one myself a couple of weeks ago. The trigger is abysmal, no doubt. And I did have to do a little work on the mag to get it to feed reliably. But I am rather impressed with the accuracy at less than 1" groups at 50 yards with cheap bulk Win-X. All day every day. Pretty sweet little plinker now.
 
The mags will loosen up but it takes a bit of working to get all 10 rounds in. I have fired just about all the junk left over 22LR shells I had laying around with no feeding or jam problems. Just picked up a box of the Rem Yellow Jackets to see how they work in it. Got to say of all the 22's I've owned in my time this is a very sweet rifle, Only one I have that I like better is a Rem Model 510 TargetMaster single shot bolt action that handles shorts, Longs and Long Rifle, thing that surprised me was how much the shorts cost. The last I bought cost me around 50cents a box but won't even say when that was. Have fun with your 597 that's the name of the game.
 
The only trouble I have had with my 597 has been mag related. Whatever you do don't waste your money on the 30 rounders.
 
The Real Mags said:
The only trouble I have had with my 597 has been mag related. Whatever you do don't waste your money on the 30 rounders.
Click to expand...

I have a 30 rounder & it works great. What was your problem?

There is a lot of things I don't like about this gun but I think I can put a little work into it & make it a better gun. The trigger is really bad & I have looked it over several times & I think I am just going to buy the Volquartseninstead of trying to mod this one. The other thing I hate is it only gets about 4" groups @ 100 yards with a flayer hear & there but the stock pinches the barrel a lot. I think with a little sanding the groups will get better. I don't expect a Remington auto to shoot 1/4" @ 100 but I would like to get them within 1" & no flayers. I did order a archangle kit so this hopefully helps tighten groups but I want the stock barrel to work good as well. I am thankful that I have never had a FTF, FTE, or bolt over ride that I have been hearing is common. All three of my mags work well.

Congrats on the 597 & hope you enjoy it.
 
I bought one about 8 or 9 years ago and a couple years ago took it to the rifle range to a small bore competition. There were guys there with $2,000 to $3000 setups; I paid $129 for mine on sale at a Gander Mountain. Needless to say we all had to shoot at 25, 50, 75, and 100 yards. I had the simple fixed 4 power scope on mine and the rest of these guys had television cameras on theirs. We all had 20 iron targets to shoot and these guys were hitting 18 and 19 out of 20 with their super expensive rigs and my little $129 597 was shooting 16's and 17's. Personally I think it was more reflective of the ammunition than it was the gun, because I was using off the shelf Federal ammunition and these guys were probably loading their own.
The magazines say that they are 10 round, but I only load 8 due to feed problems if I load more than 8; that goes even for the new metal magazines.
 
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