remington 597 reviews

[FrankieJames7]

Hey there, im new here, but im looking for a remington 597 review, i already have a ruger 10/22, dont like it that much, out of the box un-reliable, really horrible trigger, really bad quality control from ruger cause the receiver threaded holes for scope bases are not leveled, stock is not leveled either, and so is the scope base that comes with the gun, as well as i can get the gun dead on at 15 feet with iron sights, but with out touching the sight be 1 foot high at 30 yards, i really want to hear what a remington 597 is like

 

[GooseGestapo]

If you are raising the sights to be POI/POA at 15ft, you'll probably be a foot high at 30yds.

You are not considering that the line of sight through the sights are ~3/4" above the axis of the bore. At this very close distance, you are causing the flight of the bullet to cross the line of sight very close to the muzzle, hence the trajectory of the bullet is rising in relation to the line of sight so close to the muzzle.

I suggest you set your sight for 50ft rather than 15ft. This will give you something like a 50-60yd zero, with bullet being about 1inch above the line of sight at 25-30yds, and about 5-6 inches low at 100yds.
A Ruger 10/22 w/stainless/laminated stock I had back in the early '90's came from the factory with sights dead on at 50'. The original factory barrel was somewhat more accurate than the bull barrel I fitted it with later. I eventually sold the after market barrel/stock combo and remounted the original barrel and stock. A friend wanted more than I needed it, and he still has it. With clean magazines and good ammo, it is and always has been 100% reliable and 3/4" accurate at 50yds.

RE: Remington 597

I've got two. One is a .22winmag. Both wear a Boyds gray laminate stock I bought on sale a number of years back. Both have been glass bedded and free-floated in the barrel area. Both have had trigger jobs to include an over-travel screw mounted in the rear of the trigger guard.

Both are very accurate. .22mag is MOA at 100yds with capable ammo with no-wind conditions. The .22lr is 1/2" at 50yds with capable ammo. Both are fitted with Weaver base and 1" 3x-9x scopes with target turrets and Adj.Obj.

The .22mag has been very reliable feeding with all ammo except the discontinued Federal 50gr Gold-Dot hollow points (bullets "hanging" on feed ramp) and Winchester "Dyna-Points" due to marginal recoil from reduced power ammo. Though if rifle is kept "very, very clean", the Dyna-Points are more or less reliable.

The .22lr is a bit more problematic. The magazines I have are the later designs and more or less are reliable with "good" ammo, but if left loaded for extended period will "fail to feed" on the first 2-3rds of a full 10rd load. Solution is to only load 7rds.
I have a 30rd Remington branded high-cap magazine. With good ammo (CCI Mini-Mags) it is reliable. With the Federal Bulk pack copper-plated 36gr it will give occasional failure to feed.

These are decent rifles, and IMO more accurate than "out-of-the-box" Rugers, but they are still often "problematic" until tweaked, tuned, and/or modified......

Give your Ruger a little time, and give youself time to learn more about it, before you give up on the Ruger.
The Remingtons and Rugers are 6 of one, Half Dozen of the other.....

 

[sansone]

both guns can use trigger improvements.
Never have I heard people say a 10/22 was unreliable.
My buddy's 597 seemed slightly more accurate than a stock 10/22 but the remmy was a jam-o-matic. Wrong choice of bullets most likely.
As for quality control, many domestic manufacturers have suffered from this disease lately

 

[husker]

I have both. The 597 shoots better groups by far. I have read, over torqued guide rods are the main reason on the 597,if it has jamming issues. My 597 has been great out of the box. Came with a 30 round mag,that has worked great as well. The 10 round mag, I can only load 8 rounds in it ,or I will have jamming probs.

 

[finnfan]

I really like mine. Got the stainless/grey synthetic version. Plenty accurate and 100% reliable with mini mags and most other hv hollowpionts. Standard velocity round nose ammo pretty much turns it into a single shot though.

 

[The Watchman]

I have 2 597's, one with iron sights the other is the OD green synthetic with a cheap-o Remington scope that came with the rifle for 189$. The iron sights are dead on at 50 yards and at 75-100 yards with the scope I get about 4" groups depending on the wind. I have found that they love to eat the CCI mini mags more than anything. The will also cycle the cheap remm bulk packs. They only jam when I try to fill the mags to capacity, if I leave a few rounds out they cycle just fine.

 

[bearman49709]

I've owned two marlin 60, ruger 10-22, and a remington 597. The 597 is the best of the three. More acurate, more reliable, fit adult's better.I bought the 597 and 10-22 together in 1998, The 10-22 was gone that same year, still have the 597, over 30,000 rounds thru it with no problems yet. I use the plastic mag that came with it, load 10 every time, and leave it loaded all the time for pest controll. I also own a buckmark 22lr, A-bolt 22lr, A-bolt 22mag, and a mossberg bolt 22lr, the 597 get used more than the others combined!

 

[BrocLuno]

My 597 is finicky about ammo, or it'll jam once in a while (and with really bad ammo, every mag) - but it's a fine shooter and plenty accurate. It ain't for sale

 

[Fred in Wisc]

I have a 597 and a Charger (10-22 pistol thing).

The 597 is way more reliable. Even with cheap bulk ammo, I have only occasional problems (1 per 100-200 rounds, usually the case failing to eject fully and getting caught in the action when it cycles).

You do need to keep it oiled for reliable operation.

I have pretty good luck with the 30 round mags. They have plastic feed lips so I would count on replacing them once in a while, some of mine are showing wear after a couple thousand rounds.

The Volquartsen trigger sear is a MAJOR imporvement for $35 or so, and pretty easy to install. With the lighter trigger installed, the 597 is often chosen as the favorite by new shooters (and it's about the cheapest gun we shoot). It's easy to be pretty accurate with.

I don't know about ultimate benchrest accuracy, but it's plenty good for plinking, casual target shooting, and giving squirrels bad days.

Try several loads to find one it likes. Mine likes bulk Winchester hollow points for general use, as well as most the premium ammo.

 

[Mr. T]

I have had my 597 for 8 or 9 years in .22LR and it has performed flawlessly. I had one mag that gave me problems (the original mag--plastic), but I bought a couple mags after the purchase that were metal and those have never jammed on me. The original would occasionally jam on the last round, but that was after some pretty heavy use. The gun is very accurate with the standard CCI or federal ammunition and will shoot clover leafs at 50 yards. The trigger is a little heavy for a small caliber, but is still what I would consider very good. It's a great plinker and hits what you aim at. My 597 came with a fixed power scope on it, but still does the job. I have consistently shot 17 to 19 out of 20 at some small bore rifle competitions at my local rod and gun club. The only guys shooting better have custom built rifles costing $1500 to $3000; considering I only paid $120 for my gun I feel really good about the purchase. I would recommend the 597 to anyone looking for a small bore rifle. I don't know about the .22 Mag, but the .22 LR has shot very well!

 

[FrankieJames7]

umm @GooseGestapo i never touched the sights, i just kept them at the middle line, and @sansone, it was unreliable for quite a while, then one day i through my gun against the wall took it apart took out the extractor and took a file and sharpened and the gun has been able to fire any type of ammo ever since, which is about25 thousand rounds, im sorry if im a n00b i dont know how to quote people and im not getting email about this so i had to look through my history to get to this post

 

[RRPC]

Love my 597 had bought a bull barrel one with a laminated stock from dicks first shot the heck out of it and did have some extraction issues and the 15 dollar aftermarket extractor fixed it right up and it was a tack driver out of the box the one I currently have is the camo stock regular barrel one from walmart good gun no mods and has baout 10,000 rounds down the tube works like a clock cdnn has mags for cheap also. About the only thing I like better about the rugers are the hi cap mags I dont care for the 30 round remington mags so I just keep 10 of the 10 rounders handy.
Josh