Remington 700 woes

[courtgreene]

I have a 700, my first and last. It’s accurate, was I should say, but was always hard to load. This got worse and worse so I had a gunsmith replace the extractor. Now it’s a paperweight.
I am at a loss for why it’s always been difficult to close the bolt on a round, and would love recommendations of someone to whom I can send it. I would not send it back to Remington before the bankruptcy, and certainly won’t now.
Any of y’all want to take a crack at it? (700sps, .300wsm, the problem started after I sent it in for trigger replacement because... well everyone knows)

 

[MEHavey]

1st thing... a GO headspace check.

 

[skeeterfogger]

Have you tried a different ammo?
Does the problem exist with empty case?

 

[courtgreene]

Yes, and yes

 

[Rubone]

I had a recent issue with a Remington in 270WSM that randomly wouldn't lock. I checked all the ammo and found that certain cartridges had a longer neck than others. All the shorter ones locked, the longer did not. Winchester covered the cost of the ammo. All other brands were working fine.

 

[skeeterfogger]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3qkmvOk-KIL3fdcRndc9H3

 

[courtgreene]

Lots of good ideas there. I’ll start with cleaning buildup around the firing pin since I can do it tonight with no new tools.

 

[courtgreene]

Ok. Pulled the firing pin assembly, clean as you could possibly conceive. While it was out I tried hooking a round under the extractor and keeping it straight as I fed it and the bolt through the rear and into the chamber. Voila, closed right down (ruling out the chamber as the culprit?). so that had me thinking “it must be the extractor if hooking it under the extractor before closing it solves the problem,” but just to be sure I put the firing pin back into the bolt body and got things as they should be. For safety I made a dummy round (no primer/powder) and tried the same process the same way. The only difference being the returned presence of the firing pin. Once again it will not close.

I’m usually pretty good with diagnoses but this one is a head scratcher. Does this new information give you any ideas?

 

[courtgreene]

1st thing... a GO headspace check.

I’m looking for one to borrow. Not the most common chambering so I may not have much luck there.

 

[skeeterfogger]

Think I would check for binding of the firing pin.

 

[alsaqr]

A friend had the same problem. There was trash behind the extractor. Those bits of brass can get inside the bolt too.

 

[edwardware]

A Remington 700 action is a bit subtle in spots, but not very complicated. If you look at it carefully, you'll likely find the problem.

. . . but was always hard to load.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you're not looking and thinking about the parts nearly carefully enough. Slow down, and take the time to figure out what each surface of each part does. You'll find it.

 

[courtgreene]

I’m sure I would eventually, but the instant shutdown after getting the new extractor which I thought was going to remedy that which you just quoted had me gun shy, pun intended. I’m sort of scared to fiddle with it too much.

 

[MEHavey]

Pulled the firing pin assembly, clean as you could possibly conceive. While it was out I tried hooking a round under the extractor and keeping it straight as I fed it and the bolt through the rear and into the chamber. Voila, closed right down (ruling out the chamber as the culprit?).

It would certainly seem that way.
Now you've got me wondering.

- Make up dummy round (no powder/no primer)
- Leave the firing pin/bolt assembly intact.
- See if it binds.

If it does still bind . . .

- Back off the action screws 2-3 turns
- See if the problem persists

 

[Project355]

This is new type non riveted extractor, or old type?
What does "the gunsmith" say?

 

[courtgreene]

Riveted. Gunsmith wants to look at it but is not an ffl so I can’t ship the gun to him. He will be here over the holidays, so if I haven’t figured it out by then he will look at it. He also said that he measured everything and there’s more room now than when he started, the old river wasn’t ground down very well, so it is perplexing.

 

[courtgreene]

It would certainly seem that way.
Now you've got me wondering.

- Make up dummy round (no powder/no primer)
- Leave the firing pin/bolt assembly intact.
- See if it binds.

If it does still bind . . .

- Back off the action screws 2-3 turns
- See if the problem persists

I did that and it’s still froze, I’ll loosen the action screws when I get home from work tonight. Actually I’ll take them out all the way. Just to be sure to rule them out completely.

 

[Project355]

Remove the trigger leave the firing pin in.
Test with dummy rounds and I bet it works

 

[courtgreene]

Ok, over lunch I pulled the barreled action out of the stock to eliminate the screws as a possibility. The bolt is still not rotating over a cartridge.

 

[MEHavey]

But the bolt w/o the firing pin installed does work?

 

[courtgreene]

Remove the trigger leave the firing pin in.
Test with dummy rounds and I bet it works

If it works with no trigger, what would that reveal as the problem?

 

[courtgreene]

But the bolt w/o the firing pin installed does work?

I got it to work once when hooking it under the extractor then pushing it in while keeping everything aligned. That was while the firing pin was removed.

 

[MEHavey]

If it works with no trigger, what would that reveal ...?

It's binding up w/ the sear

 

[WestKentucky]

I bought a trigger setup with the modern trigger. It assembled fine, but it doesn’t work. My “unsafe” trigger is back in. I can’t get the “safe” trigger to do anything. Seems it’s seized up.

 

[courtgreene]

Most of this did start when Remington replaced the "unsafe" trigger (I shouldn't have quoted that as if I didn't think it was unsafe, they replaced it because it was proven unsafe). After I got it back I started to notice the difficulty, and then after the new extractor it got unusable. I may try removing the trigger later, but I did find a gunsmith near me who thinks he can get her going between now and gun season, so it will probably be out of my hands soon.