Remington 700 bolt question

[Brother_Love]

I picked up a Remington 700 today with an Allenhead in the bolt handle. Never seen this before, any ideas?
Thanks, Malcolm

 

[Ben]

That is a new one on me ??????

 

[Brother_Love]

Me too Ben. I took the screw out and it is not something that Remington did to the rifle. It looks a little like the bolt handle was re-attached. I am assuming that would be a silver solder operation, maybe the screw was to hold it in place. I shot 6 rds of factory ammo through it with no problems.

I guess I could send it to Remington for a new bolt but I betting that would be costly.

Thanks, Malcolm

 

[300BLK]

It appears to be a repair. Does it appear to be silver soldered as well?

 

[Ian]

Hope you got it cheap. Be sure and check the headspace, or have it checked, and examine the bolt lugs and receiver recesses very closely for excessive wear or set-back.

 

[Rick]

My guess is also that the bolt handle was re-installed. I had that done on a Rem 700 action and it wasn't done correctly. Didn't effect the headspace and it did go bang on every shot but . . . A huge but, it did effect the firing pin strike. With the firing pin removed ya could see inside the bolt where the firing pin was glancing off the inside of the bolt before extruding through the hole. It took a tack driver and turned it into a boat anchor. It went from shooting a standard deviation of 6 to a SD of 180.

Ian is correct, check the lugs for proper lock up. I would smoke them and see if they are engaging properly.

Another possibility other than bolt replacement is that it's fairly well known that if the bolt lugs aren't properly lubed that opening the bolt will get mighty tough. More than a few bolt handles have been beat off trying to open a locked up bolt. Perhaps a previous owner knew of this and added the screw to prevent that. That might be a stretch but anything is possible. If it were me I would just use a good lube on the lugs.
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[Brother_Love]

Thank you for all the responses. I did smoke the lugs and they are engaging properly. I do not have a headspace gauge so I removed the firing pin and a cartridge with a .005" shim would not close all the way so that looks good too. I fired 12 more rounds of factory ammo and 8 rounds of reloads with cast bullets (10 grs of Unique). The reloaded rounds primers backed out about .002-3" and the the factory rounds did not back out at all (?).

It looks like it is good to go but I am still a little mad at myself for not noticing the allen screw until I got the rifle home. It had a scope on it and I did not look close enough. Since I am a little OCD I will never be happy with it and since the shop I bought it from does not give refunds on guns I am going to sell it as a "parts" rifle. I paid $300 for it so I know I will lose a little but I can't pass it off as a "good" used rifle.

I wanted it for another "JES" re-bore so I will continue to search for another suitable 308. I may go 35 Whelen because used 30/06 rifles are everywhere.

Again, thanks for the help, Malcolm

 

[Rick]

Before you pass it off as a parts rifle see how it shoots, all may be well.

The primer backing out on light reloads and not factory ammo is perfectly normal. Your light loads are creating enough pressure to back out the primer but not enough pressure to thrust the case head against the bolt to reseat it, exactly what happens with a higher pressure load.

 

[Brad]

Yep, Rick is right.
Low pressure loads with cast will often have backed out primers.

 

[fiver]

the primer backs out on all loads.
the case swells and re-seats it.
low pressure loads don't have enough pressure to do that.

you usually have to check multiple fired low pressure rounds for a shrinking head space length.
the firing pin drives the case forward into the chamber bouncing the shoulder of the case off the chamber wall and there isn't enough pressure to swell the case back up again.

 

[RBHarter]

I have this exact thing in an SKS the cases run with THE load are so short head to shoulder/neck jct that I will have to neck them up and then size a false shoulder to get them back up to length . I guess 30-32kpsi isn't enough in that rifle to keep the brass formed .

 

[Ian]

The Soviet round requires a hell for stout firing pin strike and doesn't have much shoulder, but that's ok with throwaway steel. Brass cases with mild loads just get shorter and shorter as the primer explosion drives the case forward each time.

 

[Brother_Love]

Thanks, I put up for sale this morning.

 

[Brother_Love]

I have decided to keep it. After doing some research I have discovered that adding the screw to the Remington bolt is very common within the bench rest community. I have shot it a total of about 60 times now with no problems.

I will box it up for its trip to Oregon next week.

Thanks