Rem700 bolt question

[fishingdude7]

Question about my .223 ADL i bought recently. Ive been shooting and sometimes the bolt is hard to close when there is a round in it. When there is no round it closes nicely, its a tight fit but no problem. Sometimes it is harder to close than other times and wondering why this is. Ive noticed a brass buildup on the bolt face that I hear is normal for the 700 but not sure what is causing this difficulty closing the bolt or if i just need to break the rifle in more and it'll work itself out. Perhaps could it be the minute difference a brassbuildup on the bolt face has causing the bullet to sit slightly forward? iduno Thanks

 

[EddieHarren]

Are you using factory ammo or reloads?

 

[Fiftydriver]

I would suspect it is from variation in the headspace measurements on the ammo your using. As mentioned already, is this factory ammo, surplus ammo or handloads?

The brass on the bolt face is simply from the bolt face rubbing hard on the case head because of the increased force to close the bolt. Rem factory bolt faces can be a bit rough anyway so this is why you pick up brass smears.

Let us know what ammo your using and then we can go from there to figure this out. I would suspect its an ammo thing but it could be several other things as well. Start with one and work out from there.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[fishingdude7]

The ammo I'm using is Blackhills 52gr fullmetal jacket ammo and some winchester 55gr stuff. With the winchester stuff I had some problems pushing the round into the chamber but cant remember if it was giving me trouble closing the bolt. The blackhills tho I dont have problems pushing it into the chamber but some of them are real tough to close the bolt.

 

[fishingdude7]

Hm, ok update on that situation ive been testing the win rds and the blk hills and both have given me trouble closing the bolt. The main thing I have noticed is that the scaring is really only on the rim (the very base of the case) if thats what you call it, of the round. The harder they rae to have the bolt close the more scaring around the rim that occurs and I spose that is where the brass shaving come from on the bolt. I did manage to find a roudn that closed fairly easy with and this one had very little scaring around the base, so i think that the problem may lie somehwere in the bolt face perhaps?

 

[EddieHarren]

I'm going to agree with Kirby. I believe you have ammo with, very slightly, different headspace lengths. Possibly Black Hills re-manufactured ammo that was resized in two different dies.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Do you handload any?

If so try chambering some virgin cases from say Rem or another maker to see how they chamber compared to these. There may be several thing at play here. Your chamber may be a bit tight which is generally not a bad thing unless out of spec.

Are the cases getting burred up on the actual rim or up on the case body or on the head of the case where it has the stamping of the caliber?

If its on the outside edge of the actual rim. It may be that there is something wedged behind the extractor not letting it spring back to easily slip over the case rim when chambering.

If its on the body of the case just ahead of the extractor groove on the case, it may be a tight chamber or a burr on the chamber mouth.

If its on the case head where it contact the bolt face it is probably a combination of a tight chamber and ammo with to long of a headspace measurement.

If you have a quality smith in your area that you know, may not hurt to take it to him and have it looked over. Should not be difficult to figure out what is going on.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[Pete Lincoln]

I"d agree with Kirby, id be checking to see if the ejector plunger wasn't full of brass shavings and not getting fully depressed into its hole. I'd remove the ejector and see what happens then.
Pay a visit to a gunsmith, from all the remingtons ive seen, most of them had chs on the longer side of the tollerances. and most of all the factory ammo ive seen had case sizes that where smaller than the minimum chs.
on my custom rem 700 , 30-06 ive a short head space length of 2.045 instead of the standard minimum 2.049 but it will still chamber every factory load ive ever treid in it.
It fits Hornady factory ammo exactly.
let some body check the rifle out.
Pete

 

[fishingdude7]

rgr, thanks i'll chk out the plunger thing and if not take it to a smith.

 

[Peter McDonald]

This could be a Remington quality control problem.
I experienced this on my Rem VS 308, persisted with it for far to long. I had trouble closing the bolt on chambered rounds and brass shaving where collecting in the bolt face. This was caused from the extractor clip riding hard over the cartridge rim when chambering a round.
I too suspected rubish behind the extractor clip, I removed it, cleaned it and still the same promblem. I had the barrel removed and everything became clear, the chamber was cut off centre, about .008, even the throat was eccentric. The case head was'nt square with bolt face and the bolt shroud was rubbing against the barrel collar.
I returned it to Remington in AUS(this rifle was out of warranty)they sent it back to me with no letter or explaination of what they did. It was easy to see when inspecting the rifle, the best they could do was grind some off the extractor clip /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif I phoned them and asked politely if they could send me a new extractor clip because all they did was ruin a good one.
Anyhow I had my smith fit a new ss Barrel and it fixed the problem /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif So Fishingdude your symptems sound exactly the same as mine, I would get a smith to have a look at it and Good luck!
P.S. I'm still waiting for the extractor clip.

Peter in Aus

 

[Pete Lincoln]

typical remmy quality control. ive yet to see one with minimum head space mind, ive seen several where the no go guage would go.
wouldn't surprise me if:
A. the ejector spring was to long and the plunger couldnt depress fully,
B. the hole for the plunger isn't dored deep enough
C. the plunger is slightly long.
D. the Extractor has sharp edges to it and is shearing brass.(infact i did an SSG bolt knob for a guy last week with a Rem 700 in 243win, there was so much brass in the ejector plunger hole that the **** thing was stuck in depressed, i first though the owner had removed the spring as he wanted to catch the cases and remove em by hand. no, just full of brass.
E. chamber of centre line
F. bore of centre line
etc etc, good thing is with a remmy 700 its possible to fix all the niggly things, and the factory barrels make good tomato stakes in the green house, or are also good for breaking the ice in the horse drinking trough. they also make a usable jack handle, and are also handy for planting runner bean seeds.
Pete

 

[fishingdude7]

hehehe, well ive been firing it more and the brass does collect on the face but it almost seems like after it warms up a bit closing the bolt isnt nearly as bad, but since I just bought the thing, do you think I could send it back to remington and they "should" fix it?