Remington 700 Recoil lug question

[MagnumManiac]

Let me see if I understand your statement......the recoil from a 300 mag bent the recoil lug? Were they factory lugs that were stamped out and never surface ground flat? And what did the recoil lug abutment in the stock look like?
No damage to that?
Was the shoulder of the barrel distorted as well?

All were SPS or wooden BDL models with very poor action to stock alignment/bedding.
I've pull apart a lot of rifles over the years.
They have all been factory lugs. Whether they are ground or not I do not know, they don't appear ground to me as they measure differently from side to side.
Have also seen lugs that we're off centre a considerable amount running on one side of the recoil recess.
Have also seen some bent recoil lugs off factory RUM rifles. Although I didn't actually see them on the rifles, only after they had had the barrels removed.
All the abutments looked a little scuffed, but you could see the action was moving by the rub marks on the actions and in the stocks.

Cheers.

 

[Rflshootr]

All were SPS or wooden BDL models with very poor action to stock alignment/bedding.
I've pull apart a lot of rifles over the years.
They have all been factory lugs. Whether they are ground or not I do not know, they don't appear ground to me as they measure differently from side to side.
Have also seen lugs that we're off centre a considerable amount running on one side of the recoil recess.
Have also seen some bent recoil lugs off factory RUM rifles. Although I didn't actually see them on the rifles, only after they had had the barrels removed.
All the abutments looked a little scuffed, but you could see the action was moving by the rub marks on the actions and in the stocks.

Cheers.

So do you think it might be possible that the lugs were bent before the gun was even fired by the consumer?
Maybe the manufacturing process allowed for some distortion? Given the strength of steel, as compared to wood, fiberglass, injection molded plastic or even aluminum, if you exert enough pressure to bend a short, wide piece of 3/16 thick steel that also has the contact surface resistance of the action in the stock, helping to resist the recoil forces, plus two 1/4" bolts holding it down, you have MAJOR problems. I'm here to tell you that normal recoil forces generated under normal load pressures are no way going to bend a 3/16" thick lug. If you generate enough recoil force to bend a lug, then everything else is going to be distorted with it and you've most likely had a catastrophic failure. Sorry I had to drop the cow patty flag but bending a good flat ground 3/16" lug that is sandwiched between two square, flat machined surfaces isn't possible without doing damage to everything else. So to the OP, with the 243 Ackley, a good ground 3/16" lug is more then adequate strength wise for your application.

 

[25WSM]

I have had stacks of stock remington recoil lugs and don't recall ever seeing one bent. I've measured tons of them and it's rare that both sides are the same thickness. I also found if you measure a bunch of them the thickness varies as much as .003 I wonder if remington uses different ones to make slight headspace adjustments during assembly. I personally use the .250 thick lugs from Kelblys. They have 2 locking pins and are tapered and match the diameter of the receiver so you don't have that step down.
You really could get a recoil lug ground to the exact thickness you need to get your headspace right. If you have no lathe to do barrel work but can get a lug ground down you could make it work.
On a remmi 700 you need bolt nose clearance and clearance on the front of the lugs. If you have the clearance here you can screw the barrel down on a headspace guage till it touches and measure the gap from receiver face to barrel shoulder. I would probably add .002 to the thickness so when you tighten up the barrel it doesn't get to tight on headspace.
Definitely can be done if you absolutely have no way of doing barrel work.
Shep

 

[Susquatch]

All were SPS or wooden BDL models with very poor action to stock alignment/bedding.
I've pull apart a lot of rifles over the years.
They have all been factory lugs. Whether they are ground or not I do not know, they don't appear ground to me as they measure differently from side to side.
Have also seen lugs that we're off centre a considerable amount running on one side of the recoil recess.
Have also seen some bent recoil lugs off factory RUM rifles. Although I didn't actually see them on the rifles, only after they had had the barrels removed.
All the abutments looked a little scuffed, but you could see the action was moving by the rub marks on the actions and in the stocks.

Cheers.

It's relatively easy to tell a ground lug from a regular factory lug. Besides the fact that ground lugs are perfectly flat, they also have sharp square corners unless the edges are chamfered. Either way it's easy to see the nice clean edges and flat material. Factory lugs are stamped or punched from a sheet of 3/16 rolled steel. The edge on one side is ragged and the edge on the other side is rounded. Often times you can see the tear marks on the sides. Lastly, you can usually also see that the large flat part is somewhat rounded on one side and sometimes even slightly concave on the other.

I've never seen one that I thought was bent from recoil, but I've seen a few that were bent and even cupped in the stamping/punch process.

 

[Snowboy]

Have seen my fair share of bent Rem 700 lugs, granted most are from heavy recoiling cartridges, but not all have been. A few were from measly little 300 magnums.

Cheers.

And I am curious how did the stocks take that?

 

[Roeder]

It amazes me that so many people just can't believe that recoil lugs can be bent from recoil. The total design of the factory lug and factory barrel leaves a relatively weak point because the part of the lug that encircles the barrel tenon is fairly thin and the barrel diameter directly in front of the barrel is often about 1 .190, so the shoulder is .065 on a side. The cause is a poor fit of the stock inlet that leaves a bit of a gap behind the recoil lug. Each time the rifle fires, the action moves backward in the inlet slightly, slamming the lug against the back of the mortise. The battering enlarges the mortise and the movement in the stock wears the bedding surface so that the action gets looser and things get worse. The worst example I have seen was an early stock with an aluminum bedding block. The owner complained that the action screws kept loosening up and the zero kept moving. The aluminum bedding block was so worn under the action that the barrel was firmly in contact with the bottom of the barrel channel, the bedding block was very worn and obviously battered where the lug contacted, and the lug was noticeably bent.
I've never seen it happen with good fitting bedding.

 

[sedancowboy]

I have encountered several bent recoil lugs over the years particularly in Savages.
Call Northland Shooters Supply and he will tell you that he encounters lots of them.
I never reuse a factory recoil lug they are die cut from sheet steel and are never flat or true in thickness. I am not talking about high end or custom rifles. A precision ground recoil lug and a bedding job can do wonders for accuracy.