Gunsmithing Rem 700 bolt touches barrel ?

[mdesign]

A guy asked me to look at his rifle because it would only shoot 2.5" groups @ 100yds. I noticed the lugs have good equal contact but the side of the nose of the bolt (the dia in front of the lugs) is touching the side of the barrel.

Would this make a difference? Some where I was thinking I heard that the bolt should not be touching the barrel but this one rubs hard enough to squeek a little when the bolt is cycled.

Is there a simple fix if it is a problem?

 

[Mike Casselton]

Re: A screw is too long

Either the front scope base mount screw,same or the front action screw is too long. Looking at the damage, I'd lay a bet that it's the front base screw.

Pull the bases off and put the screws back into the holes they came out of and you'll probably see that one on the front is too long and a rear one is way too short.

If so, swap them out and re mount the bases.

 

[300sniper]

Re: A screw is too long

the bolt nose is recessed into the barrel so it is not a scope base or action screw. from what i understand, there should be a minimum of .005" clearance all the way around the bolt nose.

what is the story on this rifle? is it a new factory rifle or something some one has rebarreled?

edit: from the picture, it looks like the bolt is touching the bottom of the bolt recess in the barrel. can you look in there and make sure there is no foreign material sitting down there?

 

[Switchblade]

Re: A screw is too long

True it up with a lathe but not too much. Send it to GAP for the tune up. True Pros at that place

 

[Mike Casselton]

The bolt lugs do not go into the barrel

The only portion of the bolt that goes into the barrel is the nose portion. That's the trued up (silver) portion in front of the locking lugs.

The locking lug recesses are behind the barrel and in front of the follower. Pull your own bolt out and look before recommending unnecessary expenditures.

If you've ever had an action apart minus the barrel, you'd see where the lugs match up with the front action screw and the scope bases.

Let's try and fix his simple problem without a $400.00 tune up that is not needed.

HIS FRONT ACTION SCREW IS TOO LONG... (I edited here after looking at the picture again, it's on the bottom lug and that sits on top of the front action screw when the bolt is closed)

I won't even put a flame suit on for this one

 

[mdesign]

Re: A screw is too long

Yes, 300sniper - it is recessed into the barrel. It is a new ADL rifle with 100 rounds down the tube. I looked with my bore scope and everything is clean. It is contacting on the side where the vent hole is and then down toward the bottom.

 

[mdesign]

Re: A screw is too long

True it up with a lathe but not too much...

Was thinking the same thing but not sure if it really mattered from an accuracy perspective.

 

[Mike Casselton]

Re: Pull your front action screw out and

look at the top of it. You will see where it has been scraping material from your locking lug.

I had a 17 Remington once with the same problem and the fix was to file the screw down just a touch.

 

[Mike Casselton]

Re: Pull your front action screw out and

OK, dumbass here was concentrating on the scrape line on the locking lug, not the silver on the bolt nose. I looked at it and made the assumption that the bolt had beed trued up (the silver part).

There's a bigger problem than the bolt nose touching and I would definately look at sending this POS back to Remington. I would go that route before sending it off to get any mods done unless he just wants to keep it.

My apologies for unnecessarily extending this thread.

 

[Two Shoes]

Re: Pull your front action screw out and

My $ is chamber cut off center.....Rem is good at that...........

 

[rijndael]

Re: Pull your front action screw out and

Regarding the indentation on the lug, from what some have said is a long screw....

To me, it doesn't look like the finish was scraped off, which implies it was done before refinishing.

Is the picture deceiving?

 

[mdesign]

Re: Pull your front action screw out and

No, thats just the way it looks. It is not contacting anywhere and the bluing on the top of the action screw shows no evidence of rubbing. The scraping is just from the bolt being cycled as far as I can see.

Yes, Remington is great at off-center chambers but the fired cases coming out of the gun are dead on with hardly any run-out, only about .0005.

 

[Hateca]

Re: Pull your front action screw out and

The bolt nose is contacting the barrel bolt recess. The recess can be tight, it can be out of true with the chamber, or both. Either way I would send it back to Remington or pull the barrel and open up the barrel recess before I would do any cutting on that bolt nose.

 

[mdesign]

Re: Pull your front action screw out and

Thanks Randy - I talked with the owner and it is going back to Remington for repair.

I pretty sure that 2.5" @ 100yds is considered acceptable accuracy by Remington so I doubt that they will be too excited to change anything. Had a discussion with them on another rifle that had a chamber so far off center that there was rifling down one side of the case neck and that did not go to far. I finally played the safety card and got the barrel replaced. The fact that the bolt nose is rubbing a little is probably no concern to them.

They hate us guys with bore scopes that point out things that the gerneral public cannot see and so does not worry about.