Gunsmithing Remington 700 Bolt Question

[lw8]

I have a 700 5R that seems to have a strange issue. The bolt makes a click sound in the last few mm of rotation and seems to almost rotate too far...as in when viewed from the top down, you can see the bolt body slide to the direction of the bolt handle as it clicks on the last bit of closing.

It almost seems as if it is overrotating? I am speculating that the click sound is the bolt body sliding laterally across the receiver where it makes contact just in front of the trigger mechanism.

The gun is new, haven't had it to the range yet but it feeds and function checks fine.

Strange...

Any ideas?

 

[bohem]

Re: Remington 700 Bolt Question

Is this with or without a round in the chamber?

 

[remiglockoholic]

Re: Remington 700 Bolt Question

"observing proper safety" I would go where bohem seems to be going and take a dummy or already fired case and test this out while its "loaded" you could be getting that extra spin since there's no round in the chamber.

 

[GasLight]

Re: Remington 700 Bolt Question

The thing that stops a bolt from rotating is the handle contacting the receiver in the handle recess. I think the only way to SEE if this is a problem would be to take the barrel off and check the engagement. You could get a pretty close idea by looking at the bolt and see where the lugs are oriented in relation to the handle. Then when you close the bolt in the action, you can estimate where the lugs are sitting. You want the lugs to be 90° from the bolt race ways, or with the action leveled, you want them sitting about perfectly vertical.

Another thing you can look at is the striker/action relationship with the trigger removed from the action and the action out of the stock. This would give you an idea if there is something clicking or binding between the striker and the action. Also it would rule out the trigger as a culprit if the click is present when the trigger is removed.

Recently playing with an action and a trigger that had too short of a sear, I notice it makes a clicking sound, and the striker starts to move forward until it finally contacts the trigger sear. This was causing a noise like you are describing in the last few mm of bolt cycling.

Another thing to check is if a scope base screw or an action screw might be protruding slightly into the lug recess, causing a noise and movement of the bolt.

Hope these things help you find the issue.

Dave

 

[lw8]

Re: Remington 700 Bolt Question

Thanks for the info. The clicking happens with and without a round in the chamber but is much more pronounced when empty as the bolt seems to have more play and that seems to be the critical factor.

I tried it with a loaded round pointed in a safe direction and it still has the clicking but less as the bolt has less room to move around.

I will pull the optics off and see if that makes a difference and take it out of the stock/remove the trigger mech, hadn't thought about that. The sound seems to be coming from the area of the trigger mechanism/rear of the receiver.

 

[LRI]

Re: Remington 700 Bolt Question

It sounds about right for a classic symptom of the bolt timing being off with regards to primary extraction.

For fun:

Take a marker and color the corners of your lug surfaces. Cycle a few times.

Is it rubbing in the root of the lug leading edges? (meaning the edges that contact the helical ramps that gravitate towards the lug abutments?

If so try breaking that edge with a needle file.

If not, it's prolly something else.

C.