I'm so ticked off right now! (Remington 700 Bolt Handle Broke!)

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Can't believe I'm the first person to tell you this, but 7.62 NATO is .308
Click to expand...

As noted they are not the same. They are the same CALIBER, but cases do differ between them. SAAMI issued a warning about this a few years ago. It would be interesting to see if the surplus ammo did cause the round to stsick in the chamber, as we do have to ask what caused it to stick in the first place. And that sounds definatly like an ammo fault.

I think there are four possibilities:

1/ More powder in the case, causing excess pressure and locking in the case:
2/ Less powder in the case. As the primer flame washed over the horizontal powder it all burnt at one causing a massive pressure spike. I have heard this is possible with a slow burning belted magnum, but never with a 7.62mm;
3/ The case was marginally overlong, "gripping" the projectile in the rifling and causing a pressure spike. Maybe possible?
4/ The rounds got too much heat. I would rule this out, unless they were sitting in the sun in a seriously hot day.

What happened when you pulled the trigger? louder bang and recoil?

You should thank Remington if any of these things happended....
 
After having a close look at the photo, I'm inclined to agree with AZJeff. I believe (also) that the bolt handle is/was defective. It should NOT have broken like this, IF you had hit it hard enough to break it. It seems likely that this was a bad casting....combined with the lower portion of the solder/ braze joint being bad. As long as the knob of the handle doesn't show hammer marks and (other) obvious signs of abuse, I think that Remington will take care of it, without any squabble.
 
Yes, Remington will probably fix it, but will probably want the entire rifle to check before they do.

The brazing seems to have been pulled apart, instead of being detached from either part. Seems like a lot of force would be necessary to do that. Maybe a bit harder rap than you thought? Or, maybe the bolt got set back so hard from the bad round that the handle was weakened by being rapped by the rear of the bolt slot in the receiver when the rifle fired, maybe on several shots?

Incidentally, years ago, a friend had a 700 that wouldn't open with a live round in it. He brought it home and rapped it with a hammer to loosen it and rapped it and rapped it until the stock split. Then he noticed that the safety was on. That bolt held together well enough to have ruined the trigger/sear mechanism, and the rifle didn't go off!!!

Picher
 
There's no way that using a piece of wood to get the bolt to open should have broken that bolt handle. Sure, maybe with a steel hammer, but that would have left deformation at the point of impact. To me, the fix is a freebie on Remington.

I'd contact Mr. Remington and see what his deal is, what the how-tos are.

Art
 
I'm very surprised at the responses on this thread.


The cartridge failure did not have anything to do with the bolt handle failing.

The PRIMARY reason for the adoption of bolt action rifles in the 19th and 20th centuries was its extraction strength in the case of bad ammo and dirty actions. Given the history of Rem 700 bolt handle failures, it is pretty clear that this former advantage is largely gone in this rifle - the bolt handle being an ornament that might as well be plastic. There are many situations that might cause hard extraction, this is just one. The only thing that should have been damaged was the casing - but a thin piece of brass overcame a steel bolt handle in this case.



As for .308 vs. 7.62 - I would suggest some of you should actually make some measurements for yourselves. The extremes 7.62 which might have been seen 40 years ago have nothing to do with modern 7.62, which is well within the variations seen in commercial and handloaded .308.

If anything, the slightly higher pressures in .308 present more of a danger to 7.62 military rifles. Yet companies adept at building military rifles, like HK, mark their products with either stamp - as if they were interchangeable. Guess why.
 
YOu are quite right Handy, but the cartridge failure lead directly to the bolt handle breaking- it was the cause sine quo non to put it in latin. But for the bad ammo, the bolt handle would still be intact.

I would be highly concerned about any thing that lead to this situation occurring. If it happens once, it could happen again, so there must be a way of preventing it.
 
Death,

"Bad ammo" it was, but it did nothing to damage the rifle. The rifle damaged the rifle when someone used the leverage of the bolt handle as DESIGNED.


Shoot enough rounds and you will someday have one that jams up the rifle. Could be missized, overpressure, squib, crushed feeding or whatever. What is critically important is what happens AFTER you get that eventual failure. A good rifle extracts and fires the very next round. This rifle was not capable of such proper function. Tamara has related being able to kick open a jammed AR action despite an aluminum charging handle and an internal cam. This rifle's performance in light of that is simply embarrasing.
 
This is precisely the reason that I will not buy another Remington. I'm not going to bash Remington, but I certainly will not give them any more of my money. I mailed the gun today...hopefully they will fix it for free and then I will get rid of it.

This is also precisely the reason that I am now looking for a more durable rifle. It seems that Winchester makes a more durable rifle...and I don't really care much about accuracy...as long as it will kill something from 100-250 yards, that is good enough for me. I'll probably buy a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in either 308 or 30-06 very soon. I've also been considering a Savage, but I think that Winchesters are more robust...which is what I am looking for.

As a sidenote, accuracy doesn't mean $hit if it doesn't work.
 
Looks like a fatigue fracture [pre-existing crack which propagated from firing over time] of a poorly cast component. As someone AZ Jeff stated it looks like the bolt is brazed and that portion failed as well.

Buy Winchester Pre-'64. Hell, buy a Fabrique Nationale Special Purpose Rifle and be done with it.
 
I just received my rifle back from Remington today...and like many of you said, they fixed it for free...it looks like (although I am not sure) that they replaced the bolt with a new one. Just wanted to let you folks know.

I am still considering buying a Savage 10 FP in .308 instead of the LTR that Remington offers...Hmmmmm...decisions, decisions....
 
Just get a club...it worked for the cavemen...:D

Seriously, go ahead and get rid of your Remington. You'll feel better for it --- for a while.
You'll always have the nagging doubt in your head, though, that MAYBE it wasn't such a bad firearm, and MAYBE that LTR would've been a good choice...

That is, after you buy another product from another mfg. and start to buy parts to make it 'right', or experience a failure of some kind with THAT particular brand of gun --- man, you'll turn into a gardner or something! Careful!;)
After that, you'll start to compare TROWELS, when the handle breaks off one of them!
Next thing you know, you'll be hugging TREES! OH, WOW, MAN! This could get SERIOUS!:eek:

WHOA! Or, you could be glad you got your rifle fixed and shoot the crap out of it, and get the LTR...:)
 
I'm gonna keep my Remington...I'm just looking for a 20" Bull Barrel .308 for shooting on the bench. I'm still considering the LTR, but for the money, the Savage is pretty hard to beat.
 
Glad to hear that Remington fixed it.

I would like to know what it was like dealing w/Remmie's customer service: were they polite, did you have to pay for shipping, etc? And, if I'm reading this correctly, it seems as though they also replaced the bolt itself. Did you observe a defect in the bolt and alert Remington about it? Also, it seems that it took Remington about 30 days to return the rifle to you -- correct?

Thanks for the info!
 
Actually, from the time that I sent the rifle in until the time I received it back was more like 24 days. I just put a note in with the rifle and they fixed it...no hassels...and yes, it does appear that the bolt was replaced, but I am not sure since the paper included with the gun when it returned did not detail exactly what was done.
 
TPAW and the bolt handle

TPAW if you scratch REMINGTON from your list because it didn't hold up to a beating from somone that should have taken it to a gun smith or sent it to the factory, you are not being objective. I own quite a number of rifles and Remington's are some of the best. I will say if you beat somthing expect it to break. At what point in the design process do we allow for a hammer and 2x4?:confused: :confused: :confused:
 
Edited to say the following:

It appears that Remington put a new handle on the old bolt...it does not appear to be a new bolt after further inspection.
 
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Another bad apple by remington model 700

Well here it is folks. Around twenty days latter after purchasing my remington model700 7mm mag and two scopes and eighty bucks in ammo I relived I bought 400 dollars worth of a boat anchor. The first two rounds I first shot jammed and the gun was oiled but I oildd it a lot more so it didnt jam as bad after every shot. So with that problem somewhat managed I began to sight in,my scope and in doing so the gun was shooting to the left or right and up and down at 100 yards. So what do I do I dump 250 on a nikon scope thinking that maybe its the scopd. No its the scrap metal of a gun I bought. I just sent it back to remington to be fixed and will get it back,just in time to miss hunting my 400 dollar gun this deer season. So if anyone wants my opion it is buy a savage or a winchester I hunt with those two for 6 years with no problem. After I compared them to my remington, the remington seemed to be manufactured a lot cheaper than winchester and savage. My 1915 british infeild is almost 100 years old and still hits 300 yard shots like a true worrior.
 
Chevy, Ford, Lockheed Martin, Colt, Winchester, S&W, BMW, Toyota, and yes, even REMINGTON, all have the occassional defective products. It happens. If the ammo was over loaded with powder, as some previously pointed out, thank Remington that the 700's famous 3 rings of steel stopped any potential injury. I have no reservations about buying a new Remington 700. I'm looking at getting a new .270, and a "Made in the USA" Remington is at the top of my list. If you consider the sheer volume of model 700's that have been produced since 1962, over 5 MILLION (:eek:) and the number of previous models (721's and 722's), I'm guessing that Remington still has a better reliability / customer satisfaction than most other gun makers out there combined. My Grandfather's 1949 model 721 .270, after thousands of rounds and some pretty rough treatment along the way, is still going strong and taking deer with deadly accuracy... 62 years after it was bought. So yes, a newer version of Mr. Walker's rifle is in my future, with no reservations or 2nd thoughts... ;)
 
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