my Remington 700 failed me today!

S

springmom

New member
I was prepared to take the second put-her-out-of-her-misery shot on a sow today when my Remington refused to eject and cycle a round! The extractor apparently failed. Thankfully, the ranch owner was nearby to dispatch her quickly, but on Monday it goes to the gunsmith. (He checked the function himself later and the same problem occurred, so it wasn't me).

My question: this is an older (don't know how old, but certainly well used) 700. Is this something othres have seen, or is this just something weird that happened to mine?

Springmom
 
Extractors on the Remington 700 have been known to break, so your problem is not unique. Remington improved them at one point, so yours may be the old type. Some people have them replaced with another type (Sako) extractor, but that is an expensive proposition. I expect just replacing the broken extractor will work fine for you and it is the quickest and least expensive repair.

Jim
 
I completely agree with Jim. If you check the Brownells catalog, you will find all the tools needed to replace the Rem extractor. They wouldn't carry them if the extractors didn't break.
 
So the smith didn't diagnose or identify the problem but just checked function? He would be the one to give you the insight needed to check actual cause and commonness of the problem if he didn't already know.
 
Remington extractor

The weakest point of the model 700 design is the extractor. This can also be said about other firearm designs, so remington is not unique in this regard. The rather small extractor usually works well, but when they go, they go.

I had one fail about 30 years ago. My gunsmith "couldn't get one from Remington", so he made one. It worked fine in the shop, worked cycling dummy rounds, and even live ones after I got it home. BUT after firing a round, it wouldn't pull the case out. Unfired case, pulled it right out. Fired case, no way.

After about a week, the gunsmith got the extractor from Remington, put it in, and the rifle has worked fine ever since.

Extractors do fail. Shouldn't happen often, but it does happen. Even the massive Mauser extractor has been known to break (rarely but it has happened).
 


The one thing missed here is the chamber. Sure, the extractor is a weak link and may weaken over time. But, if there is scratching in the chamber causing difficult extraction of fired cases, the new extractor may fail in short order too.

Best to have a close look at the chamber too.....




-tINY

 
Springmom, what kind of work are you doing that involves poppin pigs all day? I sure wish my missus would be, for lack of a better phrase, 'down' enough to do stuff like that...Most ladies I've met nowadays can barely boil a chicken, much less put down animals. (Mine will barely touch me after I've been hunting...but I touch her anyways :D)
 
I'm an iconographer

...which doesn't involve popping anything :D This was just a fun day at Cougar Run Ranch to fill the freezer and have fun with the hubster. It's pretty cool after 25 years this December, we have this great hobby that we share together.

Springmom
 
Springmom-
As 44AMP said, the extractor is a weak point on the 700, followed closely by the ejector (ejectors eventiually jam up with brass filings scraped from the cartridge heads). None of this means the Rem 700 is not a good rifle.

Replacing the extractor is so common that we used to buy a half dozen of them in each size every year when I was a smith. Your smith will remove the old rivet, put the new extractor in, and peen the new rivet over. Total time - about 15 minutes.
 
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