Remington 597 Rehab Project

R

Rob3

New member
After discussing the problems I have had with my 597 in this thread:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=439714&highlight=597
I decided to see if I get this rifle to perform. First thing I did was take it apart and clean it completely. I swabed the bore until the patches came out clean and cleaned the bolt and reciever. When I reassembled it I made sure there was no pressure on the guide rods. Next, I went to Gander Mountain and found a 3rd generation magazine and bought a box of every type of .22 ammo they had which was only five.

I took it to the range today and statred firing with the clean, well oiled gun (Rem Oil no less) and new mag. I shot a full mag (10 rounds) of each type of ammo without a jam. I then shot another mag of each type of ammo with no jams. I was getting excited! This was when the trouble began. On the next mag I got a jam that required taking out the magazine. The follower had gotten stuck and would not push the rounds up to the feed lips. I pryed it loose then fired the rest of the mag. The next mag full had the same problem. I squirted a few dops of oil in the mag and reciever to see if this would help. I got two mags out before it started to jam again. I started oiling the reciever and magazine every 10 rounds. I fired six more mag fulls, each one jammed every 3-4 rounds. Some were failure to extract but most were magazine problems. I gave up.

This week I will order an aftermarket extractor to see if it fixes that problem. I'm not sure what to do about the magazine. I might take it apart and see if I can polish the inside and strech out the spring a little. I'ts really disappointing because I want this gun to work. It has the best plastic stock I have seen on any rifle and the fit and finish is excellent. I also like the bolt hold open feature, something that is missing in the 10/22. I will give it one more try before throwing it in the Cape Fear River.

If anyone has any suggestions I will try anything as long as I don't have to invest much more money in it.

On the plus side, I brought my new Ruger 10/22 International out and shot it for the first time. Put two mags of each type of ammo plus about 200 rounds of the bulk stuff. No jams what so ever. Also, after shooting 600+ rounds, I only had one round that refused to fire. All in all a pretty good afternoon at the range.

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l598/Rob3122/gunphoto.jpg
 
I remember that mine seemed to like the remington thunderbolt ammo the best. It hated cci, which is what caused the rifle to fail. It didn't completely chamber the round and when I fired it the case exploded and blew off the extractor.
 
oK So I have said this before but , mine would not and still won't even bother with ANY Remington Ammo, this is the most ammo finicky rifle I have . I recommend Mini Mags but other CCIs and even some Federal AutoMatch is acceptable.

Furthermore , there cannot be any misconstruing the necessity for the Volquartsen Edge Extractor -- SERIOUSLY it should be factory standard, it's probably the best and most necessary $20 any gun owner could spend on their weapon. The $40 Target Hammer is very very important and good too.

After you do the $40 Target Hammer and $20 Edge Extractor by Volquartsen, and then you use some good CCI Mini Mags, you will be sniping the numbers on targets in no time.


I did all this plus a new Nikon ProStaff 4-12x40 and I feel like I have a new, competition/tactical sniper rifle. If I had a Harris Bipod yet I'd feel complete.
 
How many rounds total have you put down range? It sounds like the rifle may be a little too tight. A few hundred rounds down range may losen it up a bit.
 
Thanks for your suggestions. I have put around 1,000 rounds through it so far. It would be much more but clearing jams gets old and embarrassing real quick. I will try the CCI ammo and the extractor. In fact I am going to order the extractor today. It still seems to me that the biggest problem is the magazine. The spring does not have enough strength to push the follower up all the way. I am going to take it apart and see what can be done. I really want this rifle to work.
 
Rob:

There is no doubt magazine problems, the older magazines are physically junk. I don't know enough about the earlier ones cause I bought mine in Jan 2010, and it came with a proper magazine (i.e. a working, newer generation? one. ) .. and the extra one I bought from the rack at Dick's at the time, it was an identical one and also a proper , working one. I am going to order some more soon (since I did the upgrades the rifle actually works now, and is actually quite fun to shoot, so I'll need some more).

Now the extractor is also a known issue, again you'd think by now Remington would just either fix the problem or just make the Volquartsen ones standard parts like Mossberg makes LPA sights factory-installed-stuff on some shotguns. Once you do this you're likely to experience much better results.

Now the ammo, thats a recommendation. I cannot fire any Remington ammo, in my Remington rifle, go figure. This rifle needs better ammo and if you can't shoot Mini Mags, which are about as good as it gets, u wont get anything firing them. Again obviously u can't shoot the best **** all the time but you get the point.

and that Target Hammer, that noticeably improves the trigger pull, and makes it feel better, not sure if it improves physical operation but it sure feels like it.
 
I used to have a remmy 597, I tried to fix it up and make it shoot but it refused, and then the reciever broke and I put all my good parts into a friends junk 597 and made one half-arse gun out of the two.

Feed it lots and lots of mini-mags and stay away from any remington rimfire ammo, it's crap. Try polishing the guide rods and the bottom of the bolt where it slides over the hammer to re-cock the gun. That seemed to help mine a little bit before it exploded.

I bought a Marlin Model 60. Absolutely awesome little gun, shoots everything, and accurately too.
 
I'll agree with the Remington ammo being crap, with their "Thunderbolt" being the worst of the worst.

When I first got my chrono, I shot several brands of .22LR over it, Remington was the worst for velocity deviations, the "Thunderbolt" could vary by 200fps in 10 shots from the same 50 round box.
 
I used to be happy with my 597 if it would do just one mag without a failure to extract, but that wasn't overly common, Winchester super X was the best, but some PMC ammo would jam around 7 of 10 shots.
I was about ready to sell it, but I thought I'd try a Volquartsen extractor.

It now functions flawlessly, the same magazine just different extractor.
Any ammo I feed it, it eats. It has a diet of mainly bulk winchester, but sometimes I buy CCI mini mags and I tried a federal bulk pack and it destroyed them too. I'm glad I didn't buy a Ruger 10/22, as I feel the 597 is a much more comfortable gun, and a lot nicer to use.
 
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