Remington 700P Bolt Sticking

M

MarshallBennett

Inactive
I just purchased a 700P LTR in .308. I took it to the range yesterday to start breaking it in. I was shooting Black Hills .308 Win Match, 175 Gr Moly.

The bold cycles nicely without a cartridge in the chamber. It cycles an unfired cartridge nicely. When I actually shot the rifle, the bolt would turn upward, and then it stuck. I had to move the rifle a bit to get some leverage, and was finally able to get the bolt back to eject the spent round.

I continued to have similar problems through all thirty rounds that I shot. (I cleaned out the bore after every shot for the first ten, and then every other shot.) Only one time did the fired casing eject without what I would deem to be excessive force having to be used.

Is this just a break-in issue? (I noted that the shooter next to me had what appeared to be a hunting 700 of some kind, and his bolt cycled the spent cartridges out very nicely.) Any thoughts you might have would be welcome.
 
Not Normal

You need to have the headspace checked. A nice tight chamber is great for accuracy, but if too tight on headspace it can cause the bolt to be hard to open. When the bolt sticks it can be related to chamber pressures (hot loads). This is usually only seen when people start reloading. Try another ammo. If it works with another ammo, call BH and let them know.
 
Chamber

That's an interesting question.

It struck me the other day that I cleaned the chamber orginally before I started shooting, but I don't believe that I did after I started. I used a rod guide in the receiver.

This actually caused me to wonder whether lubrication in the chamber was needed and not present. I was going to try this out next week before I send the gun in for work at Remington.
 
Mr. Bennett, The chamber needs to be clean and dry,not lubricated. A wet chamber could have caused some excessive bolt thrust and possibly your hard lift problem.
 


What do the empties look like? It could be a burr or a rough chamber - or an undersized chamber.

Or, the headspacing could be real tight causing over-pressure issues. I doubt this with match loads because they ususally don't push max pressure.

A look at the primer and the case head should answer the pressure issue.



-tINY

 
Cartridge

I saved five of the cartridges. They are at my office. I will bring them home tomorrow and post some pictures of them.

Is there any particular perspective that I should show in the pictures?
 
700Bolt

Dear Shooter:
Mistakenly, groundhog hunters often carry their loaded rounds in their shirt pocket where on hot summer days they pick up sweat and are fired causing, later, a fine film of rust in the chamber - believe me, a rusty chamber (even a fine almost invisible film) will make it very hard to get the bolt open.
Is this a new rifle? If so there could be some other issue.
Get a small lite and with the bolt out check the chamber! It should be shiney.
Are you shooting factory? If so it should work perfectly. NEVER, NEVER shoot anyone elses handloads! I know shooters who will start at the maximum load and go from there (up)!
Now, if you see your chamber is rough or has a fine film of brown rust in it you can polish that out using 240 sandcloth, or even finer.
"Bolt Lift" once thought to be an indicator of high pressure cannot now work due to modern CNC machinery cutting almost perfect matching parts.
How does your case look at the head? If there is an ejector imprint on your fired case pressure is way high or headspace is long.
Other than a rusted/rough chamber I cannot tell!
Harry B.
 
Don't know if I'll get through any better than others, but be sure that your chamber is clean and completely dry...NO LUBRICATION; NO SOLVENT!!!

The bolt lugs need to be lubed; many of use use a good grade of grease.

Also, as others have said, try some different ammo. Could be overpressured Black Hills ammo. Chamber an unfired round and extract/eject it. Look to see if you can see rifling marks on the bullet. Should be easy to see on the moly. If you can see the rifling marks, then the o.a.l. is too long.

Your totally wasting your time and prematurely wearing your barrel's bore by shooting one shot, then cleaning, then shooting, then cleaning, .....

Do a search for "Gale McMillan", and you'll see why.
 
Warranty Service

I contacted Remington and they told me to send it to one of their service centers. I will post their evaluation when I get the rifle back.
 
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