Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 700 Bolt Came Off

I have seen 2 in person on 700s come off at the point of the handle attachment to the bolt body. Both were match type heavy guns so a lot of use on them. No hot loads, match stuff in both cases.

It is a Low probability but high impact failure in a 700.

Spence

I don't where you guys were in the 1980's, but I was finishing up as the Sls Mgr for large Dallas based distributor - a sister company to Berns Wholesale in Denver and Ellet Bros's in Chapin SC when Chilt was still alive. In '82 I moved to Stoeger as the SWest Rgl Rep until yet another management change in '88 was hired to get the company ready for the sale to Beretta....and they did not want to have to pay me commsions on my sales to WalMart in LLama and a $3+M order on Stoeger Publishing products, after I'd spent 3 years opening the account & establishing the products chain wide in both WM and Sams'Club that the previous rep had never been able to do...and gave line back to him.

I saw - hands on - maybe a dozen 700 bolts where the handle had broken off due to the poor factory welding QC in my Stoeger 250-300 store independent dealer base in 5 states, and had been told of enough others at the distributor before we shut down that we would not handle the warranty returns on, as the local Remmy Rep refused to take my phone calls anymore....as I switched my Dist's Orders to my corporate buyer during our consolidation.

I also heard of another couple dozen LGS's with on site 'smiths who were advertising that they provided "advanced" or "permanent" repairs to 700 bolts using more than just the factory style welding that had failed.

The most graphic in person experience I had, was in Houston at the flagship store of the largest independent dealer in my 5 state region, with 4 stores in the Houston metro area.

An older well put together gentleman approached me during a Meet the Rep Sale event, saying the store mgr had suggested he talk to me about this...and handed me his 375 H&H's 700 bolt & loose handle.

He explained that he had just gotten off the plane from RSA an hour or so earlier and apologized for still wearing his soiled sweaty suntans and dirty boots as he had not gotten home yet, but needed a new gun that would not do this under any circumstances asap. Told me all about this one breaking on the 2nd day of a 10 day hunt, and having to use the bolt out of his 700 7Rmg for the duration of the hunt after shooting it in his 375 to see if it would work while standing some distance away, and was still wearing in it his belt as we talked. I got him the guns he needed ordered and made a nice sale of 6-8 SAKO's in a Safari Grade and matching style Classic grade the same 2 calibers he wanted for his return trip later in the season with his family.

Ya'll can make as many funnies and doubt that this ever happened as much as you want about 700 bolts never having a problem...but I sold more SAKO's that year than had ever been sold before or since in my 5 states...because SAKO Bolts were, and may still be one piece forged units....because for the 1st time my dealers could point to SAKO and say " this 'un is all ONE piece and not welded anywhere "...and worth the price.

FWIW I never saw or heard of any of the other Remmy guns having a bolt or bolt handle issue, other than the extractor being a problem that I was already familiar with personally and had dumped my own 700's over...and led to the development of yet another cottage industry fixin' Big Green's guns with a SAKO style extractor conversions, that the current Tikka T3's and lots of other rifles look like.

JMHO & YMMV...but I BTDT hands on
Ron

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The shop I took this in sees a half dozen a year like this and advises their Remington owning customers to get a Sako extractor or learn to change the Remington one in the field. A Cabelas rep told me they get several back like this every month and a friend who served in the USMC reported losing the handle off of several M40A1s in Latin America.

Never seen one in 35 years of owning them.

I did see a 788 handle that had came off. Apperently it was not F250 rated.

It is kind of ironic that we are discussing this problem presently as a friend of mine, going up bear guiding with local ‘registered’, took his 338 out to make sure the sights were where they belonged as his boys had used the rifle recently for whale hunting. As he went to do the sight-in, he said the rifle shot just fine, but it wasn’t extracting. He was wondering if, and thinking, that there was supposed to a small ‘lip’ inside the rim of the bolt-face on his M700. I though he had bout a M70 Classic stainless 375 from one of my fiends and queried about just using that (since he wanted a rifle with open sights). He mentioned that the magazine spring was broken (by another guide who had bored his rifle last fall, a repair he knew about but hadn’t gotten around to addressing yet.) So I went and looked at his M700 and pointed where the extractor had snapped in half inside the bolt face. (He sent the bolt off for repair and checked the sights on his 450 Marlin. All is good.) But the reality that a single part failure can wreck the reliable functioning of any rifle can’t be overlooked. (I’ve never broken a Remington extractor - yet - but I have had a bolt handle come off, the bolt stops fail on several Rems, 2 mag springs break on my M70 375 Classic, and a kissing, uncrimped cartridge spill powder in a M77 causing it to be unable to chamber a round.)