Would Remington still repair an M721 or a M722?
The answer is Yes, NO and maybe.
I contacted them over 20 years ago through Grice Gun Shop and their reply was we feel for you. Although you bought one of our precious firearms, we have not manufactured that particular model in over 35 years ( now 50 years) and no replacement parts are available.
But - if you are willing to pay us $125.00
We will take your rifle back to our shop and refit it with a new model 700 bolt and return it to you.
Their advice at that time was to check Shotgun New's from time to time and maybe someone had a NOS extractor clip.
On the other hand there was a class action lawsuit that stated that you had to take off the safety to open the bolt to remove the shells from the magazine. When you put the weapon on fire - there was a chance that the gun would accidentally fire and they have a free update which replaces some of the parts in the trigger assembly which allows the gun to be unloaded without taking the gun off safe.
I guess it all went back to the military style Enfield rifle, that was used in combat, where you did not want the bolt to come open or you wanted to ensure that the bolt was closed and the gun was ready to fire as soon as you took the gun off safe. So those features was carried over to the civilian production style weapons of the day and that style of thinking was not changed until people realized that it was not safe to take off the safety to unload the weapon.
Although they had a trap door style magazine that you could purchase as a option, most people who bought the model 721 / 722 did not op for this option because it was a added expense.
So the gun had to be unloaded by cycling each round through the chamber to unload it. 4 or 5 chances for someone to bump the trigger while they are unloading the gun - was one time too many for some people - including me. I almost shot the family Blazer and the hunting camp because I had my firearm pointed in a improper direction.
About 10 years later, a company, maybe Brownell's produced a jig type fixture with a hardened drill guide which allowed a machinist to machine the bolt to accept the later style model 700 extractor clip / rivet. It is not as simple as drilling a hole to accept the rivet. You have to machine a counter sink to give the rivet a place to be peened into. It also requires a gun smith to have the proper rivet set tool to peen the rivet into the recessed area.
I believe that the cost of the jig was $125.00 - which was as much as the cost of a new bolt. So on the one hand, unless someone was a gunsmith that could recoup their loss, there is no advantage to buying the jig over buying a new bolt for a one time repair. What do you do with the jig once you have drilled the hole.
The rivet has to be in a precise position to make the extractor work correctly. If a person had the tools and a print, they could measure everything, lay it out and machine it on a Bridgeport style knee mill without the jig.
So I guess the only reason for having the jig would be if a gunsmith did not have a print, could not work from a print and did not own a Bridgeport style knee mill. You could do the same repair with the jig and a drill press - which would allow a weekend warrior handyman to do the same job with little skills or machining knowledge.
How did I break my dad's extractor clip?
I was hunting in a tree stand and shot a deer and lost the empty shell. Wanted to see how far the gun ejected a empty shell. Did not have a empty shell for that gun. Took a empty shell out of a box of shells for another gun. Put it in the chamber and it got stuck.. Wouldn't go in, wouldn't come out. Slammed the bolt against the shell a couple of times, trying to force the shell to grab the rim of the case and the extractor clip broke and that was all she wrote.
I took the antenna off the Blazer and pounded on it till the shell fell out. I hunted two years with a ram rod until I borrowed another gun to go hunting with off another family member.