Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Remington 597 22 Mag

I ordered a 597 magnum for my father for father's day. He has a groundhog problem and found his Nylon 66 22LR lacking since he is getting up in age and can't see the sights. A scope on that sheetmetal receiver cover is useless.

Well, my brother has a 597 22 mag that has a nice Leupold on it. He's had zero issues to date with it. He loaned it to my Dad and has not been able to pry it back from him. So we decided to buy Dad his own.

The rifle arrived at my FFL last week. I took it to the range Saturday to sight in the scope. The rifle was immediately jamming, not cycling, but it seemed to get better as I shot. I was just about done sighting in and was confirming zero at 75 yards when I had a problem. It seems as though the extractor failed, leaving a fired case in the chamber. Somehow, the gun was able to feed a second round into the chamber and when fired, the magazine blew out the bottom of the gun. I found the floor plate, pot metal body, follower and spring scattered on the ground. The bolt was missing the operating handle and extractor. I found the operating handle.

Luckily, I was wearing safety glasses, as the side of my face was peppered with debris.

I called Remington today. They are sending a return label. The lady on the phone suggested I call CCI (the ammo I was using) as well. I am waiting a return call back from a CCI "technical assistant".

I'm interested in what Remington and CCI have to say. To me, it seems the problem was a failed extractor.

Sounds like the bolt opened before the bullet got out of the barrel, or it fired out of battery. Neither is a good thing.
Honestly, the .22 Mag has always caused problems in autoloaders, from the git-go.

Maybe a boltgun would be a better choice...........

I think it fired out of battery. I wanted to go with a bolt action, but my father seems struck with my brother's gun. I'm NOT a fan. I guess when someone has not had and issue, they think everything is good.

Remington had the same issue with the 597 in 17 HMR. Resulted in a recall. There is definitely a reason why Ruger and others have not produced a magnum 22 autoloader.

Oh well, we will see what happens.

Did the extractor tear the rim off the first round, leaving the rest of the case in the chamber? That would seem to allow another round to feed into the chamber but maybe not allow the bolt to close all the way. Just speculating. I have a 597 in .22 LR that blew the extractor out the first time I used it with Remington Golden Bullet ammo. The Remington repair shop fixed it and I've never had another problem. If the rim did tear off, it could be ammo-related.

Yes, the bottom portion of the case is missing on the round recovered from the chamber (as pictured above). I'm just not sure if the extractor pulled it off, or the second round firing and subsequent explosion and bullet caused the case failure.

I guess I could post a pick of what came out of the chamber compared to a new round.

I have a CZ 512 .22 mag semi-automatic and think they got it right.

I've still got the 17 hmr version. It's been a great rifle and yes I do still shoot it.

My son has the 17 HMR version. He is heck on groundhogs with it. It originally had issues, but found out that using some Volquartsen parts to make the bolt heavier as well as their extractor, springs and proper headspace, as well as a new magazine, the gun has been fine. He chose not to take Remington's generous offer of $200 for a gun that cost twice as much, and fixed what Remington would not.

I was a little surprised of the problems with this 597 in 22 mag. My brother's has been flawless. According to my tracking number(Remington sent a pre-paid UPS label to return the gun),it will arrive at Remington Tuesday.

Got word from CCI back this week:

"fired out of battery .079� and we can see as little as .012� can cause a head rupture."

The gun showed up on the Brown Truck (without notice) Tuesday. Luckily, the wife was home.

I ran 50 rounds through the gun this afternoon without issue.

Actually, Ruger DID make the 10/22M for awhile. They quit when,




wait for it........






















they fired out of battery when they got dirty.



They have to be kept FASTIDIOUSLY clean, at least run a boresnake down the barrel every fifty rounds or so. My buddy DRob, over on rimfirecentral, had his custom 10/17HMR blow up in his granddaughter's face when he took her PDoggin' in South Dakota. Ruined the gun, but the little girl was just fine. He built it himself, with all the RIGHT stuff, and it still blew when it got a bit dirty. She'd taken it over the hill to get at some dogs, and didn't know it needed cleaning every so often.

I have wanted a keltek pmr30 for a few years but have held off cause the unusual 22 mag semiauto issues. I have a 597 in 22LR and like it better than the four 10/22s I own.

my 597 rem 22lr was very accurate right out of the box. I missed a .22 mag 597 sale from bass pro for 220 dollars each.

my 10-22's are fun. but, for a few dollars more, I've wondered why ruger didn't improve them.

I had the 597 in 17hmr and I loved it. I decided to play it safe and have Remington rebarrel it to .22mag because I was not about to take $200 for a $400 gun that they didnt build right. It took about 6 months to get the gun rebarreled and when it returned, it wont cycle ammo. I took it to a gunsmith who said the wrong spring was in it, and replaced it and stated it worked fine. I took the gun out and tried it and it stil wont cycle. I contacted Remington and the gun smith in Minnesota who rebarreled it for Remington, and neither will even respond to my emails to discuss it. I guess I need to find a better gun smith and get it running.

No one has ever been able to make a truly reliable 22 mag semi auto

The long case presents too many problems on a blow back design