Just curious what you guys think caused this. It's a brand new Remington Mountain SS in 7-08. I haven't shot it yet, and will probably not send it back to Remington as I am thinking of cutting the barrel back to 20" anyway (the rest of the barrel looks fine).

But is the handle still attached to the bolt body??
(Sorry, couldn't resist.. )


Looks to me like the pilot they used to cut the crown was a tad tight - and burnished the rifling a bit..

Do a new cut/crown and you'll probably be just fine..

That isn't right!
I've inly had one mountain rifle and had a lot of 700's. That Mountain rifle was modified by others by cutting muzzle breaks in the barrel. It shot about a 5" to 7" group off snad bags. I cut the barrel back to 20" and the rifle would put three shots into one inch. But it shot 5 shots into about 3-4"'s.
I'm rebarreling that rifle.
The reason I'm mentioning this is that rifle depreciated in value when I shortened it, on the market anyhow.
If you send it in, you should get a much better barrel/rifle. You could see how it shoots and if it shot to what you'd expect/want then you could shorten it. If not the rifle would still have value on the market
If you shorten your existing rifle, what are you planning on doing with it, if it doesn't shoot to your expectations?

Lol, I haven't had a chance to rip the handle off yet! I haven't bought a Remington in over a decade, and this one reminded me why.

Good points. I may end up sending it back to them and see what they say.

Ok, I turned in an online repair ticket. There are a few other issues that need to be looked at while they have it anyway.