Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Remington 700 375 H&H at a great price

I’ve never had an issue with a 700 extracting a spent cartridge. But some people seem to think that’s an issue. I have been shooting 700’s since the 60’s and I shoot a lot.
I have had a problem With extraction with a 6mm Mauser When I was young I substituted I believe it was 760BR and 760. Way high pressure.
Where did this myth come from on 700’s having weak extraction. It just isn’t so.

My present 375 H&H AI is a pre-64 Model 70. But a 700 would be just as good in Africa for me.

The facts are, the extractor is flimsy, sheet metal and prone to failure. There's been a few posts here through the years,most notably the writeup from the Zimbabwe Professional Hunter's field trials. So are the other host of issues with the 700s.

An excerpt: Remington 700. The 700 may be a very fine hunting rifle. I don't know because I've never used one, but I do know that it is a piss poor dangerous game rifle especially in .416 Rem caliber. Apart from the odd inexplicable misfire, a broken extractor cost us an elephant wounded and lost at Rifa. This is not the first year that I've seen a broken extractor on a Remington 700 in .416 either. In addition they are just about the hardest rifle to refill the magazine in a hurry. My memories this year of students and candidates using them is that of youngsters frantically trying to thrust cartridges into the mag, only to have a double feed, the rounds pop straight back out or many other problems. A two round reload took on average, twice as long with the Model 700's as it did with just about any other make of rifle. The difference between the Remington and the Weatherby is that the latter can be downloaded a little so as to operate flawlessly and the safety fixed, whilst I do not know that anything can be done with the Remingtons except to re-barrel them to a plains game cartridge and leave them at home when out after the dangerous stuff. To be fair though, all of the extraction problems seem to be confined to rifles in .416 and .375. and they seem reasonably reliable in .458 provided you are prepared to tolerate the awkwardness of the reload. I am not. A good single shot or even a Weatherby is a better choice.

Dang Jorge, don't hold back now!

I have had a couple of instances where I had to replace the extractor on M700 rifles.

Well, for whats it worth, I might make this Package Available for the Right Price, and it would include the Ammo as well......
Lj in Alaska....

On dangerous game you should be shooting instead and reloading the magazine. You can follow up helluva lot quicker feeding the chamber instead of the magazine. Might even live longer. Just saying. Don’t blame me. That’s just what I heard the big boys say?

Ive got very little experience on dangerous game, but what I have says to top off the magazine whenever there is a lull in the action....

Ingwe, would you feel vulnerable to being eaten or stomped by a nasty DG critter while holding a PF rifle?

DF

Not at all.

One reliable thing about 700 threads is Jorge will always weigh in what POS's they are, even though he had admitted to never owning one. (He does not have to respond to this, as we've gone over it before!)

I probably wouldn't buy a 700 .375 strictly as a dangerous game rifle--and I have had enough experience on DG to know that sometimes it's smarter to top off the magazine, and sometimes it isn't. Depends on circumstances and time.

One thing I would do if purchasing the rifle with any intent to use it on dangerous game is shoot it a LOT. This doesn't necessarily mean full-power loads, but enough ammo to make sure the extractor doesn't break within 100 or so rounds. If it doesn't, then it will last a long time.

Have never run into any difficulty with 700s feeding any vaguely appropriate ammo. In fact, once loaded the magazine of a 700 .30-06 with a .30-40 Krag, .300 Winchester and some other round in between that I cannot remember.( Oh, and a .30-06!) It fed them all well enough for the bullet to enter the rear of the chamber.

Have also owned both a 700 and a Ruger Hawkeye controlled-feed in .350 Remington Magnum. The 700 would feed ammo slickly, and the Ruger would feed it only with difficulty--until I spent half a day working the action over. Then it would feed OK, but not as slickly as the 700.

I also have actually hunted dangerous game with a Remington 700, and the grizzly guide was VERY impressed how quickly I got off repeat shots. They weren't needed, because the first bullet had gone through both lungs and the arteries on top of the heart, but when hunting dangerous game there's no harm in putting in more. (Oh, and yes, I had shot that rifle a LOT before the hunt.)

All true, and I give Jorge hell because he likes Weatherby MK Vs...and I hate them......though I've never owned one!

And I trust the Remington functioning as Ive owned a couple dozen of them of many different chamberings and have put thousands upon thousands of rounds through them.They remain my hands down choice for varmints, in which case they get used 100X more than any big game gun.


Agree with everything else JB says...shoot the DG gun a LOT. A whole lot. Before two separate safaris I put an aggregate of 2,000 ( yeah, thats 2K...) rounds through my .375 was completely confident with it and gratefully so...the most expensive and intense hunt of my life came down to a 85 yard shot that had to be taken offhand in the last 20 minutes of light on the last day of a 14 day hunt. No problem...

Now, 20 years later my shoulder ( and my Doctor) constantly remind me of those 2K rounds.....

Anyone with JB's experence should be taken seriously. I have had the feeding problem Jorge spoke of. One was a 300 Win and the other a 222 Rem. I attributed them to improper loading on my part as it only happened a few times. Spent most of my life with a gun in hand or in the truck so have considerable experence myself with shooting and handling. The real rub I had with Remington's were their triggers. Not only did I have one go off when disengaging the safety but the whole concept of an enclosed trigger in cold country is problematic. Knew of one enclosed trigger gun go off while warming up after being in the cold, while it was unmaned. There were 3 witnesses to that event. I had on 2 occasions had freezing rain and melting snow, freeze up the sear and render the gun useless till a Bic lighter could warm up the trigger mecanism of a box trigger. Sold my 700 375 after the last experence and the new owner had it freeze up on him. It is not just the 700's that have these enclosed triggers, many others have them as well. Probably the reason many military rifles had the common basic triggers found on Mauser military rifles. And if freezing coditions render an eclosed trigger inopperable I would assume sand, dirt and debris could as well. After spending decades with "rough charactors" in rough conditions there is a vast difference in working tools and pleasure tools. An old Colorado sheep rancher bought a new used gun every 2 to 3 years. He virtually destroyed them in that period of time. Makes me wonder if one of the newer durable plastic guns would have survived longer, then I remember seeing one of his rifles in which the barrel had a severe bend in it. Asking how it happened he replied he has used it as a pry bar to get his horses hoof free from being pinned between 2 rocks. My opinion is that for the majority of hunters about any rifle will function properly for a lifetime whereas my sheep hearder could tear up an anvil in a sandpile and even the finest most durable military type of rifle may only survive a year or so longer than the any other gun.

Uh oh better watch out, Jorge knows some people at Dallas safari club.. he had to name drop them to get weatherby to fix his non shooting weatherby

Thanks mule deer for responding. I don’t have have your expertise or talent as a writer to respond as you. You hit the nail on the head and covered everything I was trying to say. I have a number of 375 rifles of all makes. I usually carry the Remington because it fits me like a glove. Having used it in a lot of critical situations I know muscle memory will take over and get the job done. Jorge I wasn’t trying to be a ass, please don’t take it that way. Sometimes when the adrenaline starts flowing dangerous game just doesn’t know they’re dead. Recently got hold of a Brown Bear I had to shoot 12 times. I know the first shot killed him, he didn’t. I do know with putting a bubba shell holder on a 700 stock it’s amazing how fast you can shoot follow up with shots without reloading the magazine. Sometimes you just don’t have time for the magazine . Just keep stuffing that sob and shooting till they’re down and shoot again when they get up. That’s all I was trying to say. I just hope the damn bolt doesn’t fall off. All rifles are good if you practice enough. You just don’t know me if you’re good enough till the [bleep] hits the fan. JB I greatly admire your talent!
Happy Hunting

The trouble with DG rifles and shooting them a lot is with full power loads.
I have molds for each caliber I own. I was given some grief when I was spotted with a 264 WM and a cast bullet sticking out of the case. It’s not just about affordIng practice jacketed shooting and I shoot a bit. (My range is less than a hundred yards from my front door.)

I can’t imagine shooting 2,000 rounds of 400 (or greater) grain Jacketed bullets at full power before a DG hunt (I have bursitis and arthritis and old age). But 2,000 rounds of 400 (or less) grain cast bullets at 1,500 FPS - that’s doable. ( 2,000 ea. 400 grain solids cost...) Besides that those cast bullets are easier on the barrel.

I hunt with a few other guys and Remington 700’s are mostly used. I don’t recall a single problem other than a miss adjusted trigger. We’re mostly in our 70’s and 80’s now and there’s been quite a few bullets that have gone down those 700 barrels.

Now you guys didn't think I was just NOT going to respond, did you? I have owned two (well, I gave one back a Classic in 35 Wheelen right there at the store because the bolt lug channels were over cut and the bolt would not come back on extraction) and currently own one and said as much, a bull barrel 22-250 that I keep up in PA for long range ground hog hunting. That said, I've never owned a Yugo when they first came out but I think I'm on solid ground to say it is a POS. That varmint rifle I use basically as a single shot, NEVER engage the safety and it never goes off the front deck of the cabin.

I know there a LOT of you with far more experience than me, but for the life of me how you can accept a rifle like the 700 with its myriad of problems and poor design (like the extractor and the non-locking bolt safety, not to mention it is dangerously unreliable) is frankly,beyond me. As to the PF issue, not an issue with me.

No issues, Texon.

I see your proclivities for lacking original thought and being a quintessential ass, not to mention getting the facts as f ucked up as you appear to be, hasn't waned...

This is the first I have ever heard of someone being strong enough to actually bend a rifle barrel, without some sort of machinery (I presume he didn't have anything but himself to help torque on the rifle). Do you remember if it was a cheaper, thinner barrel of some sort? Maybe a shotgun barrel by chance?

I've had horses tumble and roll down hills, snapping rifle stocks in the scabbard and 4 wheelers flip, doing the same but the barrels were always straight enough to throw a new stock on and go. I've used old rifle barrels that weren't on an action to bang on and pry stuff, beat trap stakes into the ground and generally beat the hell out of. Their outside has been scraped up and marred, but remained straight enough to shoot.

Trashing an anvil isn't easy, but it happens...

Takes talent....

DF