Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Issue wth my 721 Remington

This summer I bought a Remington 721 at our local pawn shop. But I just got around to shooting it Sunday. t shoots great and there's a lot of potential for improvement of group size. However, it has one issue. When feeding from the magazine when you push the bolt forward to chamber a round the round pops up over the bolt and usually flip around backwards. I'm thinking the feed rails may be worn toward the front. Whatchall think? The rifle is overall in pretty good shape and the barrel seems to be fine judging from the group size. Were 721s known for such problems?

I've never heard of that sort of problem being common with 721s. My guess is it's some issue with the magazine spring and/or follower.

I own several 721's and have never had an issue like that at all.

They are known for extraction problems

I have had several 721's, they fed like they were greased and I never had any extraction problem with any of them....

Very unlikely the feed rails are worn, more likely someone may have messed with them.

Counter intuitive I know...stretch the follower spring out about 25%...and then with the assembly out of the rifle sitting level on the benchtop, tweak it 5 deg. additional forward tilt.

Really, never been a problem for me.

[quote=Poconojac
Very unlikely the feed rails are worn, more likely someone may have messed with them.[/quote]
That's what I was thinkng that somebody might have taken a file to them. If so you reckon there's a way to repair them? Anyway, I'm going to look at the follower and spring first.

Are the magazine spring and follower installed properly?

Fully agree.....but there might have been some rechambering in the past.....possibly from .30-06 to .300 Win mag.....or from .270 to .270 Weatherby. This might cause the problem you describe.

Brass ammo just won't wear fine steel rails. It's not the rails directly, just indirectly.

If it was mine, I'd take it apart, take the sheet metal box mag, clamp a square bar of steel in a vice, parallel with the floor sticking out from the vice. I'd place the box mag over the steel bar (actually the bar inside the box) and slowly tap the outside of the box with a hammer to take some of the toe in out of the top of the box. What you're trying to do is open the upper box mag to give the rounds more room under the rails.

I hope I've explained that. It's easier to do than to explain. Just don't go nuts. Tap a little and then try it. As you flair out the box mag lips you give the rounds more room under the rails. With more room under the rails, they won't pop out as quick. You're in essence, tuning the box mag so the ammo comes out from under the rails at the right time in the feed cycle.

It's not as hard as it sounds. Those sheet metal box mags aren't that expensive if you screw it up. But, you won't. If you take out too much taper, you can put it back by bending in the box mag lips. But, that won't happen.

DF

DF,

You can also do the same thing, easier and quicker, with flat-faced (non-serrated) pliers.

But I always try to start with the simplest solution, which is related to the most common problem. Which is why I suggested the problem may very well lie in the tension of the magazine spring--which may have been replaced. Quite often the "new" magazine spring is not tensioned correctly for the round--which doesn't necessarily mean it should be replaced. Often magazine springs can be "corrected" by tweaking the tension by bending them slightly with, again, pliers. Dunno how many "feeding problems" I've correct with that simple technique, but it's been a bunch. In general, if the cartridges are riding "up" in the rear end, increasing the tension in the front end of the spring often works--and vice versa.

The follower may also have been replaced, for whatever reason. Generally Remington 700 followers work in 721s (and 722s), but not always. But sometimes the problem isn't the follower, but the spring. The side-to-side angle of the follower can also make a difference, which again can be corrected by applying pressure to the the follower spring.

Remington 721/722/700 actions are remarkably flexible in feeding cartridges. As an experiment, I once filled the magazine of a 700 .30-06 with various round, including the .30-40 Krag and .300 Winchester Magnum. They all fed well enough to get the front of the bullet into the rear of the chamber.

Somebody sure could have screwed with the feed rails, or whatever. But again, I would recommend starting with the simplest possible solutions.

As far as I can tell it was made a .30-06 in August 1950 and never rechambered. It's just a plain jane ol' 721 .30-06. I'm hoping most of you are right and it's just the spring or follower.

I will and thank you for the advice. I'll definitely try that first.

Let us know what you come up with and how you worked it out.

DF

Someone tweakified the mag box, it now needs re-tweakification.

Agree with most of what's been said but pull the action out of the stock look at the feed rails from the bottom if they are still blued I bet they haven't been messed with. Follower and spring or mag box is my bet.

Would take a real "bubba" idiot to be grinding on feed rails...

But, I guess they're out there.

DF

Yeah DF but I think he needs to know they haven't been messed with to atleast eliminate worries that way. MB