Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bolt retraction problem on Rem 600 Mohawk

I bought a used Remington 600 Mohawk in .243 for use as a rifle for called coyotes and targets of opportunity. The bolt operates smoothly until I fire a round, and then it sticks halfway open. No hard bolt lift and the cases and bolt move easily for the first inch or so. Then it sticks as if it is binding. The empty case ejects fine once I get ithe bolt back and no pressure signs such as flattened primers, etc. Again, it only does this after firing a round. It does not matter if it the barrel and action are warm or cold. Is it an extractor/ejector problem, somehow wedging a case tight against the side rail as it leaves the chamber or ? Any suggestions on a fix? Has anyone else experienced this? I own many rifles of both push feed and controlled feed and have never run into this.

My advice from long distance is to clean and inspect the bolt and action. Try cycling the action with an empty fired case and a sized case. Try to collect some data on the problem, then, if it doesn't work, come back here for more advice from guys with more gun savvy than me. Good luck,

Marty

Calif. Hunter,

Aside from what Jerseybody noted, what brand of brass are you using? Have you measured the fired cases to see if some part of the body is larger than it should be?

I will check both of those things tomorrow morning. I did clean the rifle pretty thoroughly as soon as I received it.
I am using new Privi brass and fully resized Federal brass.

Thanks!

Are there any marks on the fired brass something indicating a rough chamber or a reamer mark in the chamber? Does it do it with the new brass or just the resized brass? Just looking for a little more info to try to reach a solution for the issue.

drover

I'll have a look at mine and see if anything comes to mind. I did have to shorten the front action screw as it was interfering with the bolt but it doesn't have the plastic bottom piece anymore. That wouldn't explain a partial bolt travel though. Is there any drag/wear/scratches on the bolt?

That's the first thing I would check. Back the front screw off half a turn and check

Are the screws on the front base too long?

Pull the bolt out (small pick down the port side to depress the bolt stop). Stick your pinky-finger in under the front and rear scope mount screw-holes to feel for protruding screws that the bolt could be dragging on.

I'd then pull the stock off and scrub the bolt rails with nitro-solvent and a toothbrush.

With the action out of the stock, fit the mag box into place in the bottom of the action to make sure someone hasn't buggered that up.

Check the stock for bedding high and low spots that could be "torquing" the action.

Check the rear action screw to make sure it's not too long and dragging onto bottom of the bolt as well.

My top 2 guesses are either the rear action screw or the rear screw on the front scope base dragging on the bolt.

my thought is the same as Mule Deer`s brass is over sized for the chamber once it is fired, you probably have a place in chamber is over sized and bolt can`t pull it out. i would bet that`s why the guy sold the rifle he knew there was a problem with this rifle. you probably need a new barrel sorry but the upside you can pick either the same cartridge or a new cartridge for the new barrel. good luck,Pete53


>> before you shoot this rifle again take it to a real gunsmith before some thing seriously happens to you or someone else.

My 600 is hard to pull back most of the time whether I've fired it or not. Wish Robar companies still did NP3

I double checked the bolt raceway and it is clean. I had my wife use her pinky finger to confirm that neither the scope mount or front action screw protrudes into the chamber.
I purchased the rifle from an estate sale where dozens of other firearms were sold, so it was not intentionally dumped by the seller due to this problem.
I do not see how to attach an image from my computer - I have a picture of the scratch but I do not have a "link" to post. There is a couple of small scratches touching each other on all the fired brass right at the base of the shoulder. That is not present on the unfired brass. I will make sure to clean the chamber very well, but it would seem that this is happening when the case is being extracted. I will check the surfaces of the action area. Could it be that the ejector is starting to put too much pressure on the case as it reaches that area as the case is being pulled out?

It could be that there is a burr or some other chamber defect that is causing some part of the expanded brass to "grab" as you try to extract it. I recently saw a brand new rifle that had a ding right at the mouth of the chamber with caused fired cases to have difficulty with extraction.

Since the bolt operates smoothly until a fired round. I think the answer MD gave is the most logical.
I sent you a PM.

There should be some taper to that fired 243 case. It doesn't make sense that if he can get the bolt open and moving towards fully open that it would fetch up on a tapered case even if it were oversize somewhere.

I agree with Mule Deer.

Try this: Completely cover a fired case with a sharpie. Place into chamber and close bolt. Pull case out and look for areas where coating rubbed off. It sure sounds like you have an area that is larger in diameter that has the brass conforming to that anomaly resisting extraction from chamber. If it isn't too severe it could be polished out.