Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Reference - Remy 700 bolt swapper markings to know about

Just so you have a reference to point you buddy too that told you ... ah just swap out the bolts in those rifles, they are all the same..
Um - maybe.... Maybe NOT.

Keep in mind they didn’t do this throughout history...

For those who don’t know Remington, and I’m pretty sure Kimber figured out that they could cut the cost of building a rifle after the barrel was chambered by using bolt’s with different length lugs... here’s the marking on the bolts that tell you which one you have.

So they have 3 bins of bolts, and actually 3 bins of recoil lugs of different thicknesses as well... first they try to headspace with the bolts, if they have to they swap lugs... if that doesn’t work the barrel has to be worked.

What percentage of "prick punched" standard .440" length to "unmarked"undersized lugs to "oversized grooved bolt lugs are found in Remington 2 lug actions from the 40's to the present?
Any guess?

How many bolts have you seen/witnessed?

Have you ever mic'd material thickness variations from blanked/stamped parts from a 4'x8' sheet of any material.
hint-
there are slight .001"-.002" variations unless the material comes w/ a tested industry standard.

The point is the fact they used different size bolts & lugs as a standard manufacturing practice isn’t that widely know so “kitchen table gunsmiths” may exchange bolts without checking them. Enough people know it existed / exists as a practice that it shouldn’t be ignored.

Talking accurate and precise measurement is simple, however how it’s applied is much more complex.

I don’t think (at least I hope) you aren’t saying optical and electrical precision measurement sensors haven’t existed for Decades... CNC machines, and Digital Read Out’s are pretty standard on the mills and lathes used to make bolts... Welding robots on auto manufacturing lines wouldn’t use a .0001 or better sensor though but they probably measure something now don’t they :),

That's interesting information.

I’ve got a bunch of 700’s and didn’t know that. I do remember seeing a punch mark on one of them and thought it was just a flaw. Now I know.

I was surprised when I learned it - but thought it was a smart thing to do to save time. That was years ago I wasn’t a Remington fans so I kind of ignored it, I had a good gunsmith and it didn’t impact me, I’m pretty sure Richard’s gone now.

I have never seen the marking convention documented though so when I finally saw it I saved a picture.... I ran across that pic last week and thought it would be a good thing to post for others. The guy who originally posted it name is at the bottom of the picture.