Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Rem 700 extractor removal and install

I took my Rem 700 300 WSM to the range yesterday. I shot handloads and factory ammo out of it, and ran into some issues. Hard bolt close and then several of the rounds whether fired or unfired would not extract. From my limited research it seems to be an extractor issue. How easy is it to remove the Remington extractor and replace it? I’ve done it on AR’s, but never a Rem 700.

Not a hard job if you got the right tools, yours will be a riveted extractor, I made a special anvil to fit the bolt face to peen over the rivet. If you never done it I would take it to a gunsmith that has, or you can try it just buy extra rivets just in case.

All that.

Some just pop in and out, and some as gemby said are riveted in..
I would thing that a WSM would be a new enough rifle that it would be the pop in and out type, but I am not sure when they switched over from rivet to the snap in type.

Thanks gents. It looks like no one has any in stock, which is no wonder with the state Remington was in before they were sold off. I may call a gun Smith to see if they have any in stock, if not I’ll have to consider a Sako style or extractor or selling it all together.

Make sure there is nothing under the extractor like a sliver of brass. Get a pick and clean under it before you replace it.

Large or magnum bolt face has riveted extractors not snap ins

Use the ar extractor over the sako if you go that route

You might check and see if the barrel or chamber is correct.. I had a .264 that had an egged chamber and even moderate loads would not extract... Just a thought!!

Ok, I went back and checked and I think I have some brass or die issues instead. I cleaned up the bolt really good during my lunch break and found a box of Nosler factory ammo I had. All of them ran through the gun just fine with no issues. I had two rounds of Hornady factory I ran through it as well. Closing the bolt on one did require some muscle over the other, but not bad. I then pulled out my seating die and seated my reloads that wouldn’t chamber well a little deeper, that did nothing. So I pulled out my Tikka T3 .300 WSM, and tried to chamber my reloads that wouldn’t chamber, all but one would not chamber. What gets me, is that I bumped the shoulder back .002” on all of them and they were once fired brass. I was running ladder tests, so all of the brass is not of the same make, but all the ladders for one were all the same brass, and so on, ex 10 rounds of Hornady once fired for this load, and 10 rounds of Winchester for load x. Any ideas?

Get a marker and paint up the brass at the shoulder and toward the head and to the bullet ogive.. See what's rubbing. That should tell you all you need to know to fix the problem. Guessing a die adjustment.

1x fired brass in the same rifle or a different rifle?

Does the brass OAL need trimming (probably not)?

How did you size the brass? And was the once fired already from your rifle?

Wonder if you need to FL size the cases

Edit - see I’m saying the same thing as Sako.

Ok, so the brass is 1x fired from this rifle. I used a FL Hornady die and they were full length resized. I did marker the bullet itself and no marks were left. The bullet is seated deeper than the CBTO is due to magazine restrictions.

Gemby you are right, Mag are rivet type, my bad. I had a brain fart.

On a WSM there is no belt so the brass may not be sized enough. Check the shoulder length on factory brass and see what your reloads measure. I like to bump my shoulder back about .002 from the fired condition.

Did you marker up the shoulder and head area? You didn't say.

Yea, I went back and did this later last night. On all of my problem ones, they all had markings where the case shoulder and body come together, below what would be the datum line. The marker was removed all the way around on them in that area.

Unscrew the die so it's barely doing anything.. Take a new piece of brass that does not chamber and turn the die in and then check for chamber fit. Keep going a 1/16 turn at a time until the die is adjusted correctly.

You can get a piece of brass that fits and screw the die down on that piece of brass for a quick adjustment to get you close.

You didn't say if you measured the shoulder bump. You can take a piece of pistol brass that fits over the WSM neck (brass that fits your chamber) and lands on the datum or close. Measure both pieces of brass, one on top of the other. That will give you a shoulder measurement to shoot for. Try it with a piece of brass that does not fit to show where you need to go.

So before I reloaded the ammo with the issues. I did measure the shoulder and bumped it back .002”. I have not remeasured as the battery in my calipers kicked the bucket Monday. I have a new battery as of last night, so I will remeasure and see what I get. Thanks for all of the tips everyone.

I will say, I had a ladder test that was done from a different powder and primer combo, but same bullet. No issues at all with those. They were loaded earlier this year, where the problem ones were loaded last year around November time frame. It is possible that I wrote something down wrong measurement wise and ran with it. Looking at the brass of the ones I had issues with, it was Winchester and Nosler brass, Hornady brass were the ones with no issues.

Sounds like the shoulder needs to be bumped back a little more.
Like has been mentioned, mark the shoulder with a sharpie and check (which you did), have your rifle handy and check a sized brass in the chamber. Pay attention to how the bolt feels as it is closed.
Like was mentioned above, turning the die a 1/16 of a turn at at time until you have easy bolt close and no marks on the shoulder of the brass.
Than you can measure that piece of brass to see how much setback it required.

Hope that helps, alot of knowledge on here to be tapped into!