Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Sako extractor conversion question on Remington 700

I had a gunsmith do one of these conversions on a 700 bolt after I broke the factory extractor. It does not extract, and it appears that the extractor does not extend far enough out to grasp the case. How do you get the extractor out of the bolt? I was told that it could be adjusted. Does anyone know how to do this? Help!

How long ago was the installation done? take it back to the smith and squeek at him. If the mill cut is wrong, he might owe you a bolt. There are different sizes of the sako style extractors, depending on the bolt face, it will be a somewhat different installation.
To get it out, just depress the pin and spring at the back of the extractor hook with a pin punch or small tool and lift out the claw.

Is this a common thing with Remington extractors? It seems like I hear about this Sako conversion quite a bit. I don't own to many Remingtons but the ones I do have, have never given me any problems with the stock extractor.

It is only a problem with numbnuts like me who force a cartridge into a tight necked chamber without first turning the necks and break the extractor and part of the lip of the bolt face getting it out.

Craig

I've seen exactly one M700 extractor failure.It was on 22-250 that had been overloaded and had ruptured a case head which also took out a chunk of bolt face along with the extractor.

Shooter didn't even realize anything bad had happened until he opened the bolt.

The Sako-extractor conversion is done by a few people who simply can't stand the Remington 700 extractor on theory alone. One gunsmith of my acquaintance was quite fond of doing it until a few of his customers (the typical hot-rod type handloaders) blew a few cases, which by some not-so-odd coincidence blew out right where he made the bolt-face cut for the Sako extractor. The gunsmith finally decided it was a bad idea and quit doing it.

I don't really know how many rounds I have put through Remington 700's over the decades, but offhand I can remember owning 700's in .204, .223 (several), .220 Swift, .243, .250 Savage, .260, .270 (several), 7mm-08, 7x57, .30-06 (several), .300 Winchester Magnum and .35 Whelen Improved. Obviously some were chambered for wildcats. The total nmber of rounds must be in the tens of thousands, and more likely over 100,000, since some were used for prairieie dog shooting.

I have yet to have a 700 extractor break. Not that it can't happen, but obviously the odds are pretty low. I also can't remember a 700 not extracting a case. Yet I constantly read about the POS 700 extractor....

I also have never broken a bolt handle off on a 700, yet from some of the Internet stuff you'd think that they fall off every 100 rounds or so. (And yes, I have stuck a case or three in 700's, and had to tap the bolt handle to open the action.)

Amen

Playing in the "high accuracy, custom M700" world a bit, I've kept my eye on the M700-Sako or M16 Extractor conversion situation for a bit and can offer the following;

From a safety perspective, you are "breaking" what Remington calls their "3 rings of steel". You've now introduced a breech in the rings and should a case let loose, gasses now has a more ready path back at the shooter.

From a practical perspective, I'll share what my Marine 2112 friend told me. The USMC used/uses the M700 action as the basis for their M40M40A1/M40A3 Sniper Rifles. Some of their receivers were in service originally as Vietnam era M40's (beginning in the 1960's) and were rebuilt into M40A1's. IIRC they were finally retired in 1996 or so when they went to the M40A3 (finally with new M700 receivers!). These guns are probably fired more than any M700's are ever fired. They have worn out recievers (something Remington's engineers apparently had never seen before). My friend was head of Sniper Section at the PWS and had a role in working out the configuration during the fielding of the M40A3. They went with the stock extractor on purpose.

Sam, I had a Rem extractor break on an elk hunt (you and I must two of the very few) but then had the Sako extractors added and they've both gone 15 years + with nary a problem. That doesn't answer you question but I'd start with the guy who put it in unless you've lost all confidence.

edited to add, that in reference to JB's comment, at least theoretically, it would seem to then forever be a weaker area on the bolt so I hand load judiciously, which we of course do anyway.

Also, my extractor broke with a "medium" load in my .338 Win, a 225-gr Nos Part at about 2700, probably hundreds of which had been fired before. The problem was it didn't happen at home which would have been no big deal but on the third day of said elk hunt which relegated me to camp jack since neither I nor my buddy took a spare.

I'm curious about what would cause a 700 extractor to break.

Although I'm not familiar with the Sako, yeah, the 700 extractor is smaller than the Mauser, Model 70 (pre-64) or whatever. But so what? How much larger does it have to be to pull full length resized cases, fired at proper pressures, out of a barrel?

I've never heard of an M16 extractor breaking, or a Weatherby MkV either.

Maybe the problem was one of weak metallurgy as opposed to extractor design.

I don't know but believe like JB says, the incidence is somewhat like winning the grand lottery; the problem arises when it does at some very inconvenient time. Stuff (or the vernacular) happens.

One of the early articles that Ross Seyfried wrote for Rifle magazine was about his dangerous game rifle, a Remington chambered in .416 Rem. He wrote a bit about the Remington extractor and told tales of its strength. His opinion was that any problem with the sliver of steel failing would be due to poor heat treatment, a problem that would demonstrate itself early in the rifle's life. Failure of the bolt resulting from other damage is not due to the design of the extractor.

To address your original question, I am not aware of any adjustment. You should go back to the smith and have him make it right.

While I agree that the chances of the 700 extractor breaking are low, I have had this conversion done on several of my 700's. I have NEVER heard of the Sako extractor failing. I do not hot rod my loads and feel better when going on hunts with the conversion being more confident that I will not have an extraction problem on a once in a lifetime trophy or worse yet in a dangerous game situation.

John,

I've never had a Remington extractor give me trouble, either, but I have had 2 bolt handles come off. Once during shipping and once I opened my gun case in Africa to discover the handle had popped off one of my rifles s my case worked its way through the baggage handling system. That was a long time ago, and I've never had a problem since I started taking the bolts out of my guns when I ship them or fly.

Just out of curiosity, how much on average does it cost to have the Sako conversion done?

Watched a friend break his extractor while on an elk hunt. He was shooting a .300 Ultra using factory ammo. It appeared that the extractor was shaving brass. Some of the shavings may have gotton under the extractor, it popped out of it's groove. When he tried to close the bolt on a round the extractor would't snap into the groove (in the case head) which kept the bolt from closing completly. The bolt was closed with a little additional force, when he the bolt opene after firing it ripped the extractor out of it's groove destroying the extractor.

The extractor on my .300 Ultra also had a habbit of shaving brass.

Another friend who made yearly trips out west to shoot PD's carried spare extractors and the tools to install them in his equipment box. He's seen a few extractors that had to be replaced.

Your "friends" appear to fall into the same of category of people Nash Buckingham was describing once, like the guy who shot 24 doves with 25 shells of .410. Absolutely AMAZING feats to say the least.

No idea, as I have never had a Sako extractor installed on a Remington. I don't have a problem with the Remington action, but if I feel the need for an extractor, I build the gun on an M70 action. If I had to guess, I'd say 75% of my custom rifles are built on M70s.

Depends on who does it, but expect to pay between 125-150 with parts. Don't have someone do the conversion who does not do it on a regular basis.

The late Dave Gentry did Sako extractors on 700s and I presume now his son does also (Gentry Custom Guns). Shilen also did this work and I imagine there's a bunch of others I'm not aware of.

The cost was not prohibitive as mentioned by a poster above and all theories of weakening the action and probabilities of it happening aside--like getting hit by lightening, it's always very inconvenient when it happens--my two 700s , one a Dave Gentry 270 Wby, since sold, and a 340 Wby worked very, very well for a combined two and a half decades.

Like cosmetic surgery if done well it looks and functions the same, if not, well,..