Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles My Rem 700 bolt handle broke off....

I know of two rifles that have lost bolt handles, one a Remington 700 and the other a Tikka, although the Tikka had suffered some sort of "explosion" that also caused one of the bolt lugs to sheer off..

With regards the Remington, variations of those have been the issue sniper rifle for the US Army and the US Marines since the 1960's, so If there was anything majorly wrong, one of those outfits would have found it....

Then you shouldn't be hunting with them. How can you hunt with a rifle that's not sighted in?

Swampman700, I wish you continued success using 700s, we all have varied experiences, was sharing mine. No insult to those who use something different than what I choose.

It is a rare experience, and yes likely millions of rifles mfg/sold/used and however few, hundreds perhaps, maybe thousands....I don't know. I do know, I don't want to chance it ever again, based upon MY experience. FWIW, I have owned/used MANY 700s, a few 7s, and 600s, and had hit/miss quality in a 50/50 ratio, various defects, the bolt breakage the most disastrous.

As to Howa, they are very well mfg. products in my experience, and it's sad to say better finished than many USA made products. Remington's are not completely junk, but they are not the end all, even though many who have had complete success swear by them.

To my way of thinking, Sako pre-garcia's left a precendent in mass mfg. rifle quality.

As to accuracy, I have had good and bad Remingtons and Winchesters, had solid results with Howa and Sako, and Ruger, my last 3 Ruger's were falling block #1's which all shot sub MOA out the box, plenty good for the deer sized game those rifles were intended for in the 243s and 25/06 I had, one shot 3/8" with handloads. Nothing to sneeze at, and a 77 in '06 also was a solid MOA rifle, and it was a later MK2, so the bbls as you may know are now mfg. in house, hammer forged IIRC, just like Rems, and I can tell you, they were all smooth and consistent pushing a patch thru as my Sako's and Howa's.

Accurate rifles DO come in other brands than Rem, and likely fit their owners better i.e. a Ruger 77 Stock fits me like a glove, vs others on the market, and that accounts for alot away from the bench. I challenge REM only users to open their mind to giving other brands a try and learn for yourself just how well other rifles DO shoot, even had a Browning abolt micro medallion shoot next to my Rem varmint rifle, and both in same 7/08 caliber. Granted it was good for 3 shots, again fine for its purpose.

Back to the bolt durability issue, I never once heard of a Sako or Winchester, M-98, Howa or Ruger for that matter break. Not so with Rems if you listen to others. Murphy's law, however common or not, and related to design IMHO. I did speak to one un named CUSTOM mfg. and they admit about 1 a year come back, brazing comes apart, they repair it. Not a big problem for a bench shooter or varmint hunter. ON dangerous game, the buyer and user must decide what level of confidence they have in their equipment, and are they willing to accept the worst case scenario should one have that place out.

FWIW, there was once a day when Rems were the mainstay of what I owned in centerfires but today, I have only one because I promised not to sell it to the man who had cancer and passed it on to my son.

I enjoy others and wish all the best in whatever others choose to use.

65Br,

Doesn't anybody make a replacement bolt with a one piece handle for the Remingtons?

To be honest, I've never owned a Remington or a Winchester, as the build quality of those I've seen over here has always been a bit suspect. For instance, in the early 1990's, a local gunshop had a batch of Remingtons in that had no rifling for the last 4" of the barrel...Also the triggers on most Remchesters tended to be pretty aweful..

Add to that the price over here is a lot higher that you guys pay, so the European brands often look a lot better buys..

So I've ended up buying Sako, CZ's, Howa and a Ruger...I can quite believe that the todays Remingtons are a lot better and I am really keen to see the new Winchesters now FN are in he driving seat...

Regards,

Peter

To your point Peter, alot of the problem 700s I had were mfg. in very late 80s and thru 90s. CZ I left out but are well regarded also. I can imagine that perhaps QC is improved in Rems, I do wonder about the newer triggers on the FNs M70s, the old ones were very tunable and reliable. Rugers simply need honing/spring mod or replacement with custom.

The last rifle I built was amazingly accurate for me, a Stiller action, Bartlein bbl, 6mmBR, it shot the first 3 shots CONSISTENTLY into 1/4" at 200 yds, whether 66-70 grains, 105 amaxs, etc. It had a Jewell trigger.

Good shooting Peter.

Once you do a custom action rifle, and compare to a factory in all regards inc. resale, it's easy to see the value and rationale for building custom IMHO. I think Sako makes a great rifle, but the price point is getting cost prohibitive for most buyers. The Tikka's are much better priced, with some cost savings in the mfg. process, but they usually shoot very well, also having Sako bbls.

I believe 1 pc 700 handles are mfg. IIRC but not sure, there are several smiths who will drill and tap 'insurance screws' and I wonder if the armory for the military does any mods, as I believe I read the Sniper 700/M40s have 8-40 screws upgraded at the armory. Not sure if any additional work is done on the brazing or more critical QC is done. Having said rifle fail in combat would be disheartening to say the least.

When I look at overall costs, I have ZERO doubt, the top rifles, whether custom or mass produced will shoot with the first decent load tried. I have had others that you can wasted not only a good bit of money, but time reloading and range time, let alone gas getting there, so 100-200 bucks or more can be spent in finding good loads and/or tweaking from the factory. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes unlucky. I think Rem has a great platform and the POTENTIAL accuracy is very good assuming good QC is maintained in ALL steps of MFG, but the bean counters have not ensured that, so like cars on a production line, some brands simply have tighter QC.

The FN rifles I have yet to experience, but can imagine they are more consistent, I hope or they may be doomed. Winchester mfg. some good rifles I bought in the early-mid 90s, but I also had a few not so good, such as a Coyote 223 with botched rifling the last few inches of bbl, visible to the eye, and very poor grouping, often 2-3" at 100 yds, very poor.

Excuse me! I never said anything about not sighting in. Your assumptions are as glaring as your apparent lack of experience.



399 yards. And I still have no idea what size groups it shoots. (I don't recall ever shooting paper with the rifle used on that hunt.)


Oh, and BTW, before you ever fly again, remember this, the engines which carry you skyward use combinations of parts which are machined, forged, and cast. There is nothing wrong with any of those processes.

Sighting in and going hunting, another tough concept.

amazing how helpless some are in the absence of a shooting bench...
and to be so presumptive of others... well???

The 700 makes a fine deer/varmint rifle, but for anything else, give me a big ole claw extractor.

Have to giggle at the fanboys, loyal against all logic or reasoning.

You can keep your push feed woodchuck guns.

My rem clone (Stiller) has a screw through the bolt handle...insurance I suppose

please

Based on that logic why do use REmington 700's?

Perhaps the bolt head, the locking lugs, are forged. (It's quite possible that the three-piece Remington bolt uses a machined billet body, a forged -and machined head, and a cast handle. The handle is very probably a casting judging from the marks on it.)

Amazing. Apparently our friend Swampman hasn't shot a Ruger for almost 20 years, since they started making their own barrels. I have owned at least 15 Rugers made since then (abut 2/3 77's) and have found them just as easy to get to shoot as the average 700. If either doesn't shoot out of the box, then I free-float the barrel and they're good to go.

Of course, Swampman is the same guy who has told us all about New Ultra Light Arms rifles without, apparently, ever shooting one.

Yep, M40A1's and M40A3's have plain ole Rem 700 bolts. Another telling thread...

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Don't have a clue about the M40 but the M24 is the basic remington bolt. I'm pretty sure for the price Remington's QC is going to better than a basic sps.

Oh I don't know, my 70s seem to shoot "good enough": Target And I don't have to worry about glued on bolt handles, sheet metal extractors and fail on fire safeties. My 416 shoots about the same...jorge

Oh my your adding more fuel to this fire your going to upset Swampman