Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Remington Extractors

A popular gun magazine devoted this month's issue to the many virtues of the Mauser 98 rifle. The writer's and outfitters took the opportunity to strongly criticize the remington extractor. The military sniper rifles use the remington extractor and the Chandler Brothers who build sniper rifles for "Blackwater" and others say that they do not have a problem with the remington extractors and use them on their sniper rifles. Why are guides and outfitters having such a difficult time with the remington extractor and the military is able to use this extraction successfully? Also, would you recommend replacing the remingotn extractor with a sako or M 16 extractor?

Idiots frequently criticise the Remington extractor. The M-16 and Sako extractor conversions are very dangerous. No good gunsmith will do one.

If there's a weakness in the Remington extractor , it's more than made up for by the Three Rings of Steel and the safety it provides the shooter !

i have shot a lot of rounds in various cartriges in a 700 and have never seen one fail. but sako type extractors are common add ons in my circle of shooters

Commissioner,

Welcome to the Campfire.

You just made one basic mistake already, however: "The writers and outfitters took the opportunity to strongly criticize the remington extractor."

Sorry, but one of the things that ticks many gun writers off is any blanket statement such as "all the gun writers say the .270 isn't adequate for elk," or "gun magazines always say blah blah blah...."

Here's one gun writer who contributed to the Mauser 98 issue, and never mentioned the Remington 700 extractor in my article. In fact I have even hunted "dangerous game" with a Remington 700 and it worked slick as snot--and I've mentioned that in national print.

Just a mild warning.

I think the factory extractor is very safe, but to say no good smiths will install them is a very short sided statement! You need to do your homework before making a statement like that...you should be ashamed!

I have some issues with the 700 type rifle when it comes to important hunts. However, the extractor isn't one of the 'problems' that rates a high position on my list. I've torn rims off with them, though I never hunt with loads that are snug or hot enough to tempt that problem. A well tested M700/M7 can be a very trustworthy rifle for just about any type of use IMO.

Only a matter of time before the bolt handle pic arrives

I don't know that guides are having such a difficult time - lots of ringing endorsements by folks who can shoot anything they want see e.g. Midway for a Remington DG build for his own use by their lead gunsmith a
man named Potter.

Similar to others my own experience has been that a Remington extractor took a large firm grip on a case that I loaded imprudently - twice - and then I learned better. It worked for me so I see no reason to change it.

I've never thought I could engineer better than the factory, and if tempted to think I could or should I'd buy something else first. The world is full of people who are tempted to improve and more power to them; sometimes their cast-offs are my bargains.

But rumor has it that there were at some times QA issues as there often are with springs - maybe I got a good one? and maybe a proper gunsmith fit with QA helps? - - and certainly with the 742 series - maybe that tainted the whole brand. Maybe folks aren't testing and preparing their equipment for hunts where they don't sleep at home every night as rumor says some didn't keep the 742 chamber in the best of shape. This is not likely to be an issue with the military.

No need, I also have pictures of a Remington extractor that failed.

Seriously - the reason no one else has problems with Remington rifles is because I get all the bad ones. In this case the extractor wouldn't snap over the rim of a case. The bolt would not close just by normal pressure and lowering the handle, you had to really slam it home. When you opened the bolt the extractor would spin around in its slot and then leave the next case in the chamber. I would use a little screw driver to push the extractor back around into position, slam it home and extract the case.

This wasn't a situation where a sliver of brass had wedged itself in the extractor or anything, I cleaned it scrupulously. Never did find out why it wouldn't work properly. Oh, BTW - I have had a sliver of brass get down into the ejector pin hole on more than one occasion and jam the ejector in the retracted position. The case would extract but with the ejector held back it would not eject. At least with that condition you could manually pluck the case from the bolt face.

Had the bad extractor replaced and the replacement works fine. When you look at it outside the bolt it's a wonder that it does work so well on so many rifles. It's a little sheet metal looking C shaped piece that isn't as big as a dime.

We have an Anne Frank memorial in town that I drive by occasionally. On the memorial it has a quote from her, "In spite of all that has happened, I still believe that people are truly good at heart."

I am reminded of that now - "In spite of all that has happened, I still believe that Remingtons are truly good at heart."

For those who don't need the picture to see that problem, they'll never look at a 700 the same again. I don't trust the ones I haven't tested thoroughly.

Jim, the heart is good....it's the LAD that can go bad, and w/o it the heart dies.......

So it is if one has a Rem bolt handle go bad, the heart of the action, all 3 rings dies ...as that's all it is then - 3 Rings of cold dead steel.

If there is a 'Test' to weed out the bad ones, then why do some go bad after they leave the Factory? Does Rem not 'test' them?

It's Murphy's Law as far as I am concerned. A small chance, but one I won't take on an expensive important hunt, or one where failure in my rifle might mean my inability to defend myself against an animal that can do bodily harm

I cannot understand why Rem refuses to fix their design flaw, when other mfg. HAVE one piece bolt handles. Whatever the # of beans extra it costs in true mfg. costs, can always be tacked on......yet I can always buy a Howa for the same or less money, or others.

Rem's might be 99% or 99.5 or 99.9% reliable on NOT having a bolt handle come off, but so long as they continue the same brazed design, some WILL fall off. It's Murphy's Law and it strikes w/o warning.

Hopefully none of you have that happen when you REALLY need that rifle to cycle.

The academics always pooh-pooh personal experiences like this as "anecdotal." Whatever their opinions doesn't change matters for those of us who have actually experienced quality failures in Remington products. I did.

In my case, I had a custom 375 H&H LH on a 700 action fail in a DG situation in Zambia. The bolt seized after the first shot on a cape buffalo. Thankfully, he took off in a different direction. I hammered the bolt open with the hilt of my Randall. The extractor held and later shots functioned properly, but I totally lost confidence in it as a DG rifle.

Yes, you could say that the high heat might have swelled the chamber, or that the custom barrel was a bit too tight, but I was using factory ammo. We tracked that buff for more than 12 hours over two days before losing its tracks in a herd. Thorn bushes, over 100 degree heat, walking forever, tsetse flies, yes it was a great experience, but one I do not plan to repeat. As soon as I got back I had a Model 70 controlled feed extractor and ejector installed.

I do not disagree that 700s tend to be accurate, but for DG use, I would never again use one.

Norm
_____

I never could see how brazed on bolt handles were a "design" flaw.

Especially given how the BARRELS on some of the finest and most expensive guns every built- British side by sides -are SOLDERED together and many of them have last over 100 years and many many cartridges.

If a good joint is achieved with brazing, you darn near have to destroy the two parts to get them apart.

Another interesting thing about the rem 700 action is the fact that most of the more expensive m700 clone actions still use the same bolt handle attachment system.

This is going to be fun;

An excerpt from:
Rifle Lessons Learned from the Zimbabwe Professional Hunter Proficiency Exam





Remington 700. The 700 may be a very fine hunting rifle. I don't know because I've never used one, but I do know that it is a piss poor dangerous game rifle especially in .416 Rem caliber. Apart from the odd inexplicable misfire, a broken extractor cost us an elephant wounded and lost at Rifa. This is not the first year that I've seen a broken extractor on a Remington 700 in .416 either. In addition they are just about the hardest rifle to refill the magazine in a hurry. My memories this year of students and candidates using them is that of youngsters frantically trying to thrust cartridges into the mag, only to have a double feed, the rounds pop straight back out or many other problems. A two round reload took on average, twice as long with the Model 700's as it did with just about any other make of rifle. The difference between the Remington and the Weatherby is that the latter can be downloaded a little so as to operate flawlessly and the safety fixed, whilst I do not know that anything can be done with the Remingtons except to re-barrel them to a plains game cartridge and leave them at home when out after the dangerous stuff. To be fair though, all of the extraction problems seem to be confined to rifles in .416 and .375. and they seem reasonably reliable in .458 provided you are prepared to tolerate the awkwardness of the reload.

Fire away

You guys must be bored. This has been hashed and rehashed many many times through numerous posts and threads. Ain't changing anybody's mind.
Butch

When I was working for a gunsmith, the only Remington bolt handles I saw that broke off were on that butt ugly M788.
As far as the extractors go, I have four Remington rifles, three M700's and an M660. The M660 finally wore the extractor out in roughly 5,000 rounds, most of those round being fired at the range over a very long period of time. I had it replaced and it's still going strong. The new one will probably outlast me.
Paul B.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling.........

I stand by my well researched statement.