Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 700 Problems

Didn't prove your point. Gunsmiths do it because it makes them more money. It's not a necessary conversion unless the boltface is opened up. You go ahead and do it.....I'll keep not doing it. None of my 700's have failed and I've had lots and lots of them. I guess I'm the only Remington shooter that hasn't had a supposedly "notorious" problem.

I have a 700 in 416 Taylor that I had to use a hammer to open the bolt one time, but the extractor pulled the case out. The problem was that I used pull-down IMR4895 and I found it was faster burning than new production IMR4895. So lots of pressure and the bolt wouldn't open. Never personally had a Remington extractor fail to extract.

Try cleaning out any brass shavings under the lip of the extractor first.


Yeah that!!!

+1 been there and done that.....

Skull and crossbones I think is what you meant but yeah we got it.....

I have a Rem 700CDL 7mm Rem Mag that did exactly the same thing first time I used it.
After firing a round I could lift the bolt easy enough but couldn't pull it back to eject the case. I inspected a few fired cases and could see longitudinal scratches just above the case belt.

I bought a piece of dowel and tightly supa-glued a 25mm strip of 600 W/D sandpaper around one end,waited for it to dry, covered it in Rem oil and lightly turned it around the rear portion of the chamber (it was a tight fit) It fixed the problem in a few minutes.


I've fired several hundreds rounds in that rifle now and never had a problem.

I had an original XCR in 7mm Rem Mag do the same thing. Brush with 0000 steel wool did the trick. After that, it quit marking up the brass and I didn't have to push cases out of the chamber.

Here's a little tip: Just because it's a "new" gun does not mean it's perfectly clean.. ANY new firearm should first be cleaned before it's shot.. Otherwise you have no idea if there's some dust, grit, (whatever) sitting in that chamber or bore and it's simply prudent to ENSURE there's nothing in there before you fire it.

Second - M700 extractors are the most often part failing in that model. Either breaking, improper tension or just plain wear, that part is the one most often replaced - and I get these in for that exact reason several times/year..

Eliminate one variable - clean that chamber first. Wrap some steel wool around a bronze brush that'll fit snugly in the chamber, oil it up and use a high-speed drill for about a minute. Remove, clean and inspect.. It should look like a mirror finish in there..

Now test fire. The shells should come out easily.. If the extract still slips over the rim, then take a good hard look at that extractor. Is it split? Is there a piece missing? Does the lip not protrude fully into the bolt face?

If yes to any of those, you can send it back to Rem (and it'll take 3-4 weeks to get it back) or you can take it to your local smith for a fix - which may take a day or two..

Up to you..

I'm not having any problems extracting a unfired cartridge, just fired cartridges. I took a look at it last night and it is definitely leaving a long scratch on one side, so apparently it has a burr in the chamber. I am going to try the steel wool trick and if it doesn't fix it, I'll send it back to Remington.
By the way, I've owned a pile of Remington Model 700s and I've never had any problems. This is the first time I've ever had a problem with one.

New gun does not equal a clean gun. Every new rifle, even new to you rifles, should be taken apart, cleaned and inspected to make sure everything is snug and clean.

I had a M700 270wsm. I had to have 2 extractors replaced after a total of about 50 rounds of shooting. I traded that gun off. I am now having issues with my M700 260. I have shot that gun 100+ times, but now when I slowly pull the bolt back when I want to catch the brass when bench shooting... it drops the empty case nearly every time inside the gun before ejecting it. I have had Remington M700 rifles for years but I am getting tired of extractor issues.