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!

Are you using something like the Hornady tool to check the shoulder push back?

Yes.

Great. Make sure the case(s) you're using to set the f.l. die up has the fired primers removed as that can add a couple thou. to your measurements...makes it look like you're backing the shoulder up .002 or so when in fact you haven't touched it yet. -Al

Ok, so I stepped away from this for a day and then messed with it again yesterday. I am almost certain it’s an extractor issue. I took the cleaned, deprimed and now some of it 2X fired brass and some 1x fired brass and full length resized them bumping the shoulders back in different increments and all brass trimmed to 2.086”. I insert a case of one length and the bolt will close and then eject the brass just fine. I can do this and then the next one can have less or more shoulder bump and then the bolt will not close at all. I can mark the brass that the bolt would not close on, reinsert it and the bolt closes on it just fine and ejects the brass with no issues. For the factory ammo, all of the ones the bolt will close, but some are a lot harder than others. Take them out mix them up and then the one the bolt closes on easily before, the bolt will now not close at all. I even pulled the firing pin from the bolt and nothing has changed.

Gun gremlins.... Should be extractors around. Try Jack First, Brownells, Amazon, e-bay.

Doesn't take long to make a staking anvil. Store-bought run about $50 IIRC.. I have a home-built out of bar iron (not hardened either) that I used successfully on my .260. PM me if you need it. No guarantees tho - this is me....

If building your own, just take a gander at Brownells picture, as I did.

I've looked at several websites and I can't find any riveted extractors. I can find rivets, no extractors though.

If it was here, I'd remove the ejector next and see if the bolt closes freely on all cases. Keep the firing pin removed when you do this.

If it still acts the same, keep the ejector out and remove the extractor and try it.


You never answered if you had removed the spent primers before adjusting the f.l. die to push the shoulders back..... -Al

Not following how a primer would mess up bumping shoulders back? The middle of the shell holder is cut out to clear the primer.

What it affects is the measurement from case head to datum.

Yes. Primers were removed from all empty cases before I ever started working on this rifle. I always deprime and then wet tumble my brass.

Obviously, but the case head contacts the shell holder, the center is cut out to clear the primer.

When you use the Hornady tool, the caliper jaw goes across the primer pocket area of the case. Most fired primers will measure about .002-.003 above the case head.

If you don't remove the primers before you get your measurement, you can think you're moving the shoulder back a couple thousand when in fact you're just coming up on it.

Ahh, got ya. I was thinking setting the shoulder back, not measuring the setback.

Since I was just sizing some cases, I snapped these as an example.

Case head to datum (with fired primer in place) : 1.458



Same case with fired primer removed. Case head to datum: 1.456



If you incorrectly use the 1.458 as your 'zero' point and want to move the shoulder back .002, adjusting the die to get 1.456 only gets you back to the 'true zero' number. At 1.456 you're not moving the shoulder at all....just up to it. For .002 shoulder bump, 1.454 is actually where you need to be.

very good explanation

Al Nyhus, very good explanation. I was given an explanation almost identical to yours when I first bought the Hornady comparator and started using them. Honestly, this particular rifle has always cratered the primers. It doesn’t matter if it’s factory load which I shot innit exclusively until recently last year. Even weak loads in it will crater the primers. I looked at the rifle again and now any cases that the bolt will not close on or they are hard to close are leaving little slivers of brass on the bolt head right near the extractor. It they close, it does not do that.

Remove the ejector and see if it makes any difference. Get a plastic baggie and put the bolt in that when you pull the pin out...everything gets contained in the baggie.

How's the pin fit on the bolt face? Crater may have nothing to do with the chamber issue.

Will a piece of resized but un seated brass chamber? Often the brass will get into the crimp section during seating too soon and it will cause the shoulder to change shape. When this happens it is hard to spot if you don't know what to look for.

Place a new piece of brass flat on a surface and one that is giving you trouble next to it......make them touch at the case head and body length. They should be in contact the entire way. If there's light near the shoulder.....the situation I described is occurring. If there's light at the case head.....you pushed the brass beyond its yield point and short of a small base die or maybe comp shell holders....its trash.

Good advice. A couple of other points, while we're on the subject:

-The case-head-to-datum dimension generally gets bigger as the case is sized and the die screwed down to set the shoulder set back...right up until the shoulder of the case contacts the shoulder area in the die. Then, it gets less as the shoulder is pushed back.

-If the neck is sized excessively and the expander has to really pull the neck back open, the shoulder at the neck/shoulder junction can get pulled forward and cause hard chambering. As this isn't the datum point, you often won't see this as an increased case-head-to-datum figure. But the bolt will still close hard as the shoulder shape is changed.

This is pretty common and seems to be more of an issue with the WSM stuff I've worked with.

Hopefully, the O.P. is checking the case fit w/o using an expander during sizing?

An oversized firing pin hole (not uncommon with Remington rifles) will cause cratering even with the mildest loads. It's mostly cosmetic but I think it can cause a primer to leak. Greg Tannel does an outstanding job bushing the bolt head and turning down the firing pin to fit the new much smaller firing pin hole.

He has a YouTube video explaining the process as does his web page. I have had it done and highly reccomend it.

Al Nyhus, I did some with and some without the expander ball. There is no difference at all between the ones with and those without it. I’m debating my options at this point.

Hudge, it sounds like you're covering all the bases pretty well. Did you ever remove the ejector and try it? The strong spring on the ejector puts some significant side loading on the cases that could be seen as hard chambering if the extractor groove on the case is getting jammed against the extractor itself.

It wouldn't hurt to check the depth of the extractor groove on your cases and compare it to other brands, as well. I've got a fair mix of WSM cases here for comparison. -Al

Al, no I haven’t removed it yet. I’d like to haves spare roll pin first, as I like to lose them when I take things apart that have them.

Ok, so I revisited this issue yesterday with this rifle. I put new batteries in my caliber a few months back so they were available. I used my Hornady Headspace gauges before and after firing. The Nosler favorite ammo, all had the datum line at 1.787-1.788”. I also used reloads I use in my Tikka T3 .300 WSM, and the datum line all measured 1.794” using the head space gauges. Before firing I loaded 3 rounds in the guns bd made sure they would feed and factory and reloads all fed with no issues and extracted from the rice with no issues. Once at the range, I fired 10 factory loads and 3 reloads. After firing, about 1/3 of the rounds, the brass was hard to extract. I did not try loading the empty brass back in the rifle while at the range.

Back home from the range, I took the head space gauge and measured the brass from the rounds I shot at the range. Every piece of brass, the datum line measured 1.822”, regardless if it was a reload or factory round. I also tried loading the used brass back in the rifle and to even get the bolt to close, you have to exert a lot of force on it.

That’s some pretty extensive expansion of your fired cases. Seems like it could be a chamber cut to deep. I’d most likely have the headspace checked.