Opening up rem 700 bolt
- Thread starter drift1122
- Start date
No idea if the round will go through a short action.
Bolt faces can be opened. The issue is a new extractor. Installing a Remington extractor requires some tricky bolt face machining. Installing a Sako type extractor eliminates the safety breeching that makes the 700 just about the best standard commercial action, from the standpoint of protecting the shooter in the event of a case failure.
An option would be to use a new unit from PT&G.
Bolt faces can be opened. The issue is a new extractor. Installing a Remington extractor requires some tricky bolt face machining. Installing a Sako type extractor eliminates the safety breeching that makes the 700 just about the best standard commercial action, from the standpoint of protecting the shooter in the event of a case failure.
An option would be to use a new unit from PT&G.
I'm planning on making the rifle a single shot so I won't have to worry about feeding from a mag. Hmm, I'll have to look into the extractor issue. I'm hoping to use the parts I have on hand, 300wsm would b great but if it's too much trouble I'll just stick with the 308win.
- Location
- calgary alberta
It can be done but is a terrible and dangerous idea.
You would better advised to replace the bolt.
As Tiriag states the extractor will need to be relocated, typically this is done by milling a slot along the bolt in order to instal either a Sako style or M16 style extractor.
The problem is that Remington bolt heads are silver soldered into the bolt body, milling through the side of the bolt head and bolt body greatly reduces the structural integrity of the bolt. This in my opinion is very dangerous as the engineers of the rifle never intended to have a weak point in the bolt, so how it will deal with extreme pressure is anyone guess, but I would suggest it will NOT react as the design was intended.
I strongly suggest getting a copy of the liability insurance policy from any "gunsmith" who entertains doing this sort of modification. There are many backyard "gunsmiths" who have ZERO idea of what they are doing in this regard but have the tooling to do the job and take the short term $$ gain.
Catastrophic failures DO happen and having a rifle come apart while held close to the face cannot be a fun thing, but it can be deadly.
With our Cdn dollar the way it is, it will be a lot more than I thought, but check out PT&G website for the prices in US, plus shipping and Cdn taxes to the door.
If you do decide to install an extractor, at least do the Mini -16 style like the Rem .338 LM as it's pinned in rather than the Sako style. If you haven't done one yet, get an old bolt to practice with. There's a jig that PT&G sells that I had to modify to work properly.
Do so at your own risk. I don't do these conversions for customers.
If you do decide to install an extractor, at least do the Mini -16 style like the Rem .338 LM as it's pinned in rather than the Sako style. If you haven't done one yet, get an old bolt to practice with. There's a jig that PT&G sells that I had to modify to work properly.
Do so at your own risk. I don't do these conversions for customers.
If you can do the machining to install a original style 700 extractor good for you... it is a challenging procedure.
I would never consider altering the bolt for any other make of extractor. It weakens the strength of the original design. The recessed 700 extractor makes the 700 the strongest safest 2 lug bot action ever made.
nowarningshot
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Sounds like the cheap solution is to sell or trade your rifle; buy or acquire in trade what you want. It does not take long to make this alteration as expensive as just buying the commercially available version.
At this point I think I'm going to heed your warning because first of all your knowledgeable is this area and also I did some research on the subject and it looks like I would need to remove quite a bit of material to get an extractor in there. I definitely don't want to spend all this time building something that eventually blows up in my or worse in someone else's face, I think I'll stick to the 308 I was intending to build with these parts and after this build a 300wsm or 300 win mag later with proper parts, this idea was more of an afterthought anyways. Thanks for the tips.
I agree, I'll build a 300wsm down the road with the right parts.
I agree.
Well, just as a counterpoint, I have two Rem rifles with bolts that have been modified to use Sako extractors, and have hsd no issues in three decades. - dan
Back in the late 70's - 80's it was common practice to see Rem 40X and sleeved Rem 700 converted so to shoot PPC.
Why Remington in all their wisdom didn't simply make a proper PPC bolt I have no idea.
From my own experience have seen one of my own guns blow the Sako extractor out the right port from a hot load. It dropped out on the bench.
I later put it back in after I removed the bolt and blown primer bits.
Why Remington in all their wisdom didn't simply make a proper PPC bolt I have no idea.
From my own experience have seen one of my own guns blow the Sako extractor out the right port from a hot load. It dropped out on the bench.
I later put it back in after I removed the bolt and blown primer bits.
Several years ago there was a death associated with the conversion. (Reported on Benchrest Central) A catastrophic case failure caused the Sako extractor to become a projectile that ended up in the shooters head. Also reported were other instances of serious injury when extractors blew out with a case failure.
If you never have a case failure you will never have a problem, but if you have a case failure you have removed all the inherent safety that was built in the original design of the enclosed extractor.
Remington never produced a rifle chambered for the PPC case... some who chambered 700's for the PPC used a 308 bolt face and bent the extractor in slightly to engage. Others altered the bolt to accept part of the Sako extractor system, failing to add the Sako bolt 'guide' which acts as a deflector and protects the shooter who has a case failure.
The bolt 'guide' does its work well as illustrated below.
If you never have a case failure you will never have a problem, but if you have a case failure you have removed all the inherent safety that was built in the original design of the enclosed extractor.
Remington never produced a rifle chambered for the PPC case... some who chambered 700's for the PPC used a 308 bolt face and bent the extractor in slightly to engage. Others altered the bolt to accept part of the Sako extractor system, failing to add the Sako bolt 'guide' which acts as a deflector and protects the shooter who has a case failure.
The bolt 'guide' does its work well as illustrated below.
I understand the risks involved with the conversion- and why guys worry about the extractor becoming a projectile and I certainly dont suggest doing it. What I dont get is why nobody has the same complaints with all the 700 clones that use a sako style extractor.
