Rem 700 very stiff to chamber a round

F

Fyn

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
191   0   0
Location
Strathroy, ON
Picked up a low mileage lefty Remington 700 SPS varmint in 223 a few weeks ago. Never really been a 700 guy, but last year I picked up a cheap SPS in 22-250 and rebarreled to 308 and dropped it in a chassis and I've been very happy with it.

Thought I would build a similar rifle in something cheaper to shoot.

Its a "RR" serial number, I guess those stories are true lol. The action is relatively smooth and easy cycling the action unloaded, feels similar to my G-serial 700. However on my first range trip I noticed it's veeerry stiff to chamber a round, moving the handle downwards takes a ton of effort, pretty much have to firmly grasp the bottom metal with one hand and smack the bolt down with the other. This was with factory ammo as well as FL sized handloads. Bolt lift and extraction after firing feels normal and doesn't require excessive force.

I've checked headspace, it'll chamber a go gauge without drama. Wondering what else I can check on my own. Lug contact looks to be uneven, but I'm assuming it's some sort of chamber issue causing the stiffness?
 
It may be that particular batch of factory ammo. Try something else. Lubricate the locking lugs... forcing the bolt closed with dry lugs is asking for trouble. If it persists take it to a gunsmith to have it checked out.
 
Check the necks of unfired rounds after chambering them for any marks. If that rifle has seen more than a few rounds, it may not have been cleaned properly.
 
Same issue with factory and hand loads eh?

Do you have the same issue with a spent case?
Same issue with a sized but not spent case and no projectile?

Your gauge checks the headspace, but not the throat - depending on where you have to start forcing the bolt I would guess the issue is in the throat.

Roll up a few dummies with shorter brass and projectiles seated a little deeper.
 
Fyn said:
Picked up a low mileage lefty Remington 700 SPS varmint in 223 a few weeks ago. Never really been a 700 guy, but last year I picked up a cheap SPS in 22-250 and rebarreled to 308 and dropped it in a chassis and I've been very happy with it.

Thought I would build a similar rifle in something cheaper to shoot.

Its a "RR" serial number, I guess those stories are true lol. The action is relatively smooth and easy cycling the action unloaded, feels similar to my G-serial 700. However on my first range trip I noticed it's veeerry stiff to chamber a round, moving the handle downwards takes a ton of effort, pretty much have to firmly grasp the bottom metal with one hand and smack the bolt down with the other. This was with factory ammo as well as FL sized handloads. Bolt lift and extraction after firing feels normal and doesn't require excessive force.

I've checked headspace, it'll chamber a go gauge without drama. Wondering what else I can check on my own. Lug contact looks to be uneven, but I'm assuming it's some sort of chamber issue causing the stiffness?
Click to expand...

Your "GO" gauge check likely means the headspace is probably correct - "GO" should be minimum SAAMI size, so longest factory ammo should still chamber to that. As mentioned above, I would be wondering about the neck / throat / lands area that the gauge will not check - if you do not have a bore scope, can try to insert a white patch just ahead of the lands - remove the bolt and shine a flash light in there - you are looking for grunge, carbon build-up, etc. OP does not mention any cleaning attempts - usually a good place to start - you probably need a specific product to remove copper jacket residue, carbon, etc. - a "one juice does it all" seldom does a good job on anything - except, perhaps, if used religiously after every shooting session - which you can not know what a previous owner was doing.

Sometimes you can mark up the end of the cartridge - bullet, shoulder, body, etc. with a Jiffy Marker - then try to chamber it - where it rubs off, might indicate where it gets to be tight. You probably want to remove the firing pin from the bolt to check that in your house - really, should get same issue with just the empty bolt body, as when the firing pin assembly is installed?

Uneven bolt lug contact can often be lapped to correct, but usually ends up increasing the headspace. I do that when installing a new-to-the-rifle barrel - lap the lugs first in the naked action, then set the headspace for that barrel. The various books tell me that I want full, perfect contact among the bolt lugs - however, in my world, even 25% bearing on each lug is about as good as it gets. I am sure on some Remington 788 that are here, that some of the lugs do not even make contact.
 
Last edited:
Had this happen on a rifle I have owned and hunted with for years, I stopped hunting with it for two years and when I went to site it in for spring bear last year it was stiff to close the bolt on an unfired round. Turned out to be some crud in the chamber, likely a bit of oil in the bore/chamber and dust from sitting in the safe that went gummy. A thorough clean of the chamber solved the problem, which is where I would start with a new to me gun that’s exhibiting this issue.

Had a similar issue with a friends blr, loaded factory ammo smoothly but sticky on extraction, clean and polish the chamber and it extracted like silk.
 
Butcherbill said:
Had this happen on a rifle I have owned and hunted with for years, I stopped hunting with it for two years and when I went to site it in for spring bear last year it was stiff to close the bolt on an unfired round. Turned out to be some crud in the chamber, likely a bit of oil in the bore/chamber and dust from sitting in the safe that went gummy. A thorough clean of the chamber solved the problem, which is where I would start with a new to me gun that’s exhibiting this issue.

Had a similar issue with a friends blr, loaded factory ammo smoothly but sticky on extraction, clean and polish the chamber and it extracted like silk.
Click to expand...

Yes! There is a regular parade of previously owned rifles through here - some time ago, I discovered it has worked to completely dismantle a "new-to-me" rifle and clean everything down to bare steel - I presume that is more or less how it left the factory, originally, and I presume that it worked fine then. By and large, a flash light into the chamber area should show more or less shiny like a mirror - some will say there should be cross hatch markings. Gets almost "scary" what you see via a bore scope for scratches, gouges and rust pits in the chamber, neck, throat or barrel - but the rifles still seem to shoot fine - so I can not really predict, at all, how a rifle will shoot, based on what I see in a bore scope - but I do believe it is almost always a good plan to start from clean, bare steel - everywhere - including within the bolt body, etc.
 
^^^Agreed, at least you have a baseline to start from. You have a good moment to inspect the internals for wear or damage while it’s apart and being detail cleaned, good time to get to know the new rifle and eliminate any malfunctions due to lack of cleaning.

Start with the easiest thing and eliminate that from the equation, dig deeper if the problem persists.
 
OP, this is a new barrel that has just been cut with a personal reamer owned by a freind or smith.

I don't think there's anything wrong with your chamber if it will accept a GO gauge easily.

What you likely have is a very tight chamber that is on or very close to minimum spec.

I have a couple of rifles with similar chambers. They gave the same issue when closing the bolt on most factory and all of my handloads.

I didn't want to touch anything on either of these rifles, one chambered for 308Win and the other for 223Rem and they both shot extremely well.

Surplus ammo was definitely going to show a lot of resistance chambering but after firing, the cases extracted easily from both rifles.

At first I thought the chambers were short throated, which can happen and a headspace gauge won't indicate the issue.

Chamber casts verified all was well but the chambers, still in spec was right on minimum spec.

I ended up borrowing a set of small base dies for the 223Rem from a friend and when I used these to make up ammo, after full length resizing, there were no longer any issues with chambering and locking down the cartridges.

I already had a set of Bonanza small base dies for the 308Win and did the same with the cartridges for it.

Now, I only shoot handloads out of both of these rifles, made up with the small base dies.

That's something may people don't know enough about or the smith fails to explain to them after cutting a new chamber and fitting it to the rifle.

There is one other thing that may be causing your issue.

Did you supply a prechambered, prethreaded barrel to the smith to install or install it yourself???

If so, it's not unusual for such barrels to be slightly short chambered by a couple of thou and require final chambering be done by the person putting them on the receiver. It's impossible for manufacturers of these systems to make every receiver or every barrel tenon absolutely identical and because they want their product to be the best it can be, they will cut everything to one specification and leave the final installation fitting to the smith.

It might only be a thou tight but it when you're trying to compress a brass case back a thou, it will require quite a bit of effort.

You may have to try adjusting your reloadind die down a few thou to set back the shoulder further.
 
Butcherbill said:
Bearhunter, if I understand the original post it’s the new .223 that has the problem and not the rifle he had a re built into .308.
Click to expand...

Yup, my bad.

Something is definitely wrong unless someone put a take off barrel onto that action. Remington factory chambers are usually anything but tight, especially on the SPS version.

I presntly have an off the shelf Remingon 721, chambered for the 30-06 with a chamber that gives me similar issues and a factory 6.5CM on a Tarqua action that both require small base dies for reloads but they easily chamber factory rounds.

Sorry OP.

Still, you may require small base dies if a good chamber clean doesn't cure your issue.
 
Last edited:
So far as I can tell on various GO gauges here, I think they only check the bolt face to datum reference length - so nothing about chamber circumference or throat /neck, etc. - so a GO gauge checks one of several issues - goes back to the Jiffy marker trick - to find where things get to be tight. I did have a 7x61 rifle that ended up to be tight to chamber right in front of the belt on the case - where the "normal" full length sizing die did not seem to have much effect. That was previously fired brass - from someone else's rifle - was similar with a 300 Weatherby - out here is hard enough to come up with Norma or Weatherby headstamped brass, so was worth it to me to get the actual Larry Willis collet die so that I could use those brass in my rifles - I never had an issue, at all, in my 338 Win Mag - although that was all brass that had been initially fired in that rifle.

Of course, that is all presuming that everything was once correct to start with - likely would mean something has been allowed to build up in there, or it was mis-sized from the "get go", or you are into the difference between minimums and maximums for tolerances.
 
Last edited:
remington jim said:
The front action screw on a R700 can contact - try backing it off a bit a try the bolt close . RJ
Click to expand...

If the front screw is contacting the bolt and causing hard bolt closure when loading a round, why would it be easy to close when the chamber is empty?

I am fairly sure it has to do with that particular ammo body size or the chamber body size/throat ... apparently the headspace is correct. I have seen particular batches of ammunition that were slightly out of spec and caused a problem. I have also seen factory chambers that were slightly out of spec with tight body size but correct headspace.

It is also possible that particular ammo is having a problem slipping over the extractor or into the bolt face. Some ammo is quite 'squared off' on the rim. Some 700's have a 'proud' rivet head or extractor that needs attention.

So many 'what ifs'.
 
Thank you everyone for the responses. I did forget to add a few details to my initial post.

Rifle was given a solid cleaning after I picked it up, it wasn't overly dirty but I wanted to start fresh. Action was cleaned and lubed. I did three soaks with Wipe out to remove any copper fouling and residue. I do have a borescope that I recently purchased, I did a before and after, nothing really jumped out at me, but I'm far from an expert.

I'll look at the extractor, I'll also try to play around with different brass or factory ammo and checking how chambering sized brass with no projectile goes. I'll try to chamber a few rounds with marker on them to see if I can determine where things are becoming tight.

I did forget to add that I dropped the action in a HS stock I had sitting around, when I installed the stock the front action screw was interfering with the bolt when torqued down, I did trim that screw and things operated smoothly, but I'll try backing it out just to verify.
 
With a loaded round smoke the bullet so it is covered in soot... chamber and withdraw... is it marked up from the rifling? You can also do that to an extent with a black felt pen or even just a highly polished bullet...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom