How good is the Rem 597?

i have a 597 with to 30 shot clips they work flawless in les syou pack them right tight . if you putt about 27 28 rounds in your good to go there is one thing i found that it closes really fast and hard . some times a little to fast and shell gets jammed and bends but pops right out other then that great gun light and easy to use hits what you aim at for the price3 cant beat them good luck
 
BCboy said:
"I have heard" and " a Buddy had...." really are not a relliable responce to an issue ,IMHO if you havent owned one you souldent slag it . owned 4 decent gun, better now with the 30 rnd mags ,adjust guid rods no problems, owned over 20 10/22s great gun as well .
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Apparently gun owners in your group of friends and family differ from mine :) By this i mean, if my friend or family member has a gun, I have shot it, many times, at length, and they have mine most of the time...You don't have to own a gun to have used it and see that it's a POS.

That said, if you read my last post, the 597 that I encountered was fairly easily remedied with a little elbow grease and know how. It still has a little problem feeding truncated hollowpoints, though, as the hads corned on the bulled catches on the edge of the chamber and peels off a little piece of lead.
 
Trust me its an awesome rifle, its even in my avatar <---
My buddy has a ruger 10/22 and we shot 25 yards and 50 yards mine shot better than his,
The remington 597 will jam frequently when out of the box thats when i hated mine but once you put +500 rounds into it which you can do easily in just one day it keeps getting better and better, I think my last few hundreds and hundreds of rounds haven't even jammed once yet, the only difference between the ruger 10/22 is that you can dress it up prettier, performance wise go with remington 597!
 
Answer: Very.

It will shoot well right out of the box, say, all 10 rounds from the factory mag will fit within a one inch square from 50 meters, with bulk ammo. It gets better with the Federal Auto-Match ammo. I have no problems taking it out to 100m.

Just loosen the guide rail bolts at the back of the reciever, that will solve any real jamming issues.
 
.330 Dakota said:
I bought one (Rem 597) then known as the 597-Viper, a few years ago and re-sold it within 2 weeks, POS, never fed right and jammed constantly
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I can't find anything indicating Remington ever referred to a 597 as a Viper.

I think you are referring to the 522 Viper. Which was discontinued after only 3 years.
 
,,,,,and so far NOBODY has mentioned a Marlin 60 the top selling .22 autoloader.

Take a look at it, and the clip fed 795 as well.
 
mwjones said:
A buddy of mine has a 597, and he refers to it as a "bullet hose" and is constantly tellign me how he would have better spent the money on a savage bolt action. I'm not sure exactly what he did to it go get it shooting in "pasable" form, but i know he spent a couple hours polishing, essentially doing the finish work that was neglected at the factory. He might see that I've posted here and chime in.

On the same note, though, my dad has a 10/22, an old one with all metal parts, not one of the cheap new plastic ones, and it's not much better in stock form.

Some guys get these guns and spend the value of the gun or more on them to turn them into real shooters, but the fact remains, out of the box, they're both still a cheap semi auto .22.
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Buddy here,
Let's see I bought my Blaze orange camo 597 @ Ellwood Epps for WAY too much(given the circumstances) $350 ish. The savage was $25 more but I didn't own a semi yet and SOMEONE wouldn't shut up about their nylon 66 lol ;P Seriously I did my homework,frequented Rimfirecentral.com and tried out a couple models...Then some ones Dad brought in a savage after I had picked up my 597. *rolls eyes* I brought my new gun home and found;
*Dent in breech from firing pin(store whore)
*Burr on crown @1 o'clock AND @5to7 o'clock
*pitting in the bore about 3" in length 6"from breech
*stock rubbed barrel on the left side and was free floated for only about 2"
*sights were not drilled and tapped inline with bore axis
*trigger was spongey
*trigger was gritty
*bolt was rough in guide rail chanels(so much for it being ulta smooth teflon coated)
*gaps between action and stock

Gun was sporadic with grouping even when in a caldwell rest@ 25yds would not site in. kept shooting left! Remington would not honor warranty cuz Iz in Canada eh..,Epps said 3weeks to look at it,1 week to fix but if parts were needed from remington up to 4 months to ship from USA (and I was supposed to have an above standard quality gun!)
My fix;
*Hang up on Epps (they had a flood that spring and their gun room got damp, guess a $350 gun is too cheap to put a spray of rem oil in at the factory. Guess how the rust probably got there?)
* Tell Remington to get stuffed with their rusted out pipe of a barrel program,hang up phone.
Down to buisness,

*JB weld on the breech dent, polished true and flat
* Re crowned barrel with a case chamfering tool,cold blued crown
*Measured distance from muzzel to rust with borelight and mechanics wire. Marked out measurement on cleaning rod and ran patch soaked in brasso down bore carefully cleaning only bad area then whole bore for 3 passes. Wow shiny no rust bore still @ .223! Yay
*Floated stock with a deep socket wrapped in sand paper, filled in first 4 hollows with epoxy putty and spent 22 slugs from WTF? phase of siting in.(Stiffen forestock,balance rifle)repainted barrel channel Blaze Oarnge
*removed and plugged rear fiberoptic sight(barrel was not blued underneath front site completely arrrg!), Mount Bushnell 3-9x32 scope(clears front site whew!)
*CARFULLY polished rear of bolt in hammer cocking area as well as guides,extractor,extractor groove with GREEN jewelers rouge on felt dremel tool
*removed firing pin to check for straightness, cleaned,lubed,replaced (rimfirecentral for this couldn't figure it)
*detorqued guide rods
* polished trigger sear CAREFULY with a maple block impregnated with Rouge against a machinists square
*Inverted trigger spring
*polished trigger group with cordless drill and Qtip impregnated with rouge CARFULY
*Made new oversized trigger group pins (not for feint of heart but cured slack/sponge)
*pillar bed action with epoxy putty
*filled in gap at rear of action with epoxy putty
*tightned up side slop with aluminum tape stuck onto sides of receiver, also a pilow for the first 1/2" of the barrel
*polished inside of mag with dremel and rouge.
*installed sling swivels and sling
*epoxied sluggs into but for final balancing
*3M silicone sprayed all parts (except scope lenses rubber recoil damper and Mag)
Ps my recoil damper was glued in couldn't get it out. Forced to make crown protector and clean from muzzle.

Winchester RN supper X @ 50yds 5rds on a Quarter sized dot. Finally!
Eats just about anything (win,eely,cci,agila)
Doesn't like Federal(ftf), Remington(loose bullets=ftl) or truncated rounds(ftl,jamed mag,poor acuracy cleaning lead bits out of action,extractor and mag

Wanna buy a Remington?lol na its ok now and it was kinda fun all be it a pi$$er at the time.
 
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Wham-O said:
Y2K..
I've never had a 597, but I've read posts here that say there harder to take apart and put back together than a 10/22.
Both can have jamming problems IF you use a cheap aftermarket mags (plastic lipped) and some can be finicky with certain types of ammo.
With the Ruger OEM mags, I've never had any great problems with my 10/22's except the odd feed spring getting week.
I just take it apart, clean it and rewind it and it's good as new. ;)
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NO No no the 597 is Way more simple than the 10/22 to take apart.
If you bought a 17HMR 597 the gun takes itself apart for you.LOL

Seriously though they are child's play to work on.
Yes the 597 had problems with the mags on the first and second generations new ones don't have this issue and are distinguished by the number 10 INSIDE a circle cast into the mag body. A simple polish of the mag lips fixs this on the previous generation and a spring and lip polish on the first gen.
 
varmintking said:
i have a 597 with to 30 shot clips they work flawless in les syou pack them right tight . if you putt about 27 28 rounds in your good to go there is one thing i found that it closes really fast and hard . some times a little to fast and shell gets jammed and bends but pops right out other then that great gun light and easy to use hits what you aim at for the price3 cant beat them good luck
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Actually the extractor fails to clip onto the case as it strips from the mag,the nose catches the edge of the breech because there is no radius and the round turns into a banana. This problem is compounded with truncated ammo, the worst of which oddly enough seems to be Remington ammo. Even when a truncated round does chamber it gets chewed up and flies like shiz.

For the money yes it is better than a 10/22; easier to work on,better bolt guide system,heavier profiled barrel on the standard models,free floated barrel (didn't barrel bans go out with Lee Enfeilds? :p) and out of the box ,if your gun wasn't half drown at some point and also the store whore,they are supposed to be a little more accurate than the Rugger.
If you like to mod your gun the 10/22 has more options but there are now an increasing number of 597 aftermarket mods kicking around now too.
 
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BCboy said:
"I have heard" and " a Buddy had...." really are not a relliable responce to an issue ,IMHO if you havent owned one you souldent slag it . owned 4 decent gun, better now with the 30 rnd mags ,adjust guid rods no problems, owned over 20 10/22s great gun as well .
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Look man sometimes,just some times "A buddy of mine" is telling it like it is.
Please refer to descriptive postings.
 
mwjones said:
On the same note, though, my dad has a 10/22, an old one with all metal parts, not one of the cheap new plastic ones, and it's not much better in stock form.

Some guys get these guns and spend the value of the gun or more on them to turn them into real shooters, but the fact remains, out of the box, they're both still a cheap semi auto .22.
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The first thing I will disagree with is this. I had one of the older, all metal 10/22 rifles that I bought brand new. The reason I bought it was then I actually listened to others and what they thought. They said how great the Ruger was so I decided to try one. First problem, it jammed like a sonofa#####. Second problem, my shotgun gave better groups. No wonder people spend so much money trying to make these things shoot! Two years ago I bought a pair of synthetic stocked new model (plastic) 10/22's for the Saskatchewan trip. One for me, one for the Wife. Erin shot hers only a handful of times then it sat in the safe. The one I shot was fired hundreds of times, all without a single jam. It was also very accurate, which surprised the hell out of me. I sold that one and then pulled the other one out of the safe, it's now one of my favorites. It has also never jammed, it shoots like a house on fire AND none of that horrible plastic has given up the ghost.


rustysdream said:
IMO, the 597 is an excellent rifle. People are still writing bad comments but the feeding issue has long been solved with the second and lately, third generation magazines.
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And this is gospel for all internet snobs and experts; most don't have any experiance with the item their bashing, only repeating what they've heard from someone else without experiance. That's what makes the internet so wonderful.

pizdets17 said:
you can make a honda civic look like a race car. then you lift the hood and its still 105 horsepower. A .22 is a .22, regardless of being able to buy $1500 in accessories for it like i saw one guy do:slap:. Both are good, but 597 is cheaper.
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Never turn down the chance to invest in the only rifle your ever going to really shoot hundreds of thousands of times.

BCboy said:
"I have heard" and " a Buddy had...." really are not a relliable responce to an issue ,IMHO if you havent owned one you souldent slag it . owned 4 decent gun, better now with the 30 rnd mags ,adjust guid rods no problems, owned over 20 10/22s great gun as well .
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Well said.

Until the Angels Fall said:
Get a 10/22 instead...better looks, better made/more durable, more parts for it...its a bit more money but look at its track record.
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Which of the two do you own?

Now my experiance. My best friend has an early 597 and I always thought it was a piece of crap. To this day I cannot get it to cycle an entire magazine. However it is very accurate and he can make it cycle no problem, not sure who he prays to or what black magic he uses, but I litteraly cannot shoot his rifle. That's ok, it's his, not mine and works quite well for him. I did some accuracy testing with his single shot semi :)D) and I was very impressed. I've had my paws on a few others. First thought, the standard 597 stock is far more comfortable then the standard 10/22 stock. Both rifles are good, the 597 is cheaper. And now I just recieved a short time ago my own 597 which I'm confident will function fine and shoot great. I'm going to try and get it out this weekend, if I do I'll post back my results. (You can do that once you get the experiance to either ##### or praise) ;)
 
ciphery said:
Look man sometimes,just some times "A buddy of mine" is telling it like it is.
Please refer to descriptive postings.
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descriptive postings?

Sorry But I try to base my Opinions On FACT ,Not hearsay , If I have not first hand owned one or had one in my hands for a few days I will not slag it . How can someone accuartly post a reveiw on a firearm if they know nothing about it .
Reading a reveiw of a firearm may help you make a desision whether or not you want to buy the firearm ,but it very well may not perform to YOUR expectations . The only way to Know if you will be happy with it is if you have one in your hands for a few days .
 
I bought two of them new to use in safety courses. Both have had the extractors fall out while students were trying to clear jams. For newbies who are tentative when opening the bolt or ease the bolt closed, jams are common. When I called the Remington service desk to order more of the little extractor plungers, the service tech commented that her 597's extractor had fallen out as well. I'm thinking there could be a design problem...
 
BCboy said:
descriptive postings?

Sorry But I try to base my Opinions On FACT ,Not hearsay , If I have not first hand owned one or had one in my hands for a few days I will not slag it . How can someone accuartly post a reveiw on a firearm if they know nothing about it .
Reading a reveiw of a firearm may help you make a desision whether or not you want to buy the firearm ,but it very well may not perform to YOUR expectations . The only way to Know if you will be happy with it is if you have one in your hands for a few days .
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Try reading post #30.... :facepalm: That's the "descriptive postings." I'd also be willing to take such a detailed list of what work was done and how as a little more than just "heresay" to be brushed off and ignored.
 
I like mine alot, very accurate with the right ammo and trouble free. Only jams I've had are with my remington 30 round plastic mag. But it was pretty dirty too.
 
Nice little gun. The magazines could be more robust but the rifle is top notch for the price.
I stuck a biathlon sling on mine for skiing and use it for plinking, hunting and rat termination. The little Tasco red dot was a nice addition too.
range-04.jpg
 
noway123 said:
,,,,,and so far NOBODY has mentioned a Marlin 60 the top selling .22 autoloader.

Take a look at it, and the clip fed 795 as well.
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I concur the the Marlins may well be the best out of the box inexpensive semi .22s. They generally seem to have a good reputation for accuracy and reliability, cost less than a 597 or 10/22, and the bolt locks back on the last shot. The only thing they don't have going for them is the availability of larger capacity magazines than 10 rounds.
 
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