I've used M700's more than any other rifle over the years: .270Win, .35Whelan, .30-06. .338WM, 8x57 and .300H&H.
I had the most dreaded of all M700 failures, which cost me a bull elk.
Put a shot into a nice bull elk, which dropped, but got back to it's feet kinda wobbly.
No problem, right?
When I went to chamber another round I found the extractor had broke off!
,
While the bull was standing there, unsteady and just waiting for another round to finish it, I was desperately trying to get the fired case out of the chamber. I had to grab a small thin dry branch, poke that down the barrel, but by the time I got that case out, the bull elk (as they sometimes do), had recovered enough to start running.
And I couldn't get another shot away.
Tracked that son of a gun for a mile, and he ended up going onto private posted land, so I couldn't pursue it.
And ya sometimes you hear people talk about extractor failures on the M700, well I've lived it. That happened on my beautiful M700 Classic in .300H&H. And it's a rifle that's never been abused.
But that incident is one in 40+ years of hunting and shooting M700's.
I had the most dreaded of all M700 failures, which cost me a bull elk.
Put a shot into a nice bull elk, which dropped, but got back to it's feet kinda wobbly.
No problem, right?
When I went to chamber another round I found the extractor had broke off!
,
While the bull was standing there, unsteady and just waiting for another round to finish it, I was desperately trying to get the fired case out of the chamber. I had to grab a small thin dry branch, poke that down the barrel, but by the time I got that case out, the bull elk (as they sometimes do), had recovered enough to start running.
And I couldn't get another shot away.
Tracked that son of a gun for a mile, and he ended up going onto private posted land, so I couldn't pursue it.
And ya sometimes you hear people talk about extractor failures on the M700, well I've lived it. That happened on my beautiful M700 Classic in .300H&H. And it's a rifle that's never been abused.
But that incident is one in 40+ years of hunting and shooting M700's.
