Remington 597 VTR Range Report

RockChucker

RockChucker

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Had to check it out for myself. Broke down and bought a 597VTR from the local sporting goods store.
Mounted a 10X Merlin scope in a set of B-Square rings.
Tested out Win. 333, CCI, Lapua Super Club, Remington EPS, RWS Target.
All functioned well, only issue is a crappy trigger. The trigger fix will be done in the next few days. On first observation all the pins are in need of bushings judging from the sloppy fit in the trigger housing.
The magazine supplied was at best an eight shot affair, not a ten shot as described. Perhaps by using a hammer the ninth and tenth rounds may fit in the mag.
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Now to the good part ........ Accuracy @ 50 meters
With ammo it likes Remington EPS target and RWS Target

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Looks like Remington made this one right!
Next project will be the trigger and locating a 20 round magazine.
 
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Nice shooting gun then from what I am hearing. I am looking to pick one up during the winter to do some indoor shooting. Looks and shoots like it is going to be my cup of tea. Thanks for the write up and pics, very very helpful bud!!!!!!!!!!!
 
RockChucker said:
Had to check it out for myself. Broke down and bought a 597VTR from the local sporting goods store.
Mounted a 10X Merlin scope in a set of B-Square rings.
Tested out Win. 333, CCI, Lapua Super Club, Remington EPS, RWS Target.
All functioned well, only issue is a crappy trigger. The trigger fix will be done in the next few days. On first observation all the pins are in need of bushings judging from the sloppy fit in the trigger housing.
The magazine supplied was at best an eight shot affair, not a ten shot as described. Perhaps by using a hammer the ninth and tenth rounds may fit in the mag.

Next project will be the trigger and locating a 20 round magazine.
Click to expand...

Nice groups. I used Remington .22 Target ammo with similar results. Surprisingly Federal bulk pack rounds shot decently at 25 yds. It hated Remington YellowJackets. Dynapoints gave 1" groups. I can get 9 rounds in but the tenth is harder. I fired 300 rounds that afternoon and it was getting much better towards the end (loading the 10th round) but I did have a disturbing issue. It frequently jammed. Usually on the third round for some reason. The fired case would get turned 90 degrees and then hold the bolt open.

By the end of the day the stock was a little loose but I couldn't tighten the screws any more so left it for now.

Do you have any suggestions for 20-30 round mags? The Remington factory ones look really cheap and the dealer told me they don't work very well. He didn't recommend buying them. I have heard this from others also.

How will you remedy the trigger? Just curious.
 
To the OP, it's always a treat to see people achieve solid results with their chosen rifles...:cool:...I've always wanted to believe in the Rem 597 :redface:, and I'm continually heartened by these kinda posts! :)
 
I picked up mine of saturday, put about 200 rounds down range on sunday. Great gun, great price (389.00$ at baron sport). I have two 10 rounds mags and could fit all ten rounds in, though #10 was pretty hard, I did notice that if you load 10 rounds, it has trouble feeding the first round since its so tight, I decided to load to 9 for the day. I tested american eagle, federal bulk and CCIs. american eagle would FTE every 2nd or 3rd round. Federal was better but still 1 or 2 FTE per mag, the CCIs worked flawless.

other than the few FTEs the gun was awsome, though i do understand why people complain about the trigger.

EDIT: Pic added

sorry for ####ty pic, cell phone camera
Here is the VTR beside my JW-25A

DSC00081.jpg
 
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Had a chance to do the trigger this evening.
Interesting observations...........lots of plastic and not very much steel. Forget about getting a light trigger pull without impairing the hammer fall force. Remington saw fit to use the same spring for both jobs.
Honing the sear engagement surfaces produced a very crisp 3# trigger pull that I can certainly live with.
Removal of the barrel shroud is simple with the liberal use of penetrating oil {read WD40}
and removal of one screw. The WD40 is to get the rubber barrel bushing to loosen its grip on the barrel.
The bushing is a real laugh!
1 1/4" of Dayco black heater hose. Wonder if its other use is to dampen barrel harmonics? Going to give it some range time again on wednesday, weather permitting. Lets see if a total free floating barrel will shoot better than the heater hose dampened one. Might be Remingtons trick to get the VTR to shoot as well as it does.

RC
 
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Rugerman said:
Nice groups. I used Remington .22 Target ammo with similar results. Surprisingly Federal bulk pack rounds shot decently at 25 yds. It hated Remington YellowJackets. Dynapoints gave 1" groups. I can get 9 rounds in but the tenth is harder. I fired 300 rounds that afternoon and it was getting much better towards the end (loading the 10th round) but I did have a disturbing issue. It frequently jammed. Usually on the third round for some reason. The fired case would get turned 90 degrees and then hold the bolt open.

By the end of the day the stock was a little loose but I couldn't tighten the screws any more so left it for now.

Do you have any suggestions for 20-30 round mags? The Remington factory ones look really cheap and the dealer told me they don't work very well. He didn't recommend buying them. I have heard this from others also.

How will you remedy the trigger? Just curious.
Click to expand...

I have 597 and it jammed as well with the ninety degree FTE. Surprisingly, the remedy for the was not cleaning it. Now, i don't suggest this behavior/habit; however, after the first 50-100 rounds (and FTF/FTE) after a strip and clean, my 597 would function flawlessly. As a test, I left it dirty in the safe one night, took it out the next day, and no FTF/FTE.

Remington 30 rounders = crap, with certain ammo. Some mags like some ammo. My 30 rounder likes Remington Viper, while my 10 rounder preferred bulk federal HV. Take out a wide assortment of ammo, fire fifty of each, write down how many FTF/FTE per each (if any/too many to count) and buy accordingly.

To the OP, nice 597, even nicer groups.
 
To the OP:

I have a 597, but not a VTR.

Valquartsen offers an aftermarket trigger for <40$.

You need to 'train' the mags, try 5 rounds, then 5, then 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8 etc... All mine took a bit of time to get up to full capacity and to feed with 100% reliability. Paul Morrision was saying the 10/22 mags are like this.

I have also had great results with the AE .22 stuff, nice and clean, copper plated, 2.25/50, which isn't too bad.

Also, if you're getting alot of non-ammo related FTE's, time to clean and adjust the bolt rails.

Good luck and enjoy.

F**K I want one now!
 
Trigger job is quite easy with out ordering more part's. All you need is some emery cloth, oil and some time. Also PM Mysticprecision for the shooter's ridge 25 round mag's. Trust me they are the cat's @$$. Well worth every dime I paid. Also I have just over 3,000 rounds shot and still haven't cleaned it yet. The only thing that is not working so far is the bolt stop return spring.
 
WTF have we discovered a new language ?
How the hell did you manage that translation?
I surely must have been sleeping during English lessons! Maybe its the new way but it sure isn't my way.
 
Great info here everyone!

New guy here, and just in the process of buying one....quick question...do you guys know if the stock can be changed to one of the AR type?
 
RockChucker said:
WTF have we discovered a new language ?
How the hell did you manage that translation?
I surely must have been sleeping during English lessons! Maybe its the new way but it sure isn't my way.
Click to expand...

from the position of the letters on the keyboard and the aforementioned injury which made me type like that for about 6 weeks plus i have mad CSI skills

you should see some the messages i get from my voice to text voicemail on my blackberry (possibly the greatest feature ever put on a phone i may add)
sometimes even if i knew who called and what they wanted i can't read the phones translation
 
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