What's the deal with my 597?

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burnt03

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Bought a 597 off the EE during the winter, finally had a chance to take it up and try a few shots the other day.

The thing jams like crazy and lucky me, in all sorts of different ways. Sometimes it stovepipes with the rim out. Sometimes with it pointed in. Sometimes the shell doesn't make it out and gets stuck inside the chamber, against the inner wall. Other times, the spent shell will eject but the chambering bullet will get caught up (looks like too much of an angle to chamber, have to remove the mag and jimmy the bullet out).

The most consecutive shots I had in a row was 2. The gun came with a stock mag and 3 25-round mags. Changing the mag did not affect how it cycled.

I backed off the guide rod screws to fingertight as mentioned at rimfirecentral. I only had one type of ammo (Winchester Wildcat) so haven't had a chance to try something different yet.


Any other suggestions? And please keep the "throw it out and buy a 10/22" comments to a minimum ;)
 
lol, so I've got the only single shot on my block that comes complete with a 25-round mag. Fantastic.

I guess I'll try some different ammo and see what sort of luck I have.
 
burnt03 said:
lol, so I've got the only single shot on my block that comes complete with a 25-round mag. Fantastic.

I guess I'll try some different ammo and see what sort of luck I have.
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I've had moderate success with Winchester bulk packs (525 rounds/blue box) Winchester Dynapoint GT and Remington Thunderbolt - in that order.

FYI - the Remington 597 30 round mags aren't the best to begin with. I could get mine to run with 1 jam every mag, using the Federal.

With some ammo it was 25 jams/misfires / 30 rounds.
 
targettarget said:
I've had moderate success with Winchester bulk packs (525 rounds/blue box) Winchester Dynapoint GT and Remington Thunderbolt - in that order.

FYI - the Remington 597 30 round mags aren't the best to begin with. I could get mine to run with 1 jam every mag, using the Federal.

With some ammo it was 25 jams/misfires / 30 rounds.
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mine work flawlessly, so do my 25 rounders


try adjusting your guide rails with the two screws located on the back of the receiver, the extractor is also a well known weak link on the 597, you might have to replace it with a volquartsten extractor.
 
Beer_drinker said:
mine work flawlessly, so do my 25 rounders


try adjusting your guide rails with the two screws located on the back of the receiver, the extractor is also a well known weak link on the 597, you might have to replace it with a volquartsten extractor.
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There is no such thing as a 25 round mag for the 597. They come in plastic lips only, are only 30 rounds and are the cheapest quality possible.
 
My 597 has a VQ extractor and hammer, and I floated the barrel with sandpaper and doweling. Feeds flawlessly regardless of ammo or whether I use the 10 or 30 round mags. Accurate too. The guide rails do need to be set up correctly tho.
 
If you don't want to any work to it and want it to work. There is a very small choices for ammo.

  1. CCI Blazzer
    CCI Mini Mag
    CCI Stingers
All the rest I have seen through my girlfriends 597 has jamed. Also the 30 rounders are more prone to jam than the 10 rounders.
 
Agree with "simar". I had the same problem as yours when i bought a brand new 597, but after loose the guide rod, they are flawless and accurate.

Regarding to the ammo, just FYI, CCI doesn't work on my 597. Use Remington golden instead
 
Mini mags or federal bulk 525 rounds packs are great, but again make sure the rifle is clean. I would routinely fire 500 or more without cleaning... so its not like they are picky... but if it has factory grease in it from new, that could be a problem. As for the guide rods, make sure it is the rod you are turning with your fingers as you tighten the set screw, when you feel the rod start to have resistance to turning, stop tightening. make sure you put a VERY LIGHT coat of oil on moving parts and wipe off excess. Nothing helps more than to polish and center the hammer and polish the extractor. Some guys swear by the VQ extractor, they might be good, but I had mine working flawlessly with out it.

Question, is your 10 rounder a metal body and plastic base? Buy a couple more ten rounders and ditch the 30s as they are trouble for sure ... and not the rifles fault.
 
I left my extractor, still the original. The biggest difference for me was polishing the rails. Polish them to a mirror finish, and them put them back in only finger tight. Also mine likes to be run with little or no lube. I also did some polishing and grinding to lighten the trigger. You can find all this on Rimfire Central they are a great resource. I still have the old mags, and can only load about 6 rounds, or I will start having feeding issues. I haven't bothered to get the new mags yet. Oh....one more thing get rid of the s**tty stock and get a better one.:D
Rem597007.jpg
 
Never had a problem with the 30 rounders. Last weekend I went through 650 ish rounds of Federal Bulk pack using my 30 round mags loaded to 32 rounds. Not a problem. The key, as stated above, is LIGHT lubrication and never ever over tightening the guide rails. I clean the 597 every 1300 rounds or so. Every 8000 rounds I take the firing pin out and clean it. I don't think I have had a malfunction in the last 10,000 rounds. I use TW25 on the rails and on the hammer face, very light dabs. The rifle is stock except for a VQ hammer and extractor.

You might try hand cycling it with no magazine a few hundred times. That will help smooth everything out, which will reduce the drag on the bolt. Did that with a 1022 that had issues and it seemed to help.

The Poolman: Love that stock! Where did you get it?
 
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Last weekend:
Fed buld pack 525rds - worked well - no ftf that I recall
American Eagle 500rds- worked well - no ftf that I recall
Winchester DynaPoints 75rds and gave up - not work well - one or two FTF PER mag.

Every 300rds I squirted some brake cleaner through the operateing mechanism, let it dry, squirt more if it felt gritty, let dry. Then a squirt of RemOil and it functioned well. On Rimfire.com some posters recommended this procedure. This was my first time out with this 597 and I was expecting jams/problems, but it worked well with the AE and Fed ammo. I was happy with it.
 
My 597 doesn't jam with the stock 10rnd mag.
AE, Winchester Dynapoint, Federal 525 packs all work.

The 30rnd mags did jam once in a while when they were new but now that they are broken in (500 rnds thru each) they hardly ever jam except when that cheap ammo is wonky (bullet misaligned in the brass).
 
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