Rem 572 Fore end

[TomP]

As far back as I can remember I've liked the model 572 pump.  I've shot several belonging to others but only recently bought one for myself.  It was made in 1966 and is still in nearly pristine condition.  It has the older style bead front sight and the notched elevator adjustable rear sight which I really like, which is to say, I can still hit things with.

Anyway, those of you who own one and have taken them apart know how the fore end is held on.  Basically two straps of steel ride on the top of the magazine tube.  It's a loose fit and the fore ends on these rifles always rattle around.  I was wondering if anyone has ever made bushings to go in place of those steel straps to get a closer fit?  I was thinking maybe some kind of oil impregnated bronze or maybe nylon.  Anyone ever seen anything like that?

[wsjones]

I know what you mean about fore end rattle but honestly have never heard of anyone trying to fix it.  If I was going to try something I'd probably head to the local hardware and get some nylon or teflon bushing material or bar stock and work with that.  It should  be pretty inexpensive to try a couple different things.

I just looked at mine, a later model, and it seems like there are several places it rattles:  the fore end against the barrel and magazine tube and the action bar against the barrel (and maybe magazine tube) and within the receiver.

I'm curious to find out what you try and how it works.  -WSJones

[TomP]

Wsjones,
I took some careful measurements of my forend and found that the front steel strap had about .025 looseness around the magazine tube but the rear strap had about .055 inch slop.  The rear steel strap had been inletted into the wood a little higher than the front one.  I don't know if that was done on purpose but that explained the looseness I felt in the forend.

So what I did was cut a section out of a copper pipe, formed it to the same radius as the magazine tube, and epoxied it to the underside of the rear strap.  That made the looseness front and rear about equal.  That made a huge difference in how the forend feels.  It's much more solid and yet still cycles easily.

The pics show the piece of copper in place and with the magazine tube also.  Notice the copper doesn't go around the sides of the magazine tube, it's just on top where the excess space was.

I suppose I could've used a piece of nylon or even teflon but the pipe was handy and had the right wall thickness, etc.  Also, I doubt if epoxy would've stuck to nylon or teflon.

Tom P.

[wsjones]

Cool.  It looks like it ought to work and I wish I could pretend I'm planning to try the same thing on mine but I'm not skilled enough to do much more than take parts on and, mostly, put them back on.  Other than that it's an exercise in starting out with big things and quitting when I end up with a bunch of little pieces, none of which works exactly according to the plan.  -WSJ