Remington 700 Lemon???

[hawkeye1903]

One day after buying a new 700 ADL .223, the rifle malfunctioned seven times out of forty shots.  Four failed extraction of the brass after firing (brass was pulled out of the chamber, but not "flipped out" of the rifle) and three failed times the new unfired round did not chamber (the bolt passed over the round with out chambering resulting in an empty chamber).  The rifle is on the way to the Remington factory.  Myself and friends have other Remington firearms and have had no problems.

Anyone else encounter this???

P.S. - factory ammo, one box Remington, one box Federal.

[jhm]

were you using reloads by chanch? if so sounds like the brass might be a little over sized to fit into chamber, and the follower could be having a problem pushing them up high enough for the bolt to catch the rear of the case to chamber also.   Remington is a good enough outfit they will find out what the problem might be but it will be with factory ammo.   JIM

[savageT]

were you using reloads by chanch? if so sounds like the brass might be a little over sized to fit into chamber, and the follower could be having a problem pushing them up high enough for the bolt to catch the rear of the case to chamber also.   Remington is a good enough outfit they will find out what the problem might be but it will be with factory ammo.   JIM

Jim,
He said factory...Rems and Feds.  Can't blaim it on reloads.

[KN]

Every one can get a lemon once in a while, Just don't pass judgement untill you give them the chance to make good on it. KN

[Lawdog]

hawkeye1903,

Sorry to hear about your problems and I wish you the best of luck in your dealings with Remington.  A few of our club members have had the same problem and getting Remington to make it right was even a greater problem.  One guy took almost eight months after sending them his M700 BDL in .416 Rem. Mag. before they got him his refund.  Lawdog

[EDG]

>>>Four failed extraction of the brass after firing (brass was pulled out of the chamber, but not "flipped out" of the rifle) and three failed times the new unfired round did not chamber (the bolt passed over the round with out chambering resulting in an empty chamber).<<<

The 243 can be a sorry round to use in bolt guns designed to work with in rifles designed for more tapered rounds. It sounds like you had an ejection problem, not an extraction problem.  Since you didn't describe the exact failure mode it is hard to day what happened. The 700 spring plunger can cause a 243 fired case to wedge into the right bolt lug race way when slowly extracting it.
As far as the feeding problem goes you can mess that up by loading the round so they bind at the shoulder when pushed up by the follower. Straight bodied cases can bind at the shoulder causing a failure to feed.
I have shot a lot of 700s and most of the feed issues you describe can be eliminated by careful loading of the magazine. I much prefer the 6MM Remington due to better feeding of the round.
Ed

[jhm]

savage t you are correct I over looked that in his post I am getting old I guess.   JIM

[Zachary]

EDG,

He was talking about a .223, not a .243.

Zachary

[Wags]

I had a similar problem with a 760 pump rifle that I bought back in the late 70's.  It had so much grease in the action that Remington shipped it with that in the cold temperatures the firing pin could not strike the primer hard enough to get the round to fire.  I Had to take it to a gunsmith to have it cleaned out and lightly treated and never had a problem since ( at least that wasn't shooter related) .............

[Mikey]

Hawkeye:  did you have a scope mounted on that rifle when you took it to the range?  If so, your problem with the empty cases being 'flipped' back into the gun may actually have been caused by the empty striking the scope adjustment knob and bouncing back into the ejection port.  Actually, it never leaves the port - it is extracted and as the ejector impacts the case head and the case mouth moves out of the port - it is at that point that the case mouth impacts the scope adjustment know and the casse does not even leave the ejection port.  That could be one cause - the fix is to rotate your scope 90 degrees - lots of lever guys have to do this.

If the bolt rides up and over the next cartridge in the magazine, two things may apply:  and please don't  take this one sideways as it has happened to me more than once - I didn't pull the bolt back far enough for the boltface to catch the rim and move the cartridge forward.   If that isn't it, then it might be the magazine (if removable) or the follower/spring.  You may need to check the magazine follower to see if it has a burr or a sharp edge on it that could benefit from an Arkansas stone or a Swiss file.  

I had similar problems with a Rem 788 I once had and it was a pain in the ooogots to deal with.  But, I finally got it to the point where she cloverleafed without problems  - then I gave it to my brother.  I fixed it.  Mikey.

[ibfestus]

I believe he said the empty was not being ejected as opposed to being ejected then bouncing back.  Sounds to me like a little more vigor in cranking the bolt might be in order.

[jhm]

reading and understanding this post seems to be giving us as much trouble as the 700 is giving him :oops:     JIM

[gunnut69]

Gentlemen, the ejector on the M700 is not an impact activated ejector.  The case is under spring pressure that pushes the mouth of the case against the right edge of the interior of the action the moment it leaves the chamber.  Inevitablily if a M700 has an 'ejection' problem it will be directly related to the 'extractor' not holding on to the case well enough to allow the mouth of the case to get to the starting edge of the ejection port.  The small size and length of the 223 round aggrevates the condition.  The feeding issues are not all that uncommon, usually the result of operator failure but it is possible to install the magazine spring backward.  This will cause diving of the follower and feed failures.  Remington has had many quality control problems if the past few years.  I fear speed of manufacture has become paramount, not quality... The extractors are a pain in the you know what.  If it's a new piece you may want to return it to Remington (be prepaired for some serious waiting) if not you will probably be looking for a good gunsmith.

[hawkeye1903]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.  

This was the first rifle I've bought in about 12 years(no money paying off school) and basically went with the Remington because I've had great service with my 1962 Remington 700 7mm mag.  And hell, it's a Remington right?  Wrong. I wish I had done more research before purchasing because after talking to a few firearms dealers the one constant theme I heard was "Remington quality is going downhill" and "we have a lot of new Remington problems."  

The gunsmith said essentually the same thing as Gunnut69.  He also commented that Remington quality has degraded recently.  We shipped the rifle back to Remington and he did warn me about a long wait.  

And no- I wouldn't get sidways about constructive advice. :-)

Thanks Again.