A friend of mine just inherited a Rem 721 in 270 Win. Problem is, the bolt was lost. Does anyone know where to find a bolt for a Rem 721??
Also, I looked at Pacific Tool and Gage and they list the the 700, 721 and 722 rifles under their Remington bolts. Are they interchangeable between the 700 long action and a 721??? I have zero experience with Remington rifles other than the 700.

Older style Remington 700 bolts without the bolt guide feature on the right lug should work.

Question about the bolt guide. Is the lug a different size with or without the bolt guide?? Or is there just a cut in the lug for the guide?

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:
Older style Remington 700 bolts without the bolt guide feature on the right lug should work.

They are different sizes. The lip was added to the bottom to slip over a corresponding lip on the feed rail as an anti-bind feature. I imagine it could be milled off to fit. Actually, that would be preferable. It would allow you to use the modern snap-in extractor rather than the riveted type.

Just noticed this thread; all Remington bolts and lugs are the same size, and are interchangeable, backwards compatable. If you somehow wanted to go forward, and put a 721 bolt into a 700 with the guide rail, all you need to do is to machine, or file, a groove into the right lug to allow it to ride in the receiver guide rail. The lugs are no different in sizes. BLUF; any bolt will work in your 721, as is.
Of course you will have to inlet for the bolt handle. 721 is straight; 700 is angled back.
I have them; $250.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Just noticed this; all Remington bolts and lugs are the same size, and are interchangeable, backwards comparable. If you somehow wanted to go forward, and put a 721 bolt into a 700 with the guide rail, all you need to do is to machine, or file, a groove into the right lug to allow it to ride in the receiver guide rail. The lugs are no different in sizes. BLUF; any bolt will work in your 721, as is.
Of course you will have to inlet for the bolt handle. 721 is straight; 700 is angled back.
I have them; $250.

Very interesting! Good advice!

My comment, the M721/722 has a weak, and virtually impossible to find extractor. All things being equal, I would use a M700 bolt as M700 extractors are easily found. I have not installed one, so I don't know how easy they are to install.







I will also recommend, never ever cut the bolt face ring and install a SAKO type extractor



as there are a number of reports of shooters losing their eyes when the SAKO extractor blows out.

And, until such time as I see blow up tests showing that the "Mil Spec M16" extractor stays in the receiver ring, do not go that route



I did have in hand, a M722 bolt which a gunsmith did a great job of installing a SAKO extractor. I put that bolt in my M722 and found that the SAKO extractor exactly lined up with the receiver cut, which insured that it would blow straight out, without anything to obstruct it. I am quite sure the M16 will do the same.

Just because something is mil spec, that does not mean it is appropriate in an application it was never designed for.

This is the military extractor in an AR15 bolt



and this is the bolt in an AR15 upper



and this is where the front of the bolt is located inside of the upper



The front end of the extractor is supported from lifting off, inside the lower, and there is no free passage way back to the shooter's eye, as the lower blocks ejection.

When someone shows a better analysis of support in a M700, with test evidence the thing won't blow out, then maybe I could recommend one.

Not exactly holding my breath on that.



What I have read, is in a high pressure situation, the whole side of the bolt face shears off with the SAKO or M16 extractor, just as in the picture. And then, you have this long extractor flying around. I am sure someone has lost an eye, or maybe been killed, as the military extractor is a long and heavy object.

Just put a Sako extractor in my 721, 300 H&H. Key is, don't use a case full of pistol powder in them.
Yes, altering the original 700 design, and then blowing them up, does bad things. I have seen two 700s, using pistol powder, blown on the same day by the same guy. The three rings of steel design worked as advertised and he didn't notice anything except couldn't open the bolt. Which is why he grabbed his second rifle and did the same thing. Of course, bolt faces, and receivers were swollen. Brass was melted.
I don't recommend anyone use any after market extractor, because American hand loaders can't follow instructions.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Just put a Sako extractor in my 721, 300 H&H. Key is, don't use a case full of pistol powder in them.
Yes, altering the original 700 design, and then blowing them up, does bad things. I have seen two 700s, using pistol powder, blown on the same day by the same guy. The three rings of steel design worked as advertised and he didn't notice anything except couldn't open the bolt. Which is why he grabbed his second rifle and did the same thing. Of course, bolt faces, and receivers were swollen. Brass was melted.
I don't recommend anyone use any after market extractor, because American hand loaders can't follow instructions.

Good for you. It is good to see someone acting out the courage of their convictions.

Either you understand the risks, or you think you understand the risks, but you don’t.

The majority of mankind thinks they are infallible, know everything, and have seen everything. I however, believe in the extending Black Swan economic theory to events in the real world. A black swan event is an event that

1) is so rare that even the possibility that it might occur is unknown,

2) has a catastrophic impact when it does occur, and

3) is explained in hindsight as if it were actually predictable.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackswan.asp

I do not know everything. I have not seen everything. I am not infallible. And that includes my reloading equipment, sometimes scales go wonky. My Redding balance beam, that scale on the left, the graduations are in five grain increments. Once, I forgot that. Opps!



Things like that happen to me, though apparently, not to anyone else in the history of humankind. I guess that makes me special.

I have not yet used the wrong powder, but thirty years ago I poured the wrong powder back in the wrong bottle. Opps! And then there are the things we don’t know. You for example, you apparently don’t believe that old gunpowder becomes unsafe. The vast majority of shooters don’t know that old deteriorated gunpowder has, and will, blow up guns. Contrary to the opinion of confident idiots, ignorance does not provide protection from bad things. Now when my spaceship came to earth, unlike that other guy, I lost my super power of X ray vision. So, I can’t see inside the case. Maybe you can, but I can’t. And thus, with old gunpowder, I can’t see if the interior of the case is corroded, the powder clumping, etc, and thus with old, deteriorated gunpowder, there is nothing I can see that would warn of a high pressure incident.

This is an interesting video that clearly shows the dangers of old ammunition, and everyone who has watched it, and everyone who is involved in it, are clueless why the rifle blew up. This is a picture perfect example of the culturally induced ignorance, “Agnotology”, that the shooting community has carefully, and deliberately, imposed on itself, about the problems of old ammunition and old gunpowder.

RN-50 Blow-Up

Kentucky Ballistics

https://youtu.be/1449kJKxlMQ

And the thing that jumped out to me was the immense fireballs, and finally the gun blew up.
The guy from Kentucky Ballistics says in the video that the “Slap round was very, very old”
And there you have it. Old ammunition.

This video shows the case heads, 2007 ammunition.

Kentucky Ballistics' RN-50 Blow-up: First Look

https://youtu.be/4ny_V_VfT3Q

Did you see the stitches the shooter received in that incident? He could have gotten a neck cut that would have bled him out before medical help arrived. Of course the deniers don’t believe this could be due to old ammunition, but I am going to claim it is. And, that could be you, except that SAKO extractor would be in your eyeball. Even with careful reloading practices, there is something you don’t know, something you don't believe, but is real, that could launch an extractor through an eyeball.

Let is consider the bug. A flying bug that is. Mr Bug is having a great day, looking for food, looking for lady bugs, as he drifts across the land scape. And he has no concern about the black patch of ground he is over, and then, splat! Mr. Bug ends his life on a windscreen. Mr Bug never saw the windscreen, Mr Bug never had the concept of a windscreen or a motor vehicle. Mr Bug thought he knew everything he needed to know, and Mr Bug’s DNA is coded with billions of years of learning, and yet, even with all that knowledge, Mr Bug encountered something new. Something so new, that it was beyond the concept or conception of Mr Bug, and yet was real.

I am willing to accept there could be some chunk of the universe that I never knew about, and could not see, that could flatten me. For that reason, I really don’t like equipment with known defects that will, given the right combination of improbable events, will cause an injury to me. You know, Xhit happens. There is a certain amount of risk in shooting, there is a certain amount of risk even in shooting new factory ammunition, but I would rather not be behind something that is guaranteed to hurt me if events go wrong. You may have a different tolerance for risk, and that is OK. I don’t have that risk tolerance, if I can reduce risk, instead of increasing it, I will go in the direction of less risk.

I don't consider whatever functional advantages a SAKO extractor confers as offsetting the risks of it blowing out of a Rem M721, M722 or M700.

I also used to wear safety belts before it was mandatory. I wore my motorcycle helmet when I did not have to. I don’t drive when drunk, I don’t drive on bald tires, I maintain my vehicles, I slow down in the rain and snow. My shooting glasses have saved my eyes at least three times, maybe more, from events that I could not have predicted. And I don’t want to be on the plane flown by someone with a high risk tolerance and risky behaviors, though I have no control over that. I like three safety barriers instead of one or two.

Still, I know, there is a windscreen coming my way that I can’t see and can’t avoid. But I would like to push that collision as far out as possible.

Bzzzzzzz

Not going to read all that. Need to mill out a bolt for an extractor.

I have seen M700s with M721 bolts installed, and vice versa. They look odd but they work

As I said, they are interchangeable except for putting an old bolt in a receiver cut for the anti bind groove. You have to cut a notch in the bolt lug; an easy job.

FYI-
There are 3 bolt head options for any Remington 2 lug bolt configuration.

90+% have the standard/mean .440"length lugs that are identified by the flat bottom punch mark in the radial circumference of each lug.

IF,no punch mark is present said bolt head/lugs are .004" longer.

IF a V shape radial groove is present in the lug circumference said head/lugs are .004" shorter.

Above is in reference to an OEM UNMOLESTED bolt,NOT a so called Trued/Blueprinted bolt.

7 digit serial numbered 700's were the start of the anti bind slot cut in the lug to keep the lugs in the receiver race ways.

The wrong follower installed in a 721/722,4,5,6 digit receiver will allow the follower to push the lugs up out of the raceway allowing the lug to STOP bolt cycle against the eject/load port.