I was cleaning one of my 700 Rems the other day when I noticed something that caused me some concern. The bolt did not cock immediately upon opening. In order for the bolt to fully cock, I either had to put forward pressure on it, or I had to cycle the action. This floored me, as I had never noticed it before. I had a spare action in the safe, so I first replaced the trigger assembly. Problem persisted. I then replaced the bolt stop. Problem persisted. I took a bolt from another 700 and tried it. Problem persisted.

I then tried the other 700's in the safe, and noticed that about half of them had the same quirks. What gives? Any thoughts are appreciated.

Have you lightened your triggers without replacing the springs? This can sometime allow the sear to not properly reset. Also Remington bolts are very bad about dishing out the secondary extraction groove on the bolt handle. I had one that I had to TIG weld a built up spot enough to renew it......DJ

Triggers are as they came from the factory. Still have the sealant over the screws. This little quirk is driving me batty!!!!

Nothing is wrong with your rifle. M 700's have done this for several years. Even if you replace it with Jewel, it will still be like this. I have a SHilen trigger on one of my new M700's and it cocks as soon as you lift the handle, just like way back when. Nothing is wrong with your rifle.

BTW- I sure do like the Shilen M700 trigger

I think that you are experiencing a small amount of "cock on closing". This happens when the cocking piece on the firing pin makes contact with the sear block BEFORE the bolt can begin it's rotation. Folks that play with custom actions and custom triggers, in Remingtons and the custom actions, run into this quite often. Some of the custom trigger makers move the contact surface on the sear block FORWARD .010 and maybe up to .035. That allows the bolt to start closing BEFORE the surfaces contact. That does reduce firing pin travel by a small amount but supposedly reduces the chance of a "slam fire" when working the bolt very quickly with a benchrest trigger.
Production tolerances are the cause of what you are feeling, just the way things are made. Some custom action makers make their trigger hangers asymmetrical so that reversing them moves the trigger a bit forward or rearward to allow for some trigger variation.

In the best case scenario, the bolt handle or extraction cam will contact the receiver before the sear picks up the striker. The cure for this problem is either to move the sear contact surface as Jay mentioned or- and I think this is probably better- to move the bolt handle and extraction camming surface forward. This is a bit involved however since it means removing and re-installing the handle. Regards, Bill.

Thanks for the replies. Now at least I know what the problem is.