Don't know if this might be of interest to anybody - Brownells are having a closeout on M700 (short) actions. I don't know how these prices compare to ripping a WalMart supplied ADL apart??

Brownells Rem Closeout

- mike

Well,
That is a smokin' price. Might have to get one.
lawndart

The website says they are sold out. Damn!

This sounds like a very unusual sale. I wonder if Remington is about to change their actions significantly and Brownells is dumping the existing ones. A good way to start rumors. Maybe they will finally improve their extractors and do something other than solder on their bolt handles. If they fix those two things then they may have a winner.

Or maybe Brownells is tired of not selling the Remingtons at $400 since the customer can go to Wally world and buy a whole rifle for $399.

Or their "exclusive deal" is about timed out.

Or the Remmy actions are their loss leader this month.

Or any combination of the above.

I ordered two of these and then called Remington to find out what was up.

The person at Remington told me that Brownells couldn’t move the actions so decided to stop carrying them.

They also said that a few other companies were looking into ordering just the actions for resale...but Remington requires the purchase of 500 at a time!

Sounds sort of like the “gas shortage†back in the 1970’s. They ran out of .50 cent a gallon gas...but had plenty of the $1.25 stuff around!

quote:

Originally posted by Old Elk Hunter:
This sounds like a very unusual sale. I wonder if Remington is about to change their actions significantly and Brownells is dumping the existing ones. A good way to start rumors. Maybe they will finally improve their extractors and do something other than solder on their bolt handles. If they fix those two things then they may have a winner.

There was an article written a few years ago in Handloader Magazine (issue #123) by a man named Layne Simpson entitled: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.â€

The topic of his article had to do with the then new craze of replacing the “weak†Remington factory extractor with either Sako types or M16 types.

At the end of his piece he offers to trade two Remington 700 bolts, one with a Sako extractor installed and one with an M16 extractor installed, for two factory Remington bolts with factory Remington extractors.

For me, the deciding vote on the reliability and function of Remington 700 factory ejectors (as well as the factory triggers) is the fact that the USMC armors at Quantico have never used anything but the factory extractors...even though they are authorized to use and/or install any aftermarket parts that they want to on the M40 sniper rifles that they build if it will make the weapon more reliable, accurate or safe.

The only non-Remington parts on USMC M40 sniper rifles are the stock and the barrel. They use McMillan stocks and have used a variety of different barrels (Atkinson, Keiger, Schneider) over the years.

The Corps has sniper rifles still in use that are built on actions from the original purchase from Remington back in 1966...and the original bolt handles are still on them!

If anyone needs reliability and strength in their weapons it is a military sniper...and the Quantico armorers take great pride in supplying their snipers with the best possible weapon they can build...and they have no loyalty to anyone except their fellow Marines who will use the rifles.

quote:

The website says they are sold out. Damn!

Thank God!
The action would have been cheap, but the finished varmint rifle wouldn't have been anything of the sort.

lawndart

quote:

Thank God!
The action would have been cheap, but the finished varmint rifle wouldn't have been anything of the sort.

Too true. Probably saved me a grand!

Rick 0311,

I know that the failures are rare, but I have seen customers come into a friend's gunshop with Remingtons with bolt handles that have simply detached. It just seems like a production process change could result in zero failures.

As for the extractors, I don't think the Sako or M16 extractor fix is the best way to go either. I have one
M600 with a Sako extractor. I don't really like the idea of the bolt face being opened up so much just to
put in a Sako style extractor. The Remington extractor failures that I have seen have been on rifles that
people abuse. You can't repeatedly slam a bolt home and expect the extractor to last forever. It is hard on
the extractor to be forced out and over the case rim at high speed. But, they do fail. Remington has designed
many good solutions, I would like to see them work on the extractor more.

My father was a career Marine and trained UDT's before they called them Seals. One factor that you did not give the Marines credit for is that they know how to take care of their rifles while much of the public doesn't
have a clue. These same idiots that keep slamming rounds home don't stop and clean out the brass shavings that can accumulate around the Remington extractor which can contribute to failure. The Remington is a good
workable extractor that merits further improvement.

The extractor that needs some criticism is the one on the Winchester push feed bolts. I have had two of them
fail. I personally have never had a Remington extractor fail.

I guess what is rubbing me wrong is that some American firearms manufacturers have been making the same old
bolt rifle for a long time and have done little to improve them. Winchester is on my short list lately due to the cheapening of the M70. They now make the bolts in two pieces and press them together. They also refuse to
put a gas shield or diverter along the left raceway. I almost lost my eyesight because of this.

Remington spent a lot of money on the model 710 which is not a bad experiment but sucks as a rifle. Winchester keeps selling off licenses to their better .22 rifles to Taurus. I would really like to be able to
buy a new Winchester Model 61 in 17HMR.

I've vented. Time to go out and shoot sage rats.

How about a complete new in the box 243 adl for $325?

Maybe I've just grown suspicious of anything involving Remington in recent years. That 700 short action is still far and away the most popular action for building custom rifles.
Maybe at some point in time we'll find out why Brownells is no longer carrying them, but I seriously doubt it. Best wishes.


Cal - Montreal

Old Elk Hunter,

As a retired Marine myself I would NEVER miss a chance to compliment Marines!

But...Marines in the field are notorious for beating the holly crap out of their equipment and anything that has been “Marine Proof†since 1966 can be considered to be pretty damned reliable.

A bolt coming off and/or an extractor breaking in a combat scenario would obviously be a really bad thing...but again, if this had been a problem, either actual or even perceived, the armorers at Quantico would have taken measures to fix it.

The bolt handle thing is not that big of a deal if someone feels the need. There are several guys out there that drill and tap the handle and install set screws for a pretty reasonable price.

The extractor, obviously ain’t an “easy†fix...but I would bet that they don’t fail at any higher rate than other styles do.

My gunsmith friend just TIG welded it back on with proper protection to prevent ruining the heat treating.
As I understand it sometimes the bolt body is not up to the right temperature when Remington silver solders the handles on. Sort of like a cold solder joint in electronics.

Yep, the Marines seldom get the credit they deserve. Nowadays they aren't getting the equipment they deserve.
The Humvee coffins in Iraq are a disgrace to some extent. It is a tough theater of operation. A long time
ago I saw Marine snipers using a special Model 70 target rifle. I don't know if it actually ever got deployed.
When I was a kid it was interesting to watch the guys practice before Camp Perry. One Marine would watch the
wind flags and then set his receiver sight with a micrometer and then shoot. They said he was pretty good.
My father would never talk about the shooting he actually did in the war. I later heard that he had a pretty good reputation in the Phillipines for cave cleaning in WWII. He later became a Sheriffs Deputy and his fellow
officers said he was cold as ice when things got dicey. His favorite way to settle a domestic dispute was to
rack the slide on a pump shotgun and ask who wants to die first. Not politically acceptable but effective.
He never had an interest in new guns. He said he thoroughly understood how his M70 in 30-06 would shoot and
didn't want to complicate things. Me, I like to mess with whatever is new, but when it is time to go deer hunting I still grab his old M70.

I like the old 721 and 722 Remingtons for field use. I also enjoy the two M600's I've got. Great for getting through the thickets here in Oregon. If I was going to buy a new gun today I would probably find a synthetic
stocked Model 7 in 260 Remington, put a 4x Leupold on it, and be very satisfied. I haven't looked at the latest version of Remington's extractor. I hear that it is no longer riveted. I'll have to check it out.

Can't beat that! IF I liked Rem. actions, I'd sure jump on that!!

Old Elk Hunter,

The Marines fielded a Winchester 70 sniper rifle in the early stages of Vietnam. It was a .30-06 with an 8x Unertl scope. They got them from their shooting teams that had been using them for a long time. Some of them were used till the end of the war.

Remington started using rivetless extractors a long time ago, early 1980’s. The rivetless style was a bit thicker so the magnum caliber bolts kept the riveted design to keep the necessary thickness in the bolt nose.

As for the “infamous†Humvee...people always seem to forget that Humvees were designed to replace Jeeps, NOT APC’s or Tanks!

Believe it or not but the Marines in Iraq have better stuff than the Army in many cases. Most of the Marine grunts are issued 77 grain 5.56mm ammo for their weapons where the Army units still get the crappy 62 grain “green tip†stuff.