A roommate just bought a new-in-box Remington 770 .270 from a Cabela's last night and brought it to me to look over. I took the stock off and discovered this whitish residue around the front takedown screw hole in the receiver.



It was also in the takedown screw threads where it contacted the receiver. Most flaked off easily but some was slightly stuck to the receiver and the finish underneath was discolored (which you can sort of see in the photo). I didn't see any of the white stuff elsewhere. Could this be some residue from the bluing salts?

I wiped and scraped it off with the help of a cleaning solvent followed by a thin wipe of oil- at that point the finish resembled the rest. Anything else necessary to do at this point?

Thanks for looking!

Thank you, Duane. Any recommendations on a water displacing oil?

If it is new I'd have Remington do it. If not you probably would void your warranty.

It is excess bluing salts; this is the price we pay to have $250 rifles.
Just wash it off and oil it and forget about it. WD40 is water displacing but is a poor lube.
770s don't have barrel threads so there is no chance any salts are in the threads; the barrels are shrunk on.

I think I will just stick to OM 70's and 98 Mausers...

Since the M770 has no barrel threads(barrel pressed in) the salts are likely just in the bolt screw threads. Pour in some boiling water to rinse out the threads and boil the screw. You can make a passable water displacing oil by mixing 1/4 oz acetone with 3/4 oz transmission fluid.

If bluing salts got into the barrel/receiver interface, then the shrink fit is not very good and that would be a bad thing. I suspect they just puddled into the bolt locking recess, which on the 770, is part of the barrel; not the receiver. Note that the receiver rings on them is too short to house both a barrel and the bolt lugs. The barrels contain the bolt lug recesses (3 lugs). These things are made to be used and thrown away, and for the price, they do that job well. I hear that they shoot well too although I do not own one.
The OP needs to clean out all the salts in there or they will continue to grow.

Remington is the worlds worse about this. It got to the point that I would open the box and completely clean a new Remington before the customer showed up...and that was the 700 model back then.

quote:

Originally posted by srtrax:
Remington is the worlds worse about this. It got to the point that I would open the box and completely clean a new Remington before the customer showed up...and that was the 700 model back then.

I would strongly agree with this. My Remington Peerless double was bleeding rust for quite some time after I got it. I just picked up an early 80s M700 BDL and every time I wipe it down the patch is brown. There isn't a lick of "rust" on it, but it seems to keep leaching out of the barrel and receiver surfaces.

I have worked with hot bluing for about 35 years. Duane is correct, the amount of bleed out (bluing salts creeping out) in the picture is coming from a joint, be it threaded or pressed. Duane is also correct that you will have to boil the barreled action in water to stop the bleed out, I usually go for 20 minutes. Then blow it out well with compressed air. Heat it with a hot air gun until very hot to the touch then submerse in oil, my standard is ATF, no additives needed. One caveat, if your water is hard water and full of minerals and city additives boiling the barreled action will cause rust spots to appear. I use rain water or distilled water to prevent this.

Another way to clear the salts from the front ring us to use a compressed air gun. After boiling, direct the air into the scope base screw holes and it will drive a lot of salt-laden moisture out of the threads. Don't ever try this without safety glasses as you sure don't want bluing salts in you eyes!

There are no barrel threads so directing air into the scope base holes will go no where.

Thanks all for the advice!

quote:

Originally posted by srtrax:
Remington is the worlds worse about this. It got to the point that I would open the box and completely clean a new Remington before the customer showed up...and that was the 700 model back then.

Yeah, I was curious what kind of shape a brand new $250 package rifle would be in and where they cut corners compared to the 700. Glad I did a look over- not really surprised there. I pushed a few patches down the bore and they came out cleaner than expected.

Had I been at the Cabela's with him, he probably wouldn't have walked out with the rifle to begin with.

On the 700, both the front scope mount hole and the forward guard screw penetrate the receiver threads allow the bluing solution to fill the thread gap. You can see this crap on many of the M700 thousands of take off barrels.

I was just reading an old article by Frank de Haas in "Bolt Action Rifles", on the M788 written in the 1970's, and he refers to bluing salts growing out of his specimen! I guess some things never change. Every M770 that has come thru my shop has had salts blooming out of the forward breech screw. Also, this year every Ruger Mark III pistol I have bought have salts growing out of the forward scope base screw hole. BOth Remington and Ruger offered to take the arms back and correct, but at my expense to ship! I just boiled, oiled and moved on.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
On the 700, both the front scope mount hole and the forward guard screw penetrate the receiver threads allow the bluing solution to fill the thread gap. You can see this crap on many of the M700 thousands of take off barrels.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
There are no barrel threads so directing air into the scope base holes will go no where.

I am aware of that regarding this rifle. My comment was intended to advance the knowledge of readers, not to recomend a fix for this issue. My apologies for not making that clear.

I appreciate the additional info. Buddy decided to have me flush it out after he's done deer hunting in a week or two. We'll see if more has leaked out since then.

I helped him sight it in last night and aside from the scope being garbage, it shot better than expected with Federal Fusion 130 grain loads with some consistent 1" groups at 50 yards (worked for him). However the bolt is finicky when being locked down into battery and was frustrating. Made my Winchester 70 seem that much better.

quote:

Originally posted by Evan K.:

However the bolt is finicky when being locked down into battery and was frustrating. Made my Winchester 70 seem that much better.

Yeah, you need to oil it up real good and cycle it about two hundred times to make it smoother.