A friend is going to Africa this month and is taking his brother's Remington Custom Shop rifle in 416 Rem Mag. The gun went to Africa once before as a backup and shot a lot before the trip but not used during because it arrived in Africa with a bent scope tube.

The gun wouldn't feed blunt loads or flat nosed solids and was sent to Rem for correction. Remington sent it back saying it was fine. Still wouldn't feed those rounds though. My buddy got it going by himself by filing the feed lips a tiny bit. Probably the first gun he ever tried that on.

We shot about 75 rounds through it one day to get loads worked up and sighted in for North Fork softs, solid and cup points. He shot about that many sighting in a different scope and familiarizing himself with the rifle a second time. The gun shoots everything to the same POI and in little cloverleafs BUT...

He went last week for more practice and three rounds into it, he had a failure to fire. Very light primer strike, you could hear the difference. It got worse until the gun wouldn't work at all. Prior to sending it to Remington for the feed work it did the same thing and he found metal shavings in the bolt body. Cleaned it well and it went away that time.

So this time he opens the bolt and no crap inside. He put a shroud/striker assembly from another 700 in and it worked fine (dry firing). So off to the gunsmith for a last minute disassemby of the firing pin assembly and sure enough, it was full of machine shavings from the original manufacture of the rifle. It took two months and almost 200 rounds to dislodge it to the point it began binding the cocking piece inside the shroud.

The moral is: you never know what will bite you that you never expect. The crap in the bolt is an obvious factory cock-up but that happens now and then. The Custom Shop didn't fix the feed problem becasue they probably used the wrong ammo and no one including us thought to look inside the shroud of a ('til then) working rifle. So I guess the moral is leave nothing to chance and inspect EVERYTHING before you go on any hunt away form support, down to the last lock washer.

quote:

Originally posted by: Tigertate

The moral is: you never know what will bite you that you never expect. The crap in the bolt is an obvious factory cock-up but that happens now and then. The Custom Shop didn't fix the feed problem becasue they probably used the wrong ammo and no one including us thought to look inside the shroud of a ('til then) working rifle. So I guess the moral is leave nothing to chance and inspect EVERYTHING before you go on any hunt away form support, down to the last lock washer.

The Remington Custom Shop is probably run by folks doing work no one else will do.

I've always taken apart my new guns for a complete inspection. I especially look for burrs. I worked on a pistol that would misfire about once in 100 rounds. The problem was a tiny burr on the firing pin shoulder and a tiny burr in the firing pin hole .That once in 100 was when the two burrs lined up ! It doesn't take much of a burr to cause feeding problems either.

I used to build race and prototype engines. We spent over 16 hours simply deburring the block, heads, crank, and intake manifold on a new build for a big V-8.

We had a contract at one time for the repair work for the USFS ( yes the Forest Service ) rifles in AK.

One of the main items that they had was that each rifle had to shoot 20 rounds, operated as fast as you could shoot and reload the magazine with no failures.

Also you should have seen the look of other shooters at the range, as each of these USFS rifle stocks was painted BRIGHT ORANGE.
Seems that they had lost too many rifles in the brush after they got laid on the ground during survey work.

So yes you need to use a DGR and understand it before going into the field with it.

I got snookered by a handgun I had purchased thru an importer a couple of years ago. Got it in and it all seems OK, but to remove the firing pin you had to remove the rear sight. They made this model with either and standard or interia type firing pin. I had it about a month before I got out to shoot it, you guessed right.

Click, Click, no dent on the primer.

So once I got home took it all the way apart, the front tip was broken on the firing pin. Made a new one and was set to go.
But I never packed it concealed until, I had shot it enough to make me feel confident with it.

So always test function and shoot the weapons you are packing, and learn to maintain them.

James Wisner

quote:

Originally posted by Mike in Michigan:
I used to build race and prototype engines. We spent over 16 hours simply deburring the block, heads, crank, and intake manifold on a new build for a big V-8.

Me too, with any hotrod engine I rebuilt. Used to bend a stiff wire and probe down in the recesses of the water jacket to loosen the remains of the casting sand that frequently was packed there. Wore out a buncha taps.

Same way with any machine tool including the shop machinery. You'd sometimes be appalled by the burrs, flashing and sand that can be found inside a machine. Anyway it's good practice to do a complete dis- and re-assembly just so you know how everything works, exactly, and so you can inspect to make sure that all is adjusted properly when re-assembled. JMOFWIW.
Regards, Joe

A few years ago I bought a 357 Timberwolf carbine at a gun show. It was cheap, looked new and came with a box of ammo. The ammo all had faint blemishes on the primers. Took my new (to me) carbine up to the lake, loaded her up, lined up on a can, pulled the trigger and "click". Tried several more rounds with no "boom". Started to look at what might be wrong and noticed a dark brown, greasy ring around the firing pin hole. Had an areosol can of electrical contact cleaner so I forced some into the bolt assembly. The prior owner had missed finding that the factory cosmoline had not been removed from the bolt assembly. SO--I got a brand new rifle, with a box of ammo, for a very good price.

I retired from a nuke plant where we had a saying, "The stupid will be punished!" 'Nuff said.
Regards, Joe

To that I would add "you control nobody but yourself"!