First Remington 700 build range results

[tonyben]

Just left the range. The rifle shot great! The Federal Gold Medal Match shot about 1/2 MOA. The Lake City M852 shot about 1MOA. Overall I’m very pleased with the results!

Thanks for all the help and advice that you all provided! I’ll measure the groups as soon as I get back to the shop.

 

[tonyben]

Looks like the groups were 0.66", 0.7" and 0.87"

Tony.

 

[Sniperhandle]

A Better rest setup and handloads, You should be able to cut those in half.

 

[tonyben]

My only gripe about the rifle is that some of the cases were hard to extract. I believe the PE is off since I lapped the bolt. I don't think the cam surfaces ever touch each other when I lift the bolt handle. I need to address the PE somehow. A new thing for me. Oh, and I'd like to get rid of that zipper feeling when I run the bolt back and forth. The bolt body machine marks make a bit of noise.

Tony.

 

[Sniperhandle]

Lapping the bolt should have only removed tenths. What kind of polishing did you do on the chamber? I use 400 grit wet sandpaper with wd-40 and then polish with blue shop towel.

 

[tonyben]

I used 400 grit as well as a kitchen abrasive pad. The cases look great and the chamber is shiny, but there's no PE. Maybe it never had any PE to begin with.

 

[AlNyhus]

Tony, it's likely the bolt you used is a late model 'long tube' style. This results in the cam angle on the root of the bolt handle being moved rearward relative to the reciever cam angle. The result is no mechanical camming. These bolt handles are frequently not timed correctly, as well.

The solution to getting the PE back is relocating/retiming the bolt handle.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[tonyben]

Tony, it's likely the bolt you used is a late model 'long tube' style. These have the cam angle on the root of the bolt handle moved rearward relative to the reciever cam angle. The result is no mechanical camming. These bolt handles are frequently not timed correctly, as well.

The solution to getting the PE back is relocating/retiming the bolt handle.

Good shootin' -Al

In relocating my handle, will my bolt handle rotate the bolt farther? Will the bolt lug engagement change? Will I have to lap it again for full bolt lug contact?

This bolt and receiver came from the bankruptcy sale, so last production runs.

Tony.

 

[ELR LVR]

My only gripe about the rifle is that some of the cases were hard to extract. I believe the PE is off since I lapped the bolt. I don't think the cam surfaces ever touch each other when I lift the bolt handle. I need to address the PE somehow. A new thing for me. Oh, and I'd like to get rid of that zipper feeling when I run the bolt back and forth. The bolt body machine marks make a bit of noise.

Tony.

diamond lapping compound - Ebay

 

[Sniperhandle]

In relocating my handle, will my bolt handle rotate the bolt farther? Will the bolt lug engagement change? Will I have to lap it again for full bolt lug contact?

This bolt and receiver came from the bankruptcy sale, so last production runs.

Tony.

No, Moving the handle will not change headspace, You are just moving the handle forward to take up the slop and improve the camming action. You will not need to re-lap or worry about headspacing.

 

[urbanrifleman]

In relocating my handle, will my bolt handle rotate the bolt farther? Will the bolt lug engagement change? Will I have to lap it again for full bolt lug contact?

This bolt and receiver came from the bankruptcy sale, so last production runs.

Tony.

Measure with a feeler gauge the distance from the back of the action to the front of the bolt handle with the bolt pushed back into lug engagement. Should be about 20 thou or less.

 

[AlNyhus]

Measure with a feeler gauge the distance from the back of the action to the front of the bolt handle with the bolt pushed back into lug engagement. Should be about 20 thou or less.

With the late 'long tube' bolt bodies, that's not always good indicator. I have one here with no PE and the gap is .012". The cam surfaces are more than that far apart...so simply moving the handle forward won't get it done unless the front of the handle area is faced off a skosh.

 

[urbanrifleman]

With the late 'long tube' bolt bodies, that's not always good indicator. I have one here with no PE and the gap is .012".

The ramp must be completely out of spec. There are so many things that happen all at once at the top of the bolt lift. It's crazy once you look at it.

 

[AlNyhus]

The ramp must be completely out of spec. There are so many things that happen all at once at the top of the bolt lift. It's crazy once you look at it.

Yeah...they can be a mess as the angles stack up. On the long tube bolts, the only 'extraction' you have is the spring pressure when the lugs come off the abuttments. Cock on close....in reverse.

 

[tonyben]

When I rotate my bolt, the front of the handle and the top, where the angled cut is, never touch the receiver at all.

 

[AlNyhus]

When I rotate my bolt, the front of the handle and the top, where the angled cut is, never touch the receiver at all.

Pretty common on the later ones, Tony.

 

[WSnyder]

The ramp must be completely out of spec. There are so many things that happen all at once at the top of the bolt lift. It's crazy once you look at it.

The receivers themselves stayed fairly consistent over the years but there was a change in the handle angles along the way that mostly created this problem. That’s a big reason why I use Holland’s handles although he probably has to stick with the Remington for rules. The Holland’s have enough material so they can be hand fitted to match the receiver cam. You can tig extra material on to the Remington handle cam and then hand fit it to correct the issue. Long Rifles was doing this but I don’t know if they still do or will. It’s not hard but you’ll have to find someone to do it.

Edit: Long Rifles looks like they still offer this service if you want to use your factory handle. They offer a lot of options but the factory handle “time and tig” still looks like one of them.

GUNSMITHING SERVICES: Time/TIG and Time advance_Install handle to M700

New service as of 2026: LRI Direct replacement bolt handles for M700s. The introduction of our machined replacement handles provides a viable solution to the issues that have plagued the M700 design since the early 1990s. Our new handles replicate the feel of the factory design while...

www.longriflesinc.com

 

[tonyben]

I'm wondering if I should add some brazing material or maybe tig weld a little steel onto the bolt handle cam area and hand shape it to make contact with the extraction cam surface on the receiver.

If I'm not mistaken, if the bolt handle is removed and the bolt body fully inserted won't the bolt spin 360˚ without anything to stop it?

The handle location determines the rotation limit; correct?

If I change the location of the bolt handle to be slightly positioned counterclockwise of its current location, won't that mean that my bolt lugs will rotate that much more over the receiver bolt lug abutements, changing the mating surfaces? The lapped portion of the lugs would slightly move over and un-lapped portion of the receiver?

And then what about the firing pin cocking piece, would that not be in the improper position?

Tony.

 

[AlNyhus]

Here's the later receiver/bolt I mentioned earlier. With no f/p and the bolt pulled back against the lug abutments, here's the gap. A .012" gets in the top...barely. At the bottom, a .005 feeler guage gets snug. The angle seen is due to the bolt fit in the receiver. The bolt is .695 at the back end and the receiver I.D. is .704.

With no f/p assy or trigger....and pushing the bolt as far ahead as I can when opening it...here's all the contact it shows.

With a trigger and firing pin installed, when the lugs clear the abutments and comes back due to the spring, you can throw a cat between the bolt handle angle and the receiver cam angle as they pass each other.

I have several pre-'long tube' bolts. I can put any of them in this receiver and have at least 75% camming angle contact.

For what it's worth.... -Al

 

[WSnyder]

I'm wondering if I should add some brazing material or maybe tig weld a little steel onto the bolt handle cam area and hand shape it to make contact with the extraction cam surface on the receiver.

This is the way. See my comments above. See the Long Rifles link. There are pictures of how they do it.

The handle location determines the rotation limit; correct?

Correct. You have to retain that relationship.