lapping bolt lugs and trueing bolt face

[cheek9075]

looking at a remmington 700 action, the rear of the bolt lugs are not making good contact with the action, one side more than the other. i plan on lapping the bolt lugs and trueing bolt face.
i am concerned about head space once i do this. how much does it affect the head space and do i need to worry about it?
thanks for anyt input!

 

[jonbearman]

Lapping the lugs alittle to make better contact wont change the headspace radically like skimming the face of the bolt.You should recheck your headspace as you may need to set the barrel back slightly to correct the headspace.This is not real hard to do if you have the tools and a good lathe etc to do the job. You can use a fired piece of brass as a headspace tool instead of a gage,but you must remember it will always be your gun and dont sell it without telling the person buying it.I would say to buy at least a go gage. Most remmys lap in fast and you can buy a tool to lap the face of the bolt ,but you have to remove the barrel to use the tool.Again light lapping doesnt usually cause the headspace to become dangerous.After you do all of this you need to fireform your brass to the chamber and neck size only till it becomes too hard to close the bolt and get a body die to bump the shoulder a thousandths or so back to restore the ease of closing the bolt.

 

[Ing. Michael W. Mayerl]

looking at a remmington 700 action, the rear of the bolt lugs are not making good contact with the action, one side more than the other. i plan on lapping the bolt lugs and trueing bolt face.
i am concerned about head space once i do this. how much does it affect the head space and do i need to worry about it?
thanks for anyt input!

Lapping the lugs is very important and does not have a big effect on the headspace.
But safe your time with trueing the bolt face. That does have a big effect on the headspace and it won`t rise the accuracy.

But a tip: when you change a barrel on a Rem action, true the front surface that has contact to the recoil lug. I have also developed a special recoil lug with a 3 point contact on this surface plus a position knob. That rise up accuracy and its easier to change the barrel because the lug is always in the same position.

 

[cheek9075]

Thanks for the advice will try and lap the lugs. looks like it needs it pretty bad, only one side is making good contact with the action.

 

[butchlambert]

Waste of time lapping the lugs on a 700.
Butch

 

[clowdis]

 

[butchlambert]

clowdis, john, and michael,
We have touched on this subject of lug lapping many times on a Remington type receiver. If you don't ream the bore of the receiver and use a fitted bolt, lapping is useless. If you have a way to set up an indicator, check the height of the bolt in the uncocked position and then again in the cocked position. Do this at the rear ring. The cocking piece is lifting the back of the bolt. When this happens the upper lug on the bolt is moved away from the receiver. Your perfectly lapped lugs are not touching at the top.
JMHO
Butch

 

[ballistic64]

The cocking piece is lifting the back of the bolt. When this happens the upper lug on the bolt is moved away from the receiver. Your perfectly lapped lugs are not touching at the top.
JMHO
Butch

Thats true,until the primer is struck.Then I gaurantee those lapped lugs are touching at the top. ;D

 

[butchlambert]

Primer won't do nothing. Where is the bullet when the explosion happens to push it back? Splain this to me then, why then do we ream raceways and install fitted bolts? Why do the custom makers do the same thing? Do you think they need to have the lugs touching and the face of the bolt square to the chamber?
I agree that a 60,000 PSI explosion will drive it back. Do you have a way to to check how square the base or bottom of the case is after firing it? Easy way to see if it matters.
Butchj

 

[cheek9075]

well looking at the bolt, it looks like the top lug when the bolt is down is the one not making much contact.???? ive got something going on agian, this rifle has been sent back to remmington once and when i recieved it it was better. now starting the same thing agian. going to take it down myself, or with my gunsmith.
i just noticed it was not making good contact and thought it would be something easily done and i could eliminate it. going to have action trued and look at the barrel, might just rebarrel it if i cant find anything.

 

[ballistic64]

I agree with you Butch,just some humor.As far as bolt to action fit,I believe it has more to do with vibration affecting accuracy when a round is fired.The less the clearance, the less the vibration of the bolt being slammed back and having to be straightened out,which I believe affects the barrel vibration.A remmy can be trued and a savage floating head can both spit out cases that are perfectly squared but they'll never measure up to a custom action until an excessive amount of money is dumped into sleeving the bolt or reaming with an oversized bolt.

 

[Taildrag15X]

A new 1 piece bolt from PTG is not an excessive amount of money, I've seen factory Rem. bolts sell for more in the classifieds, and you either have it ground to fit or ream the action..

After finishing my first complete build myself I can say that if I didn't already have the equipment and my time "free" it would not be worth the money spent on making it par with a new/used "custom" that can be had in the $900-$1500 range depending on how much you wish to spend.

 

[clowdis]

Lapping bolt lugs and truing the bolt face are only two small parts of action blueprinting. Just doing these two steps likely will not show any improvement in accuracy but might show really adverse effects on headspace since a lot of factory chambers are on the generous side to begin with. Using a piece of brass to check headspace with is ridiculous, get some headspace gauges so you can tell what you really have and adjust from there if need be. When you lap the lugs make sure you pull the barrel and use a device to put pressure on the front of the bolt (with firing pin removed) so you keep the bolt half way square while you're lapping. Don't do it with the barrel in the action!

 

[jonbearman]

If anything when using the neck sizing alternative,after you lap the machine marks a little smoother it closes smoother at least.The inside surface on the lugs in the reciever on most remingtons are rough at best. It certainly wont hurt.I would have everyone of my remmys sleeved except for the prohibitive cost to most of us. I would suggest you send it to butch and have him do the work as I know he is one our more competant smiths on our site.He really is right about his overview.It is a shame that remington doesnt tighten up the specs but I fully believe they dont give a crap.As long as the board and investors make a ton of money,the care about product precision doesnt fall under we care whatsoever anymore.