Problem with bolt on Rem. 700

[Raptor]

I ran into something that has never happened to me in all my years of shooting.

Yesterday while shooting my 243XC I had a problem with my bolt. I had fired 3 rounds and on the 4th shot I went to extract the empty case and I could not get the bolt to move to the rear.

The bolt lifted in the normal manner but when I went to pull it to the rear it locked up. It would only move about an 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch. I could close it,open it, fire it, but could not get the bolt to move to the rear to extract the case. It felt like it was hitting something solid.

I thought it may be something in the trigger catching the bolt but up on removing the trigger it still would not come out. I tapped on it with a plastic hammer and still it would not move. I finally just kept opening and closing it and pulling on it when all of a sudden it just came free!!

I have no idea what casued it or what to do if it happens again. Does anyone have any ideas??? Has this ever happened to any of you??? Thanks guys!!!

 

[Dans40X]

Dirty/Rough chamber is where I'd start looking.
bolt timing
Is the extraction cam on the bolt handle burred/worn??

 

[Rustystud]

You may have had a blow primer, case head seperation and/or just trash is in front of the lug.

The problem could be in the area of your cocking piece.

The good news is there is not a loaded round in the chamber.

I would take the action and barrel out of the stock. Then remove the trigger and test.

After soaking it with Kroil. If the bolt want lift I then would spin the barrel off.

You will find the problem. Blown primer, casehead seperation, cracked lug, what ever.

Rustystud

 

[Raptor]

I got the bolt and case out. I had no trouble lifting the bolt it would NOT pull to the rear to extract the case. It would only move about a 1/8 to 3/16" back and forth.

I took the trigger out of the gun and the gun out of the stock. It was stripped down to just the barreled action and the bolt would still not move rearword. I finally just kept lifting an pulling on it and all of a sudden it popped out.

The case is fine no blown primer, this was not a hot load. I just don't want this to happen again. I clean the lugs and chamber everytime I clean the rifle. If something got in there then I can live with that but it felt like the bolt was hitting something solid when I was trying to pull it to the rear. Thats my concern. Thanks guys!!!

 

[daveosok1]

I had almost the exact same thing happen with a buddies gun.

It moved the exact same amount. I figured it out and told him it was probably the roll pin after examining mine and seeing that it moved about the same amount. He said he though it was metal shavings in the action because he had blown off his workbench with compressed air and that some of the chip had gotten stuck in the action.

He took it to the gunsmith and told him what he thought it was. The gunsmith cleaned the action and yes a chip had been removed. My buddy then went home racked a round in to see if it did it again and it did.

Turned out to be the roll pin that holds the ejector plunger in was broken,like I said) and would slide back and forth without coming out. Gunsmith had to remove the barrel and replace the roll pin. Gunsmith said in his 20 plus years he has only seen two other cases like that. It was broken in half lengthwise and would allow a sliver to slide back and forth and cause the bolt to hang up. If you turned the bolt so that the right or left side was up or down sometimes it would allow the bolt to be removed as the sliver would slide back into place.

Upon further examination of this issue my buddy had mentioned that he removed the roll pin which may have resulted in damage to the pin when he installed it.