Forums.NitroExpress.com

Well Ripp, (and others too)
I used to do gunsmithing for 2 Remington service centers in Nevada years ago. I can assure you, it's not "BS".
I have re-soldered about 30 bolt handles back on and replaced about 40+ extractors. In both small and standard sized. (what I find strange is that I have never replaced on on the 222 head size, which seems as if it would be the one that would break most, being it has to flex .070" and it does so around the smallest radius)
Anyway.....

The bolt handles are something that you can't do anything about, but I will tell you what I would do if I were to buy a new Remington.
The silver soldered joint is extremely strong IF THE SOLDERING IS DONE RIGHT, but there's no way to see it. So I would take the bolt out of the rifle and put it in a padded vice with the handle end sticking out, and not supported by the vice jaws.
Take a rawhide or rubber mallet and smack it to try to break it off. If you can't, you never will.

There's about 1/2 square inch of contact area under the root of the bolt handle and if Remington did a good job in soldering it, the bolt handle would bend before the joint will break.
But if you get one that is not done right, it will fly across the room. Then send it in to Remington or one of their service centers and get it fixed right. Once it's right, it's right forever.

2nd thing to remember as if it were passed down on tablets of stone from on-high

ALWAYS put solvent on the bolt face when you are storing your rifle. Just Hoppies #9 is fine, but leave the bolt heads wet until you take them out to go hunting.

The solvent will dissolve the small brass shavings that always work their way behind the small extractors where you can't clean them out. If you leave the bolt head wet, the shavings just disappear. It's those shavings that bind the extractor up in a few years of use and then you get 20% of the extractor doing 100% of the work because 80% is bound up so it can't flex.

And Ripp, on your Mauser, you should cut a bevel on the front edge of your extractor so you can load the chamber. Mauser did that on many millions of military rifles just for that reason. The idea that you should "never do that" is illogical. Look at the length of the extractor on a Mauser and the understand it's flexing from the collar forward only as much as the depth of the shell groove. Look at a Remington M-700 and see the extractor has to flex the exact same amount, from the spring pin or from the rivit.
So if you flex a long spring .070" and a short spring .070" which one is flexing more in proportion to it's overall size? Which one is under more stress?
The Mauser is under FAR less stress then a Remington, every time you load the chamber and slam the bolt forward. (if the extractor is properly beveled) The Mausers that break extractors are the ones that are not properly beveled.

Happy hunting
Steve Zihn

Post Extras