# Rem 788 very difficult to chamber a round



## DYI hunting (Mar 17, 2011)

My wife has an old Remington 788 in .243 that belonged to her father.  When chambering a round, you have to "double-clutch" it to get it in, that is you have to close the bolt till is is about 1/4 inch short from fully closed and then back it off and try again.  It takes a scarey amount of force to close the bolt fully.  This happens with various factory loaded ammo so it is not an ammo problem.   When removing either a spent casing or unfired round, there is no signs that the round was damaged by loading it.

The bolt looks good and the is not excessive spring tension on the extractor.  The extractor moves as it should and doesn't bind up.

It is like the cartridge rim is not dropping down into the bolt face or the rifle throat is out of spec.  It shoots good and hits 1.5 inch 10 round groups at 100 yards.

Any ideas?  I am lost.


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## Gunplumber Mike (Mar 17, 2011)

Have you tried polishing the front face of the bolt?  It sounds like the cartridge is not sliding up the front of the face like it should.


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## Washington95 (Mar 17, 2011)

Get gunsmith to use go/no go gauges on chamber; sound like something's wrong there.

Also, could there be small piece of case stuck in neck of chamber?

Finally, have the lugs galled?  Bolt might show galling?


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## Dead Eye Eddy (Mar 17, 2011)

Sounds like a seriously fouled chamber.  Had a similar problem with my m70 .270 a few years back.  Pull the bolt out and run a 20 gauge brass brush into the chamber on a short rod.  Alternate with some Hoppe's #9 (or similar solvent) on a patch and see if anything comes out.


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## weagle (Mar 17, 2011)

Dead Eye Eddy said:


> Sounds like a seriously fouled chamber.  Had a similar problem with my m70 .270 a few years back.  Pull the bolt out and run a 20 gauge brass brush into the chamber on a short rod.  Alternate with some Hoppe's #9 (or similar solvent) on a patch and see if anything comes out.



Dead Eye is most likely dead on.

You should be able to hold the rifle muzzle down and drop a fresh factory round right into the chamber with no force needed to push it.  

If it's binding 1/4" out, it doesn't have anything to do with the bolt face as the case never even contacts the actual bolt face until you close the bolt which compresses the ejector plunger and snaps the extractor over the rim of the case.  It's not like a mauser bolt where the cartridge slides under the extractor before the bolt is closed.  

The ejector plunger could be stuck/binding, but generally if that's the case the bolt will close almost all the way before you feel any binding and generally it will get stuck in and not eject the case.  That is really easy to check just by pushing it in and making sure it moves freely.

Clean the chamber with a proper brush and cleaner and you are probably good to go.  

BTW the most common culprit is WD-40.  If the previous owner used patches sprayed with WD-40 to clean the bore the residue will turn into a thin hard varnish and presto:  Tight chamber.    There's a reason that WD-40 has the sarcastic nickname of "gunsmiths' friend" 

Weagle


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## georgia_home (Mar 17, 2011)

Dyi, I was thinking exactly what weagle was saying.


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## letsgofishin62 (Mar 20, 2011)

Take it to gunsmith spring for firing pin could be stuck. Very dangerous.


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## georgiabow (Mar 20, 2011)

i had a savage 110 bolt action. if the screws that held the stock on were too tight, then the bolt would be extremely difficult to operate.


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## DS7418 (Mar 21, 2011)

georgia_home said:


> Dyi, I was thinking exactly what weagle was saying.


 I agree with Weagle,, this is something you can DIY before you run it to a gunsmith. About a 90% chance this will be the problem.. I had a Rem700ADL and it had the same issue and this also fixed my problem.


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## DYI hunting (Mar 22, 2011)

Found the problem was a stiff spring extractor lip.  I don't know if there is crud behind it, bent slightly or what.  It is rivited in so there is only so much I could do to smooth it out.  It is better now but really needs removed, the area cleaned and a new extractor.  I might try to reduce the size of the lip so the shell rim drops past it a little easier.  Worse case senerio, I can always buy a new one, clean up the area once the old one was removed and replace it with a $25 part:
http://www.brownells.com/1/1/8666-r...le-riveted-extractor-kit-large-brownells.html


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## Gunplumber Mike (Mar 23, 2011)

Blast it with brake cleaner.  It probably has trash behind it.  If you reduce the size of it it will probably not work reliably.


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