Bolt handle fell off - Silver Solder or weld?

[wrench man]

One of the guys at work had the bolt handle come off of his Remington while chambering a round, called the local smith, he said no problem, made it sound like every other one does that!??, had it back in three days and for about $35.

[gtgeorge]

The wait has begun. Remington agreed to fix it under warranty via the repeat phone call on Monday and emailed me a shipping label on their dime. Dropped it off yesterday as well so now I am waiting to see how long it takes to fix it and it comes back accurate as it left and ends up staying together.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions as my last thought was calling them since it is outside their written warranty.

[Rifle 57]

The next time you need a bolt handle put back on send it to Dan Armstrong in Fairbanks AK. He is the very best at welding bolt handles on CORRECTLY. PH 907-457-4259
He has a website but I cant remember what it is.

[flint_knapper]

well I'm on board with number three...
other than that,,, my original post still stands.
I could tell you about sending a shotgun back to Italy in a medium sized postal flat rate box once, I didn't include a note with that one, I had already contacted them twice.
I'm sure they got my point though.

Cool, what was wrong with it?

[pietro]

The wait has begun. Remington agreed to fix it under warranty via the repeat phone call on Monday and emailed me a shipping label on their dime. Dropped it off yesterday as well so now I am waiting to see how long it takes to fix it and it comes back accurate as it left and ends up staying together.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions as my last thought was calling them since it is outside their written warranty.

When you get it back, trade it for a levergun.......


.

[gtgeorge]

When you get it back, trade it for a levergun.......


.

Now that's an idea. But instead I will just buy one waiting for it to come home. Found someone with a 1894 in 44 that will be mine as soon as I scrape the pennies together.

[seaboltm]

wow. I never knew welding on bolt handles was so hard. Guess somebody should have told me that before I did 20 or so of them with a MIG welder and Brownell's bolt welding jig. I use a heat sink, and generally stuff the bolt body full of wet paper towels. Pay special attention to the "root" of the bolt, the part on the underside of the bolt that touches the bolt body. That is where the most stress is on bolt lifting. Dress the welds, polish, finish as desired. I would not try to weld a bolt handle of questionable metal. They are cheap enough at Brownell's.

[roadie]

wow. I never knew welding on bolt handles was so hard. Guess somebody should have told me that before I did 20 or so of them with a MIG welder and Brownell's bolt welding jig. I use a heat sink, and generally stuff the bolt body full of wet paper towels. Pay special attention to the "root" of the bolt, the part on the underside of the bolt that touches the bolt body. That is where the most stress is on bolt lifting. Dress the welds, polish, finish as desired. I would not try to weld a bolt handle of questionable metal. They are cheap enough at Brownell's.

Normally, you'd be right....welding bolt handles ain't tough....when you have a root to weld to.

From what I've seen, the 770 bolt handle is silver soldered directly to the bolt body with very little contact area. There is no root to work with and I wouldn't attempt a weld considering how delicate and fragile the bolt looks. Others might, but I'm not that good a welder.

I'd let Remington fix their crud and sell or trade on return....that gun looks designed to fail. Returning it may also address the reason it broke off in the first place. Seems strange that it let go with the first cast bullet fired. Maybe it's allergic to cast?

[gtgeorge]

Normally, you'd be right....welding bolt handles ain't tough....when you have a root to weld to.

From what I've seen, the 770 bolt handle is silver soldered directly to the bolt body with very little contact area. There is no root to work with and I wouldn't attempt a weld considering how delicate and fragile the bolt looks. Others might, but I'm not that good a welder.

I'd let Remington fix their crud and sell or trade on return....that gun looks designed to fail. Returning it may also address the reason it broke off in the first place. Seems strange that it let go with the first cast bullet fired. Maybe it's allergic to cast?

I too worried about the ability to weld that cheap bolt and handle and was willing to buy a replacement. They only sell complete bolts and I found nobody that offered handles or bolt bodies for them. That is how I found out they would fix it through warranty which was a surprise since the stated warranty was out.

I found it odd that it failed on the first cast as well since it really likes the 162gr SST rounds and shoots them like a high dollar rifle. It wouldn't even stay on paper with several brands of boxed ammo.

As for getting rid of it.....not gonna happen even if a door stop since my wife bought it for me. She is learning what to buy and not to buy as time goes by but since it was the first one she bought for me it will be a piece of gold even if it performs like a turd.

[Geezer in NH]

Remington's fix will be no better than what they manufactured in the first place. Way it is, I would have had it tig welded myself.

[gtgeorge]

Rifle is on it's way back home and hoping it will work out. I have to admit that it was a fast turn around time though.

As for the tig weld....yep I would have but the more I looked at the bolt handle the more I said I needed to try to let them fix it first. I also could not find a different handle that would work in place of the 770 one. Lot's of stuff available for a 700 but nothing for this disposable rifle.

[Kim]

Pullman Arms in Worcester, Mass. specializes in micro welding and their work is superb. They have a laser welding machine that can perform miracles and their website is easily found.

[gtgeorge]

Well the rifle came back home with a new bolt and the tech noted he finished the chamber as well and returned to factory specs. I tried to chamber the ammo I had loaded for it on the shelf that I was getting .62 MOA and they will no longer chamber with the extended oal that I had dialed in before. I don't understand how that is possible but I loaded up a few cast loads and she shot fine. Now to dial it in and hopefully it will be as accurate or better than before. I am impressed that Remington fixed this outside of the supplied warranty on their dime 100% and turn around time was 14 days with almost all of it time in transit.