Bush a Rem 700 bolt?

[oldcanadice]

Been searching; can't find it. Do any of you machinist types on here bush bolts?

[JSnover]

Bush what, the firing pin hole? An old 'smith told me the way to do that is to drill and tap, install a filler screw, face it off and drill a new hole.

[B R Shooter]

Aside from the firing pin hole, the bolt body itself is sometimes bushed for a better fit in the raceway. It's not really that hard to do, the biggest problem is the raceway, or rather the round hole part of the raceway, is not a consistent diameter end to end. The folks that go all out on Remington's bore the raceway oversize with special tooling, then the fit is much easier.

That is not to say you can't bush the bolt in the raceway as it is, I've done it to my own Remingtons. The rear is probably the most important, since the trigger pushes the bolt up when cocked.

[JSnover]

That's interesting. Mine rattles a bit when the bolt is open but locks up tight enough and shoots well enough to leave it alone.
How much of a difference would you say it has made in your rifles?

[oldcanadice]

The firing pin hole. Hadn't heard of anyone bushing a bolt otherwise on a 700.

[country gent]

The firing pin hole is bushed normally due to wear or primers being pierced and hot gasses damaging the hole or bolt face. The way I do it is to set up bolt and indiacte face to true center drill and tap to size needed to clean up all damage ( any pits or cratering) I also want it bigger than the primers size so it supports some of the case head. A set screw or bolt is then locktited into place and the hole drilled thru. Face the end to blend match the original bolt face. Alot of these firing pins arnt straight pins but tapered ends and need the taper cut in from the back or a special pin made. A simple taper reamer can be made to do this and this also will help maintain the proper protrusion of the firing pin. Bushing the bolt body is much more involved and can be a major under taking. There are makers of bolts now that fit much tighter or even can be fitted to an action. As stated above most of the bolt bodies sleeved were done on blueprinted and squared actions where the reciever has been slightly opened up to center and square it up to centerline. A set of bushing are made and split bored to fit section turned under bolt body and soldered in place front and back then turned and polished to fit. This mod along with the blueprinting gets pretty expensive and requires a knowledgable smith. I would really look into getting qoutes first figure price of rifle the blueprinting and other mods then check the price of one of the custom actions A stolle bernard or other may be cheaper

[lefty o]

id hit br.com or benchrestcentral whatever its called these days lol. there are guys over there that do this type of thing.

[B R Shooter]

If you want the firing pin hole bushed, Greg Tannel is the man. He is cheap, fast and none better at this. As to bushing the bolt itself, yes Pacific sells oversize bolts in many configurations. You can spend a lot of money working on Remingtons. There is an entire industry for tooling, jigs, and work on Remingtons. People who do this work want to get paid for the time and money for all that tooling. When you get it all done, you still have a Remington. If you have that kind of money and want the extra precision, buy a custom action. You will be far ahead, and the resale will be much more than a trued Remington.

[oldcanadice]

Thank you all. I know about bench rest. I did that for a while. It got WAY too expensive back in the 80's and today it's plain astronomical.

I do not have access to a machine shop and with all the high-level machining talent in the membership I was looking for something like shown in Jim Borden's pdf -- http://bordenrifles.com/firing_pin_bush.pdf. Evidently it's not happening here.

[BK7saum]

If you want the firing pin hole bushed, Greg Tannel is the man. He is cheap, fast and none better at this. As to bushing the bolt itself, yes Pacific sells oversize bolts in many configurations. You can spend a lot of money working on Remingtons. There is an entire industry for tooling, jigs, and work on Remingtons. People who do this work want to get paid for the time and money for all that tooling. When you get it all done, you still have a Remington. If you have that kind of money and want the extra precision, buy a custom action. You will be far ahead, and the resale will be much more than a trued Remington.

I hear great things about Greg's work.

[Artful]

before I bushed a bolt I'd true up the action and bolt fit.
http://www.rifle-accuracy-reports.com/AccurizedAction.html

[akajun]

Thank you all. I know about bench rest. I did that for a while. It got WAY too expensive back in the 80's and today it's plain astronomical.

I do not have access to a machine shop and with all the high-level machining talent in the membership I was looking for something like shown in Jim Borden's pdf -- http://bordenrifles.com/firing_pin_bush.pdf. Evidently it's not happening here.
Gre-tan does what you are looking for, though with a little different bushing. His work is second to none, and has fast turn around time.
BTW, for those wanting to do this themselves, I have done the bushing myself and used Borden's instructions as a guide. It is not hard to do, but there are several things that need to be addressed that he did not cover.
Bolt bushing and truing is best done in a bolt truing jig held in a 4 jaw chuck and indicated in two spots just behind the lugs about 1" apart. The jig is similar to an action truing jig , but has a slot cut in it for the bolt handle. This allows you to indicate true to the entire bolt body, rather than one spot. Reading his instructions leads you to believe that you can just chuck it in a four jaw.
Bolt bodies are not concentric, trying to dial my first one in was a hair pulling experience until I figured this out. You kind of have to "average it out" to get it running concentric in two spots, but I have found as much as .0007 out of roundness on my bolts. Some I think is from the factory, some is wear on an older rifle.
Also on a riveted extractor Remington, you have to replace the extractor, or at least the rivet. Not a big deal, unless you dont have an extra rivet and tool on hand.
The hole he suggested to drill, with .002 clearance, is the same as a factory Remington, I wanted tighter, so I drilled undersize and reamed for a .001 clearance hole. NO primer flow now at all.
Lastly, he recommends grinding the Firing pin as its hardened. I had no problem turning it down with a sharp carbide tool to .001 oversize, then polishing it down with emery cloth to size.

[oldcanadice]

Guys: Perhaps I need to clarify the issue. I don't need action work. The gun is a hunter and the action is already good -- squared up and with equal bearing on the lugs when it got a Shillen barrel put on it some years back. The guy who did that job used to do BR work and when I last saw him was putting together 22 BR-for-score guns that were placing well in NY competition. Good stuff. Unfortunately, I've moved, we have fallen out of touch, and it seems he's out of business.

I hadn't thought about the bolt before because all of my earlier Rem bolts had crisp and clean faces and pin-holes. My bad. I had no idea how far Remington quality had fallen and now that I'm finally using the gun it turns out the hole is oversize and has a ragged edge. The gun shoots with hot loads but the fired primers do not make me happy. I'd have more head-room if that weren't the case. That's the score, with a single fix if I do anything to it at all.

akajun et al: Thanks. I'm aware of Gre-tan, but I don't like the idea of having a special firing pin and not being able to substitute a stock pin in a pinch. Otherwise I'd probably go with that.