If your Remington 700 suddenly wont shoot

[Smtn10pt]

I had a remington 700 in 300 RUM given to me as a graduation present a little over 20 years ago. I had it magna ported and it served me well throughout the years. I had a friend work up a load with 180 gr TTSX bullets and the gun was accurate with them but I wasnt thrilled with the recovered bullets. A few had shed all their petals and one bent in half like a banana. I killed a fair amount of game with them but when I picked up a cancellation bear hunt this past spring and decided it was time to try the 200 Gr Accubonds. I couldnt get them to shoot at all!

After having gone through several different attempts and not being able to achieve acceptable accuracy I decided I would rebarrel my gun. Since I have a Tikka 300 WSM i decided I didnt need a second 300 mag, so I went to 338 RUM. This allowed me to jump up to 250 gr accubonds. Well, the problems persisted, just could not find a combination that was accurate enough for my liking. The gun would shoot two very close and a third about 1.5" away at 100 yards. I repeated this group multiple times and was getting very frustrated.

I had the action bedded as a last resort and went back to the range. I was out of reloads so I grabbed a box of 250 gr LRX which was the only factory load locally available. I shot a 4 shot group at 100 yards and it was much worse than average. Previously, while going over the gun at the shop, my gunsmith took the bolt apart and noticed the firing pin spring was in horrible shape, he brought a spare to the range that day and we swapped it out. I fired another 4 shot group immediately after replacing the spring and finally found the group I was looking for.

I would have never believed the spring had that much to do with accuracy, but I saw it happen. If anyone else is having these problems and you are using an older rifle it may be worth checking that spring.

 

[rayporter]

ignition is very important.

a friend bought 5000 primers last year and his target rifles quit shooting. he was brainstorming with another smith and decided to try some old primers. viola , instant success. [after 3 new barrels]

my target rifles get new springs every couple of years.

 

[Weldor]

Flinch? maybe. I developed a trigger slap out of no where. Took some re-training to get rid of it.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Flinch? maybe. I developed a trigger slap out of no where. Took some re-training to get rid of it.

A bad firing pin spring will increase lock time, which allows more time for the shooter to influence the shot.
The fact that you would stack two and the third was going out leads me to believe that it was shooter induced.

 

[Smtn10pt]

Possibly a flinch but I dont believe so, If you look at the target picture thats 4 shots with the old spring at the center diamond and then 4 at the upper left with the new spring. Maybe I cured myself at the exact moment we switched the springs but I doubt it.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Possibly a flinch but I dont believe so, If you look at the target picture thats 4 shots with the old spring at the center diamond and then 4 at the upper left with the new spring. Maybe I cured myself at the exact moment we switched the springs but I doubt it.

Not necessarily saying you "cured yourself" but if you are tensing up at the anticipation of the shot, a longer lock time will allow for that slight movement to have influence over where the gun is actually aimed when the bullet exits the barrel. We are talking milliseconds here. With the new spring the lock time is sufficiently fast to ensure your movement isn't impacting the shot.

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter how fast the firing pin moves forward if the gun is not moving at all. The fact that the group tightened up with the new spring pretty much proves that it was shooter induced. I have had a firing pin go bad before and the only way I figured it out was I started getting light primer strikes (misfires).

 

[Dmoua]

New barrel new spring.

 

[Billy Goat]

Curious if the results hold up with more groups.

Hate to repeat it, but you will learn a lot more about your setup the larger groups you shoot. Small sample sizes really aren't always a great indicator.


I went to using larger group sizes, and while being disappointed in how large the size is, my hit percentage has gone up. Spending more tine shooting, less chasing things that are likely outliers statistically.

 

[Smtn10pt]

Curious if the results hold up with more groups.

Hate to repeat it, but you will learn a lot more about your setup the larger groups you shoot. Small sample sizes really aren't always a great indicator.


I went to using larger group sizes, and while being disappointed in how large the size is, my hit percentage has gone up. Spending more tine shooting, less chasing things that are likely outliers statistically.

I agree that a larger number of shots per group would give a better understanding of the rifle and my potential, but if the first 3 or 4 arent good enough to be satisfied with I dont know why you would shoot another 6, especially at 5$ a round.

 

[Billy Goat]

I agree that a larger number of shots per group would give a better understanding of the rifle and my potential, but if the first 3 or 4 arent good enough to be satisfied with I dont know why you would shoot another 6, especially at 5$ a round.

Yeah, I can agree with that.


If you are past 2 moa and know it's the setup and not the shooter, go back to the drawing board.

Lock time can definitely influence a group, but I don't think it would make the kinda difference you are showing. I'd think with primers, a hit is enough to ignite or not, but I'm not too well versed there.

 

[22Conch]

What year on your Rem 700?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Smtn10pt]

What year on your Rem 700?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got it in 2002

 

[Wrench]

Did you change just the spring or swap pin assemblies?

 

[Smtn10pt]

Did you change just the spring or swap pin assemblies?

spring and pin assembly, basically swapped the internals out from another 700

 

[davsco]

Had a 700 in 7stw. One day I checked free float, and it wasn't. So filed down the barrel channel some, and accuracy went to crap. Turns out Remington had intentionally put in a pressure point on some of their stocks