Gunsmithing pacific tool and gauge bolt

[jsmythe]

i am thinking of upgrading my current remington 700 factory bolt with a PTG custom bolt
i just wanted to find out if anyone has and first hand knowledge about the company and this product. Pros, cons, failings, etc
The specific product is the 1 Piece Short Action Remington 700 Bolt, swept back handle, right handed, standard .484 bolt face, od .6995, m16 mini extractor cut, large spiral ground fluting, standard bolt nose, and standard pin hole.

 

[Rainier42]

Re: pacific tool and gauge bolt

Was interested in the same except for a Savage 10 of mine so am interested in the responses you get.

 

[Driftwood]

Re: pacific tool and gauge bolt

PT&G is good to go. There bolt replacement is a quality product. IF you don't have a bolt, then the PTG bolt would be a great choice. IF you already have a bolt, I wouldn't bother, as your money would be better put in other area's, like ammo for practice.

To use the PTG bolt in your R700 it will have headspaced by a gunsmith. If you know what you are doing you could get the correct headspace yourself using a Savage, but it still wouldn't be at the top of my list for ways to spend my money.

I don't know what your expectations for improved performance are with the PTG bolt, but I doubt you will see any noticable improvement in accuracy. If you are looking at "upgrading" your rifle, the trigger, stock and bedding would be the first place i would go. Replacing the bolt would be way down on the list and I would only consider it when changing barrels.

 

[E. Bryant]

Re: pacific tool and gauge bolt

Some random observations, based upon a couple of recent builds with these bolts:

1) At 0.6995" OD, the bolt may fit very tightly to the receiver bore - to the point where it may require light lapping to run smoothly. I ran into this on an "RR" series Rem700 receiver. Not the worst problem in the world to have, but it can suck up some time. Obviously, don't bother having the bolt coated or finished until it's been proven to run smoothly.

2) The bolt handle seems to be located to provide maximum primary extraction with a trued receiver, which is nice. But this meant that even after taking a couple thou off the receiver lugs, some lapping and a few light file cuts to the front of the bolt handle slot were required to get the bolt to close. Once again - not the worst problem to have, but it'll add time/cost to the build.

3) I don't know about mini-M16 extractors (<span style="font-style: italic">yet</span> - one of my builds-in-progress will use it), but the full-size version will either require machining a cut-out in the bolt recess or some light cuts to the back side of the extractor in order to provide enough room to snap over the rim of a round.

The issues noted above should not be interpreted as complaints about the product's quality - it is outstanding. Just expect to invest an hour or two in making it work correctly, which should be totally expected for a custom part. It by no means is a necessary part for a high-quality build, but this hobby is not usually about the bare necessities, is it?

If you can afford the part and labor, go for it.

 

[LRI]

Re: pacific tool and gauge bolt

I've known David Kiff both personally and professionally for close to 15 years. My shop uses his tooling (reamers, etc) exclusively.

With any business there are occasions when things fall short of expectation, PTG is not above this. That being said the only thing left to do when this happens is to right the wrong and move on with your life. Whenever this has happened to us with PTG, David has gone the distance to make it right and for that he'll have my business for as long as I'm doing this kind of work.

I've installed a lot of these bolts. Both the one piece and the body only units. The M16 extractor works well and I encourage you to consider it as its much better/safer than the Sako type. That being said there is nothing wrong with the factory style extractor either. It does however have some particulars that should be observed. These are based on personal experiences, it may vary so take it with a grain of salt:

1. If your going to ceracoat the bolt body, remove the factory style extractor before hand. Especially if your using the oven cure OD green stuff.

-Reasons:

It has a tendency to make the extractor lethargic. It'll be resistant to slipping back into the rim of the case once pushed away. Because of this I now remove them prior and take a moment to polish the shoes of the extractor on a felt wheel so that they are bright/shiny. This solves the issue and the extractor works as advertised. OD green C-coat is kinda chalky. Polishing the shoes makes it slide back and forth easily.

The bolt body:

The game these days seems to be making an action as tight as possible. I don't personally subscribe to it, but whatever. For this reason I purposely order my bolts (for ceracoat applications) a WHOPPING .007" of an inch UNDERSIZE from the bore diameter. (which I measure using a bore gauge/snap gauge prior to ordering)

-Reasons:

Ceracoat is applied correctly when its at "one mil" in film thickness. A "mill" is basically a fancier term for .001". So lets do a little pretend math:

Receiver bore: .700" Minus "2 mils" (after ceracoat) means we have an ID of .698".

Bolt OD: I would order the bolt at .693" OD. If I spray it it'll bump up to .695".

.698-.695 leaves us with .003". Divide that in half and you have a .0015" clearance all the way around the bolt body.

It'll run like shit through a milk fed goose.

Expect some questions when ordering a bolt to this standard as it varies from the norm. All I can tell you is it works and I've done a mess of them this way. Guns shoot well and I don't have clients carrying mallets or pry-bars in their kits when going to the range.

Long story short, order your bolt from PTG with confidence. Good people and a great resource for the industry.

Good luck.

Chad

 

[Ballistic Artist]

Re: pacific tool and gauge bolt

Well, with the experience I have had with PTG, I would say, IF ITS MADE BY PTG, AND YOU WANT IT, GET IT!! They make some INCREDIBLE STUFF!!! Thier parts and reamers and all the other stuff they make is TOP NOTCH. And the people that work there are very knowledgeable and always ready to help you out. Great Company.

 

[STR]

Re: pacific tool and gauge bolt

In short, the product is high quality. If it doesn't just fall right in, and check out with the go/no go gauges, then you'll need a gunsmith such as Chad to make it all come together correctly.

 

[Rainier42]

Re: pacific tool and gauge bolt

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Driftwood</div><div class="ubbcode-body">PT&G is good to go. There bolt replacement is a quality product. IF you don't have a bolt, then the PTG bolt would be a great choice. IF you already have a bolt, I wouldn't bother, as your money would be better put in other area's, like ammo for practice.

To use the PTG bolt in your R700 it will have headspaced by a gunsmith. If you know what you are doing you could get the correct headspace yourself using a Savage, but it still wouldn't be at the top of my list for ways to spend my money.

I don't know what your expectations for improved performance are with the PTG bolt, but I doubt you will see any noticable improvement in accuracy. If you are looking at "upgrading" your rifle, the trigger, stock and bedding would be the first place i would go. Replacing the bolt would be way down on the list and I would only consider it when changing barrels. </div></div>

For me bolt replacement has nothing to do with accuracy. Savage bolt tends to be a bit 'sloppy' and had read that the PTG bolt improved this.