I experienced a (dirt stock except for a SAKO extractor) bolt handled that apparently just plopped of of a Rem 700 that is a 6mmBR. The bolt was a tad stiff on closing and that isn't horribly unusual. I shot he round and when I went to lift the bolt handle it was a bit more than a "tad" stiff, but it came up with not too much grunting on my part, so I tried to move the bolt rearward to extract and then eject the spent case. It wouldn't budge rearward with normal pressure, so I pulled harder. No dice. I then gave it a whack or two with my hand, but I'm no super hero so that didn't work either. Even though I have personally watched various shooters (and then later hear from more people that had seen it, too) HAMMER the snot out of a bolt handle trying to get it open...had it open and eject the stuck round and then went on shooting as if nothing had happened. No harm, no foul, I guess
...no broken or bent anything) We.ll, I'm not one to use excessive force like a hammer, so I tilted the muzzle skyward and stuck a cleaning rod down into the case....gave it a few taps and that produced NOTHING. So, my next move was to pull the rod out of the muzzle about 5 or 6 inches and drop it back into the case at which time the bold moved rearward, extracted and ejected the case, BUT when the bold abruptly stopped its rearward (now downward) movement when the bolt stop did its job and stopped it, the bolt HANDLE just kept on moving---in other words, it just fell right off! Pretty much astounded me and the several people that had gathered around to see what the problem was ( I was at a club match so there were plenty of experienced shooters standing around while they waited for their relay's turn).
OK...now what? We wondered if Remington would fix it, or what? Anyone encountered a handle falling off of a bolt like this without some gorilla using a hand sledge in it? What do you all think I can/should/could do to get this rectified? from a brief examination of the bolt and handle, I can't tell if the "weld" was OK/good/complete or not, but the metal of the body of the bolt where the "weld" pulled off looks to me to be somewhat crystallized....Hmmmmmm!
For now, I'm going to probably use a PT & G bolt from another short action rem so I can shoot in the next few match, but I DAMNED WELL want to get that bolt fixed? Any ideas or recommendations? If you have any ideas or comment, please PM me or shoot me an email. Thanks!
