Remington 7400 bolt will not lock back

[Hern130]

I have a Remington 7400 in .270. The bolt will not lock back when empty or with an empty magazine loaded. I tore down and cleaned good and didn’t notice any defects or reason it may not want to lock to the rear. Anyone had any of the same issues or possible insight. Thank you in advance for the advice.

 

[Evintos]

- weak magazine spring
- damaged magazine follower
- damaged magazine body or feed lips causing improper follower position or travel hesitation
- magazine latch positioning mag too low (either due to wear or damage)
- magazine that doesn't have the LRBHO follower (usually found on the 10rd mags and 7600 series mags, the follower at the rear is ramped or rounded with no vertical face for the bolt to rest on)
- magazine not fitted to the 7400 properly

The 7400 requires a magazine with a LRBHO follower to lock the bolt back. From what I remember, there's no way to manually lock the bolt to rear without an empty mag.

 

[billt]

........ The 7400 requires a magazine with a LRBHO follower to lock the bolt back. From what I remember, there's no way to manually lock the bolt to rear without an empty mag.

The newer Remington 7400 Magazines do not have the bolt release built into them. These are the magazines that are 2 piece. The base and box structure are mated separately.

I have found that these 2 piece magazines are far more problem prone than the original stamped 7400 magazines, with the bottom and side walls stamped from one piece. The newer magazines are also ranged for a number of different calibers.

Where as the older one piece magazines are more caliber specific. My Remington 7400 in .30-06 never fed well with the original one piece magazine that had the bolt release built into the magazine itself. I tried a new 2 piece magazine and it was WORSE.

I finally found some old 7400 magazines from the 70's and 80's that were made when Remington was owned by DuPont. (My 7400 was purchased new in the mid 80's). These older "new" magazines feed flawlessly.

If you are having feeding and bolt locking issues with your 7400, look for some of these before you do anything else.