GC
Well-known member
My son has an opportunity to buy a .243 Winchester Remington Model 788 rifle at a very fair price. Given the reputation for accuracy these rifles have we felt this would be a really nice inexpensive coyote calling rifle. He was given the opportunity to look the rifle over before the sale and brought it by my house for an exam. Externally the rifle is in near new condition. It was very dusty from storage as it hasn’t been shot or handled for years. A quick wipe down revealed excellent blue on the metal surfaces and the wood looks very good with a few light dings and scratches. The bolt worked smoothly and the trigger and safety operated fine.
Here is the issue, wanting to check function I dug some Remington factory loads out of the ammo closet and loaded the magazine. The bolt strips a round and pushes it into the chamber with no issues. Pushing the bolt downward as one would normally at this point the bolt will cam just slightly downward, about ¼” or so, then stops and no amount of reasonable force used can get the bolt to push on into the down position. Maybe 25% of the time it works as it should, but the majority of the time the bolt will not close downward with a round in the chamber. It puzzles me as it works slick as can be with no cartridges in the chamber. Thinking maybe the chamber was gunked up from long storage I gave the chamber a quick scrubbing with a nylon chamber brush and some Hoppes #9, dried it out with a couple of clean patches, then I cleaned the bolt face and it still won’t operate as it should.
Thoughts on this problem? The factory loads work fine through two other .243 rifles I have in my gun safe so I don’t think it is the loads.
Here is the issue, wanting to check function I dug some Remington factory loads out of the ammo closet and loaded the magazine. The bolt strips a round and pushes it into the chamber with no issues. Pushing the bolt downward as one would normally at this point the bolt will cam just slightly downward, about ¼” or so, then stops and no amount of reasonable force used can get the bolt to push on into the down position. Maybe 25% of the time it works as it should, but the majority of the time the bolt will not close downward with a round in the chamber. It puzzles me as it works slick as can be with no cartridges in the chamber. Thinking maybe the chamber was gunked up from long storage I gave the chamber a quick scrubbing with a nylon chamber brush and some Hoppes #9, dried it out with a couple of clean patches, then I cleaned the bolt face and it still won’t operate as it should.
Thoughts on this problem? The factory loads work fine through two other .243 rifles I have in my gun safe so I don’t think it is the loads.