Remington 597 .22LR - hole in bolt

BirdMan · Post by **BirdMan** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 12:21 am

Long story short, I've got a Remington 597 that was taken out to the range once, about 10 years ago, cleaned, and then boxed up until this weekend. I shot a box through it the other day with no problems and decided to take it down for cleaning. It didn't really need to be cleaned, but I wanted to review how it was put together.

Anyway, I took it apart, no problem, and then as I was cleaning the bolt, I turn it over and discovered a hole going through the metal on the underside of the bolt! I gently probed it with a pick and a little piece of metal flaked off. It doesn't seem to be due to rust. In the photo below, the black part you see inside the hole is part of the ejector.

I googled the problem, and I did find one site (cached by google and no longer available) where someone apparently had the same problem with a 597. I'm not sure if the other guy had the exact same hole, because his pics were missing, but it sounded similar. Three responses (below) to his thread seemed to indicate this might not be a major issue, but I wanted to check here before shooting it again.

(responses to the other guy:)
"The hole is caused by machining, not by a materials flaw. It is not a problem, leave it alone and keep shooting."

"It looks like a drill runout, but should not cause any problems. If concerned, I am pretty sure returning the rifle to Remington will get the condition fixed."

"I have had a hole like that in a Browning for 15 or so years and thousands of rounds--nothing to worry about."

Any thoughts?

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 12:41 am

That looks like a flaw in the MIM process of the bolt. That or some kind of a casting flaw. The irregular shape of the hole does not suggest to me that this is a machining flaw. It is in a non critical area of the bolt but I would still contact Remington about the problem. Is that rifle a .22 rimfire or is it a .22 Magnum? This makes me wonder if there are any other weak points in that bolt.

Remington should rectify the situation by sending you a new bolt for your 597. Numerich carries the bolt for $64 for the .22 RF, and $147 for the .22 Mag.

R,
Bullseye

BirdMan · Post by **BirdMan** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 1:38 am

This is the .22 rimfire. I'll contact Remington and see what they have to say. It's been a while since the gun was purchased.

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:16 am

When the rifle was purchased shouldn't matter in this case. Looking at the metal failure it is clearly a production related issue. The better news is that being it is a .22 RF there's less pressure involved and this defective part is unlikely to cause a catastrophic failure. Also if the manufacturer declines to repair it the replacement part is relatively inexpensive through online gun parts warehouses.

R,
Bullseye

BirdMan · Post by **BirdMan** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:53 pm

I had to wait 16 days until my question was answered, but here's what Remington had to say. The response from Pete was somewhat confusing, but I've emailed back to get clarification. Bottom line is they're saying that hole is supposed to be there.

Response (Pete) 01/16/2009 07:29 AM

Thank you for visiting Remington Country. We apologize for the delay in our response. This is the busiest season for us in many years and we are buried under in emails. A computer glitch caused your inquiry to get kicked out of the regular lineup of emails thus the delay.

Actually the hole that you have is actually part of the design of the bolt and it there so as to release excess pressure if that were to ever happen.

It is in the design of the bolt.

Thank you,
Pete

Response (Ron) 01/16/2009 07:20 AM

Thank you for visiting Remington Country! We certainly appreciate you taking the time to write in with your question. All these model have this hole, this is not a defect.

Should you have additional questions, please feel free to contact our Consumer Services Department at 800-243-9700, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, EST, Monday through Friday.

JeepinCalifornia · Post by **JeepinCalifornia** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:08 pm

Hmm.
Were you able to send pictures with your email? In general, I could buy a "it's supposed to be there" line, but I'm not sure I could but that about the particular hole that you're showing us - just doesn't look like a nice, round, "supposed to be there" hole [anymore?].

SKnight · Post by **SKnight** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:37 pm

I agree, that's a mighty crude hole for "Supposed to be there." But then stranger things have happened.

BirdMan · Post by **BirdMan** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:02 pm

JeepinCalifornia wrote:Hmm.
Were you able to send pictures with your email? In general, I could buy a "it's supposed to be there" line, but I'm not sure I could but that about the particular hole that you're showing us - just doesn't look like a nice, round, "supposed to be there" hole [anymore?].

I provided them with the same photos that I posted above. Remington has a very nice 'message board' style help service, where you're able to post back and forth with the techs and post images as well.

I agree that the hole looks very rough and unintentional.

BirdMan · Post by **BirdMan** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:57 pm

Here's the final update to my followup question:

Customer 01/16/2009 01:50 PM
"Actually the hole that you have is actually part of the design of the bolt and it there so as to release excess pressure if that were to ever happen."

Thanks for the response. Could you please clarify your response for me? You said, 'the hole was there so as to release excess pressure if that were to ever happen' - but if WHAT were to ever happen?

Response (Pete) 01/20/2009 09:17 AM

I am sorry I forgot to include that, I was referring to case failure on the cartridge or cartridge blow back as some would say.

Thank you,
Pete