Question

Older Remington 700: Customer complained that he’s getting gas back in his face when he shoots the gun. Someone else has worked on this gun previously though I’m not sure exactly why the work was done. I can tell the receiver has been refaced because I can see the shiny radius on receiver where it meets the barrel and the barrel was not properly cut and threaded because it is now about a quarter turn past the 12:00 position.

The bolt tears one piece of tape on the back of a dummy bullet and wouldn’t close on just 3 pieces of tape so the headspace certainly isn’t excessive. Looking at the bolt face there appears to be carbon leaking from around the primer. Firing pin absolute protrusion measured at .062″ and diameter is .074 so it’s right there at the maximum Bob states in the Pro Course. Looking at it, though, it looks longer than that and I believe it’s piercing primers. (Customer didn’t bring me any fired brass to look at.)

There are pits and cuts along the firing pin radius that sure look like gas cutting but I defer to the judgement of the more experienced. I’m going to shorten the pin to .050″ before test firing but considering how tight the headspace is and how long the thing looks now, I’m tempted to go all the way to Bob’s stated minimum of .040″.

Thoughts / opinions? JM