Originally posted to our old website in August of 2016. Reposted and updated here.
A few days ago I got a call from a very nice fella out west. He wanted me to send him an entire new bolt. Always wanting to help, I assured him I could build and send him a brand new bolt for his Remington 700ML, but I wasn’t convinced he needed to spend that much. I inquired further. Seemed he was having some trouble because the bolt was frozen and wouldn’t come apart. He said the worst part was that he let a “gunsmith” that promised to convert it to 209’s take a crack at it, but he had failed, damaged it severely, and promised him there was no hope for it.
He explained that the bolt plug was torn up and not serviceable and the cocking piece was frozen in it. I let him know that the standard 700 bolt plug would work, and I had them on hand. Once I saw the bolt and got into it I’d know what was usable.
After chatting more with him he decided to take my advice. Instead of purchasing a complete new bolt (much more expensive) he purchased a conversion kit with installation, sent me his bolt, and let me have a crack at it. I explained that If I couldn’t all the parts he sent, I’d figure out how to use some parts. I was confident I’d probably have a way to get it done if he bought what I needed to fix it (from me). Or in otherwords, if I could fix it and it took a bit more of my time or replacement parts I stock, I’d let him know what he owed me and we’d work it out.
When the bolt arrived a few days later it was clear that the bolt plug was unscrewed from the body but the firing pin was stuck inside the body, and the body was packed solid with old fouling and years of corrosion. Seeing the firing pin would rotate but not move in nor out, it was free of the mainspring but the mainspring was bound to the bolt body.
The customer was right: whoever clamped down on the bolt plug had squished it so much the cocking piece couldn’t move. They also hammered on the back and deformed it. Getting the cocking piece to protrude enough to expose the cross pin was going to be a chore! But first things first, got to get the mainspring to move in the bolt body. It was corroded solid and wouldn’t budge.
So I started the over night soak in penetrating oil. And got on with other things.
After having my coffee and breakfast the next morning I went out to the shop while it was still cool and got to work. I removed the bolt from the penetrating oil soak, wiped it clean, and put the bolt in my vice with some rubber jaw pads (so I wouldn’t add to the marring). Then some persuasion was applied by a hammer directly to the face of the stuck firing pin. I used an old firing pin out of my junk bin as a punch. I got the firing pin to move along the axis of the bolt body and compress the mainspring just a bit. That was all I needed.
Still firmly held in the vice with rubber jaw pads, the nose up, and the plug down, I tied on some wire onto the bolt plug. Then hung a very heavy weight on it to counter act the main spring and always have a ‘firm hand’ pulling the firing pin out of the body. Then I added some more penetrating oil and a few more taps. Followed by rapidly lifting and dropping the weight to create a pumping action via the mainspring. The movement increased ever so slightly as the crud pumped out. The penetrating oil filled the tip of the bolt with brown-orange corroded mess which I cleaned out and replaced with fresh penetrating oil, and repeated the love taps and lifting and dropping the heavy weight. Each tap sprayed a bit of penetrating oil, but who doesn’t love the smell of penetrating oil in the morning?!?!?!
I repeated pumping, cleaning the crud, and refilled with fresh oil. I continued until I could get about a 1/4″ of movement on it, but then it just wouldn’t go any more. So I went “nuclear” on it!
I made up a jig out of scrap to hold the bolt body between the bolt plug and the body. Made sure it contacted the body, and not the handle (the OEM bolt body handles are only silver soldered on… if you put too much pressure on a handle it will pop clean off!) Then I put it in my 12 ton hydraulic press, placed a tip of an old firing pin between the ram and the firing pin and pressed. It wouldn’t budge pass the 1/4″ of travel I had earlier. So I backed off the ram, and then repeated applying pressure… by the third or fourth cycle it broke free! I had the firing pin loose and had pushed the cocking piece through enough of the the bolt plug the ‘gunsmith’ had pounded shut that the firing pin assembly would uscrew.
Some times you got to nuke ’em from orbit.
Now that I had it apart it was clear that the bolt had a old “Canadian” 209 conversion. I wrote about how disappointed I was with the “Canadian” 209 conversion I purchased over 12 years ago in one of my first posts to this blog. It seems that someone used the rifle but didn’t clean up afterwards, then eventually the corrosive blow back fused the mainspring to the bolt body. [I’ve done a bunch of bolts frozen solid from this neglect in the 10 years that have passed since I originally wrote this, none were as hard as this one . Folks seem to know not to deform things with hammers and vise jaws.]
Remember our 209 system seals the blow back into the breech plug, so you don’t get the crud inside the bolt body! This drastically reduces the chances of missed maintenance locking your bolt up solid. Plus installing our system replaces most of the parts that get damaged from such neglect.
Luckily once I got it all cleaned up, there was only some light pitting on the inside of the bolt body. I spent more time cleaning up all the marring and mashed bits on the body with a fine file than I spent cleaning up the massive amount of gunk. Oh, and I had to chase the 1/2×13 threads with tap to fix where all the pounding on the bolt plug previous to me had damaged them. But that also cleaned out all the gunk that had collected in them.
Getting the cocking piece out of the damaged bolt plug was a minor challenge. First I just cut the firing pin’s large end off (that normally strikes the primer) and pulled off what was left of the main spring (that’s not a typical move, just one I had to improvise to fix this bolt). Then I opened the groove in the bolt plug that the cocking piece rides in with a wedge and some love taps. The cocking piece moved freely now, but was still captured in the bolt plug because the previous “gunsmith’s” pounding on the rear peened over the back of it. So I reamed it out with some large drill bits until the cocking piece came out with the little bit of firing pin still connected to it. Then it was a simple placing of the firing pin in my vice and driving the cross pin out. The cocking piece was in really good shape despite all the mayhem that had ensued around it.
Seeing the customer had the forethought to include a new Remington 700 stainless bolt plug, the assembly from here was the same as any conversion. We also sell the blued version from time to time (out of stock right now). For details on how to do a conversion nomally: see our online conversion instructions. The completed bolt is below.
The two images above are the “After” pictures. The one below is a before so you can compare with out scrolling.
Moving comments from the original post over here to preserve them and their advice.
Comment from Ray 12/12/2017
I have a frozen 700ml stainless bolt. Can anyone recommend someone that can fix it?
Reply from Badger Ridge
We can probably help you at Badger Ridge. If the bolt is out of the rifle, I’d suggest that you just purchase installation of a kit and send it in. I’ll figure it out and contact you if I need more for parts or labor… but usually I just get it done.
If you want to talk more, give us a ring at 989-795-2526, or fill out a contact form.
Comment from: John Willis 3/23/2017
I have one that want rotate to remove from gun, Customer brought in to see if I could free the bolt. does not seem possible without damage. Any hopes
Reply from Badger Ridge 3/24/17
If the bolt is out of the rifle, just order installation and send me the bolt. I’ll figure it out… but from reading your post I’ll assumw the bolt is in the action and won’t budge. What is wrong is mostlikely the firing pin probably is fused to the bolt body via corrosion and is preventing the firing pin to be cammed rearward when lifting the bolt handle.
How’d I’d try to free a bolt that is stuck in the action:
First: Remove the barreled action from the stock, and remove any scopes mounted.
Second: Stand the action muzzle up, action down in a tall skinny containter (like a 2 liter bottle with the top cut off) and fill it with penetrating oil, ATF, etc. Pour the oild down the bore of the barrel so it soaks the bolt and breech plug from inside and out. Make sure the oil level is a good 2 or more inches higher than the seam where the barrel hits the action lug. Let it soak a good week or so.
Then once you are sure its fully soaked, make sure the bolt stop cam follower screw is installed and engaging the slot in the bolt body (it helps with the camming action). Then wiggle the handle up and down multiple times and it should loosen. You may need to blast crud out from the bolt body and force more oil in as able. The goal is to incrementally gain more and more movement on the handle. Once you cam it up you should be able to pull it rearward and then remove the bolt by removing the cam screw
Next you will probably need a set of vise jaws and a mid or deep well 7/16″ socket and an impact gun to remove the breech plug (they typically get corrorded into the breech when someone puts the gun away dirty and neglected.
Hope it helps. If you need more contact me at 989-795-2526 or our contact form and we can email about it.
Comment from Doug Barnes 9/14/2022
I have a 700m firing pin cycles but won’t strike 209 primer when I open and close bolt it cycles but won’t strike primer can you help with this parts are no where to be found?
Reply from Badger Ridge 9/15/2022
Just purchase a our system with installation, send us the bolt. Whatever is wrong with your existing sytem will nearly certainly be correct by switching to our supierior set up.
If you need more contact me at 989-795-2526 or fill out our contact form to start an email conversation.