Remington 700 bolts

[deadcenter]

I have two Remington 700's, one in .308, amd one in 7mm-08. The bolts are almost identical.

Obviously, I marked them so I could tell them apart easily. Question is, if I should cock up one day and take the wrong bolt for the rifle to the range, would it be ok to use it?

I don't know Remington's build process. With it being a factory, (mass produced I suppose), rifle, would each rifle have a bolt matched to it? or are the manufacturing tollerences such that it wouldn't matter?

[Grum87]

They won't be that far away, I've interchanged bolts between .260 and .308(both 308 faced, as your 308 and 708...), and had no issues with fresh brass. I've even seen a 308 bolt face used to fire .223 just fine, the user did note it failed to extract every round fired though.......

 

You may find that if you're neck sizing, or just bumping your brass back, that the brass may well be tight to chamber, or fail to allow the bolt to close if one bolt makes for a smaller headspace than the other.

What may be an issue, that can't immediately be seen without gauges, is that the wrong bolt may allow for greater headspace than is desirable or safe.

 

You won't die, and the rifle won't self destruct in the event you do c0ck it up, but it's probably best to use the bolt that the rifle was proofed with

 

[deadcenter]

I agree, best to use the right one, which would be my intention.

Just that if I DID take the wrong one to the range, would you use it, or just put the rifle back into it's bag, kick yourself, watch everyone else shoot and take the inevitable ribbing.