Another tough bolt arrived, and went home with a 209 conversion.

Our Remington 700 ML 209 kit in action

Welcome to the blog of the company that has the best fix for your Ruger 77/50 and Remington 700 ML/MLS.   Our kits are the fix for blow-back, miss fires, etc.   Our kits are Blackhorn209 compatible and seal up the breech with 209 primers.   If an internet search brought you here, your search is over.  This blog has lots of articles about those two rifles and our products for them.  You can click on the links in them or in the banner at the top of the screen to find the items you may be interested in.

---

The Remington 700 ML and Ruger 77/50 are our specialty.  They both came from the factory with the same fatal flaw:  blow-back coursing backwards through the bolt from each firing.  The Remington and Canadian 209 mods didn't improve this.   If anything they only made blow-back worse.

If not quickly and properly cleaned after firing, the bolt will corrode and freeze up.   Our kits correct this fatal flaw by sealing up the breech.   But not everyone has our kit yet, and seeing these rifles are all 10 to 20 years old,  it's all to common for some one to have shot and then put it away without a proper cleaning.  Be thankful if the bolt was at least removed!   Getting a frozen bolt out of a rifle is a nightmare!

So beyond installing our 209 system on bolts that have been well to decently cared for, we frequently get challenged when folks send us neglected froze up bolts.   Sometimes we get them before they get beat on, other times we get to see if we can pick up the pieces and make it work.   You can read more about some of the crazier ones we get here in the "Badger's Den" by clicking the "Maintenance" subcategory on the menu bar.

If you have a tough Remington or Ruger bolt, please reach out to us via our contact form.  We'll get back to you with a cell phone number and email address so we can start the process!

This bolt was sent to us after the owner attempted to fix it, and broke the firing pin where it attached to the cocking piece.

When the owner of the bolt seen here contacted me asking if I could help, once I replied to him, he was thoughtful enough to text me pics.  After looking at his pictures, I was pretty sure I could fix it: But I wasn't certain what parts of his I could salvage and what parts I would need to replace.  The bolt plug looked good, which was surprising... usually when folks try to take these apart and break them they mangle something.   So I counseled him that I was confident I could fix it, but couldn't be sure of the price until I had it in my hands, tore it down, and scrubbed it all clean.   I commonly have to sell new components in cases like this, or have to ask for some more money beyond the basic install fee for my time and tools/materials I put into fixing these.  But I told him to start by buying our standard kit and installation, then send me the all the pieces he had from the bolt, and we'd take it from there.

View of the front of the bolt. Note the firing pin is wedged in and solidly corroded to the body

When the parts came, it was very clear that the striker/firing pin was fused to the body pretty solid.   I tried my normal tricks to get it loose, and even tried to press it out with my jig and 12 ton press.   It wouldn't budge.  So I began flushing the gunk I could out of it from the back end of the bolt, and tried the jig and the press again.  No luck.    It actually kept breaking the sacrificial pin I built into the jig to keep from over stressing stuff:  This bolt wouldn't break free.   Frustrated: I filled the back end of it up with Kroil penetrating oil to sit over night.  Worst case, I'd have to sell the customer a new bolt body (we make and sell them).

I then turned my attention to the cocking piece.   I chucked it up in my lathe and tried drilling it out left handed, that normally does the trick but it didn't budge.   So I tried small holes with screw removers wedged in, and every other trick I knew, but it wouldn't budge.   So I ended up just drilling it out and leaving the little spiral of the V from the thread in it and then picking that out.    It was a bit tougher than removing a screw from a blind hole as it all kept fracturing where the cross pin was drilled through, and it's a deep hole proportionally to its diameter.  But eventually I got the parts deep towards the bottome out with a bottoming tap and a small dental pick.   I'm glad I could save the customer from having to buy a new one (but we do stock them). 

What remained after I drilled most of the firing pin out of the cocking piece

I left the bolt body to sit for the evening so that the penetrating oil could do its work.  When I came back the next morning none of the Kroil had seeped through to the nose.  That wasn't a good sign, as it meant that pin was wedged in there and sealed.   I tried the jig and the press again.   I sheared the breakaway pin (I was really frustrated having to fab more break away pins!).

So I made a new jig that didn't have a shear pin.  Either I was going to break the pin free of the bolt body, or I'd break the bolt in the press.  At this point I had nothing to lose.  Luckily for the customer the 12 ton press and the new jig (and probably the Kroil) did the trick, the pin busted free of the bolt body, but bent the old firing pin the the process, which made it super tricky to get out, but I managed to get creative and work that one out. ​

I was amazed.  Typically when I break these apart there are sections of mainspring that come out.  In this case the mainspring had completely corroded.   It must have been all that corroded mess that I had flushed out the first evening!

Anyways from here it was just cleaning up all the crud, and removing any pitting that would interfere with the new firing pin.   Now that I had the parts all apart and cleaned up: it was just a normal installation.

I asked the client for a little more money and sent his bolt back to him:  Crisis corrected.

If you have a tough Remington or Ruger bolt, please reach out to us via our contact form.  We'll get back to you with a cell phone number and email address so we can start the process!

The completed bolt back together with our 209 Conversion kit