Upgrading The Extractor In A Remington 721

[terry_g]

This Remington 721 in 30-06 was proof tested in June 1955. It's in very good condition for it's age.
I dosent look like it's seen a lot of use the bore is perfect. It still has the original metal butt plate.
It had the original extractor installed when I aquired it which were prone to failure and no longer available.






I bored the end of the bolt for the rivet type extractor then drilled the rivet hole.
Getting the rivet hole in the correct spot in important.
It took me a few tries to figure out how to install the extractor in the end of the bolt without deforming it.


This how I set it up in the lathe to bore it. The plastic blocks allowed chucking the assembled bolt.




I used a form tool to remove about .020"



The completed modification.




Tried out some reloads in the rifle 54 grains of H4350 150 grain Hornady FMJ boat tail bullets
Federal brass and CCI large rifle primers. 54 grains in the minium load on the Hodgdon website.
I am very inpressed with the accuracy I'm sure I can improve on it more.
Four four shot groups ay 100 yards all under an inch the best 9/16".
I wont be parting with this rifle any time soon.

Terry

 

[ricsmall]

great mod on a very nice old stick! i really like the old 721's as well as the 788's. I just completed my first bolt gun build on a remy700 in 260AI. Ill try and post up some pics in next day or two. Thanks for sharing

Richard

 

[Rangemaster1]

Well done Terry. You just can't beat those old Remingtons, especially if you compare them to a new 700. The older ones are as smooth as glass and will last several lifetimes. Keep up the good work.

Ron

 

[rsegars]

I love it when one hole touches the other!