Welcome to Bassingbourn
Rifle & Pistol Club

Review of South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies
Custom Remington 597 in 22WMR

Configuration

The actual rifle consisted of the factory 597 chassis and action with a Volquartsen hammer and Volquartsen carbon fibre match barrel fitted with a Husher sound moderator. The whole assembly was beautifully light and compact to carry, yet very stable and balanced in shooting. The rig was complemented by the usual accessories that included a Leupold 3-9 x 40 Mil Dot tactical fitted with a rubber eye shield, Harris bipod, sling, Black Hawk cheek piece and a spare magazine.

Ammunition tests

Once I had become a little more familiar with the rifle I began to test with various ammunition types testing for group and velocity. The best grouping at 100m came from the 33gn V-Max with a group of around 1.5 MOA in fairly good shooting conditions. The 597 ejector really flings these cases out too and I ended up picking up brass from in front of 3 lanes across from me. The results of the velocity tests are shown below. Sub sonic ammunition is available in the US but no one imports it into the UK at present.

Average velocities are from 5 shot groups with a Husher sound moderator fitted.

Magazine

This has to be the worst magazine design I have ever come across and has been a real let down for the rifle from day one. It's supposed to be an eight rounder! I have determined that it is impossible to chamber the first round from the magazine when it contains 7 or more rounds. Due to the spring force and the quality of the plastic lips of the mag, the top round is forced up at an angle where it simply misses the chamber opening and jams the action. It's not a one off, as I have two mags one of which was purchased in the US as an original Remington spare from a reputable dealer. All I can say is roll on a metal replacement and fast, as the crappy little plastic things are a waste of time and a constant source of frustration and annoyance. After about 30 rounds I have also had magazine jams from powder residue preventing the round carrier from raising and feeding. This just leaves the round sitting loose in the top of the magazine and not feeding. The other problem has been with the action not picking up the round from the base and simply slamming into the body of the case. The best solution was to only load the mag with 5 rounds at a time. With this change in the capacity came a dramatic change in reliability, by keeping the magazine body clear of any powder residue and only loading 5 rounds there were no further feed jams or feed failures.

Last round hold open

The 597 is fitted with a last round hold open device. Again this is a feature that suffers from rapid clogging on a new rifle and after about 50 rounds begins to fail. It will hold open ok after the last round, but when you put in another mag it won't let go! You then need to remove the mag insert your finger into the mag well and pull the hold open lever down to release the action. This complete you can then re-insert the mag and work the action again to make ready. The feature is nice and when the rifle had been fully stripped and cleaned it worked fine from that point on.

Safety Catch

The 597 is fitted with a sliding pin style safety, similar to the Ruger 10/22 although it is fitted to the rear of the trigger instead of in front of the trigger group. The direction of operation is the same as on the 10/22. During testing it became obvious that there is a serious problem with fowling in the action of the 597 and the most serious problem by far is that powder residue is blown down into the safety catch mechanism and causes it to seize in the fire position. The only way I found to apply the safety under these conditions was to work the catch back and forth to break through the fowling build up, about 80% of the time this will release the safety catch and you can apply it another couple of times. However I have experienced several occasions when it was impossible to apply the safety catch and I had to make safe with a full unload. Again after the full strip down and clean the problem disappeared and it is now as reliable as it is supposed to be! Just watch out if you get one from new.

Ejector

Wow, this baby really does fling those cases out. During range testing I was upsetting people two firing points down, as the ejected case trajectory is almost 90 to the line of fire. Spent cases typically landed at about 90 to the line of fire line. This can really upset the firer in the lane next to you as the cases spin across their front or actually hit them.

Cleaning

There is initially a huge amount of powder residue to remove from the trigger group and I suggest equipping yourself with a can of compressed air and some long brushes. Unless of course you prefer stripping down the trigger block after every outing. I highly recommend a full strip down and clean before you commence using the 597 from new, as it collects dirt and powder residue in the most inconvenient of places. This appeared to be due to the factory coating of oil/grease on the every component.

Stripping

Remington seem to have got this right, the 597 is easy to field strip with relatively few tools. First off, remove the magazine and check the firearm is clear. There are two screws (imperial Allen Key type) on the underside of the stock, remove these and the barrel and receiver section part from the stock. A single pin connects the receiver and the trigger block, when removed the trigger block dislocates from the receiver. You may need to pull the block back slightly to free up the front end of the trigger block.

Assembly

Getting the springs back into the guide rods while feeding on the carrier was an absolute nightmare and I had to remove the barrel to complete the task. Not quite as simple as the manual leads you to believe. The WMR version has two overlapping springs of different diameters on the same guide rod. Why on earth didn't they use a single heavier or graduated spring? The opportunity for hooking the springs together was endless! Let's hope I don't need to take the carrier out very often.

Sound Moderator

If you are expecting this to be a quiet rifle with a sound moderator then think again! The minimum velocity of commonly available ammunition is a little over 1700fps so the sound levels of a 22LR subsonic with moderator are not achievable. It does however significantly reduce the noise level at the muzzle and makes it acceptable to shoot without wearing cumbersome ear defenders when you are out and about.

Downside

The main problem I have encountered from new is with powder residue jamming the safety catch in the off position. After as few as 10 to 20 rounds the safety catch has to be worked back and forth to free it up, otherwise you need to remove the mag and eject the chambered round to make it safe to carry. The problem was resolved by a full strip down and degrease and I recommend this be done on safety grounds before any initial shooting. If you are not able to do this yourself get your local gunsmith to give it a going over.

I have some concerns over the use of the return springs. Using two springs in the configuration Remington have done will reduce their life expectancy and given the additional recoil energy of the WRM's block may cause early spring damage as they cannot help but become interlaced during compression. Maybe Roger would like to consider replacement return springs as part of the customising work?

Upside

The rifle is very light with the match barrel fitted and a joy to carry and shoot. I carried it around for about 4 days solid on one of my patches last year. The additional energy of the WMR puts rabbits down fast and there were no runners making it to the holes at all. It also extends the effective range and I found myself taking longer shots that I would not even consider with a 22LR. The Remington 33GN V-Max and the 597 make a deadly vermin combination that is comfortable to shoot and carry despite the initial drawbacks in reliability.

In Conclusion

During initial outings with the 597 I had a variety of minor problems, but these were soon ironed out. The problems included jamming of the safety catch, magazine miss feeding and sticking of the last round hold open mechanism. It was quickly determined that powder residue was clogging the mechanisms and a good strip down and clean to degrease the action was required. This being done, the problems disappeared and the reliability was almost 100%. There was still one snag that persisted and this was the magazine misfeeding rounds into the action. On occasion a round would not present at the correct feed angle and the action would crimp the cartridge case or the round would sit loose in the top of the magazine lips. It has to be said that I can't remember ever seeing such a crappy magazine and Remington clearly didn't do any sensible testing with it, or someone in the design department would have been looking for a new job! But it was probably cheap to make! The magazine is quoted as having an 8 round capacity (Very Funny!) someone at Remington obviously has a good sense of humour. During extensive testing with 2 magazines, one supplied with the rifle and the other bought in the US as a genuine Remington spare, I determined that the feed reliability was directly proportional to the number of rounds you crammed in. If you keep it nice and clean and treat them as 5 round magazines the reliability is almost 100%. You do have to keep them clean because the feed ramp and the housing are a close fit and anyone who thinks they can just throw it in the gun cupboard time after time is very mistaken. Why do people pay loads of money for a quality rifle and not keep it clean and wonder why they get problems? Perhaps they also put diesel in a petrol car and wonder why it doesn't run very well!

I would have to say though that this is not a target rifle, so don't expect it to perform as one. It is however a very capable sporting rifle and makes short work of rabbit and fox quarry. During an outing on one of my patches I managed to take rabbits at around 220m in reasonable conditions with the 33gn V-Max ammunition. I also found that I needed to use a rubber eye shield as the expended gases with the higher velocity ammunition tended to blow back into my eye. The problem was not quite as bad with the lower velocity ammunition but the 33gn V-Max and the CCI MaxiMag+V required some form of eye protection for extended shooting periods.

Roger at SYSS was looking into the safety problem. Though I have to say this is a Remington problem and not down to South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies. Undoubtedly someone will come out with a metal or improved magazine at some point, as this is a must. In the mean time I suppose we will have to make do with the plastic rubbish that Remington have supplied, but lets hope it doesn't take too long to go metallic!

It would be interesting to hear from anyone with a 22LR version of the 597 to see if any of the problems are common or just associated with the 22WMR. Feel free to drop me a line.

This would also make a superb rifle in .17 HMR but unfortunately due to the ignorance, bureaucracy and stupidity of the firearms licensing system and the politicians who run it in this country, you can't have it as a semi automatic in this calibre.