sg.ellis2 said:
ENCORE50A said:
sg.ellis2 said:
Have friend who is shooting two models of the custom Johnston rifle, who purchased one of these production Remington versions.............. . He further touted the improvement in the Remington version of the breech plug, said he has needed to send his Johnston back more than once for a fix.............
What was the actual reason your friend sent his rifle back relating to the breech plug?
I know Ken very well and seldom does he have to replace breech plugs. However since owners started shooting BH through a rifle designed to shoot pellets, he's getting more returned, all from shooting BH through them. He just replaced a breech plug that had over 10,000 rounds through it, but shooting pellets only.
He was shooting Blackhorn 209 and ran into issues. Sounds like you guys are on the same page, with exception being, he continues to shoot Blackhorn out of the Remington. But, if that ends up becoming an issue, then at some point we'll know. At this point, I'm leaning toward it not being an issue. Though I'd expect someone could run the gun too many times unsealed and goof up the plug. But, I'm not seeing a change of the Remington breech plug as being a major headspace ordeal, just a plug and play. Time will tell.
But between me, you and the fence post, I'm a fan of both guns, just that the Johnston version is too spendy for my wants. The Rem version gets me into the door. Hope in the long run, the whole "Ultimate" gig works out for both the production line gun, as well as the custom gun.
Later
I created a service ticket with their service department to answer my questions reference the breech plug. I wanted to prove or disprove, that their breech plugs were of close tolerance, so that spares could be purchased and installed by the end user, without concerns for change in headspace. I also wanted to confirm the 700 with breech plug was same as the 700 chambered for center-fire cartridges, to be dry fired routinely without damage. They promised to get back to me quickly with an official response.
Remington replied, they were very helpful.
Dry Firing: Unlike the 700 chambered for a center-fire rifle cartridge, they do not recommend dry firing this model as a matter of practice, because of the breech plug in the path of the pin. Simple enough, I'll quickly make up a handful of snap caps out of decapped ignition cases. That way, I can get in a fair amount of dry firing trigger time. In addition, I'll make the case heads safety orange and they'll double as seals for the chamber to prevent any moisture from sucking through the fire channel during periods of making the rifle safe when afield hunting, as the channel is fairly large on the Rem version.
Breech Plug: Yes, they are CNC of close tolerance and can be interchanged without any headspace issues, provided they are seated and torqued to 100-in/lbs. It is an end user operation that does not require any trip back to the factory. So you can purchase and keep spare breech plugs on hand to replace at your whim and fancy. Remington gave me the part # and a 1(800) number to call M-F 9a-5p EST to purchase spare plugs. Full retail, they are $46.55 each. So, I'll start off by recapping the factory ignition cases around two or three times and set them aside while working up loads. After I'm done working up loads, I'll take those used ignition cases and sacrifice a couple breech plugs by running a lot of these recapped ignition cases until I can establish an average for when they begin to fail at the seal and leak. Whatever that number of times recapped works out to be, say five, six, seven, or even more times, I'll just back off a couple times from that point and use that as a benchmark for case life. If at any time I begin to see the breech plug degrade from this point, I'll just take the few minutes to swap it out with a new one. Seems very easy peasy to me.
As an added measure of insurance, even though they call for the fire channel to self clean for its normal installed service life, I grabbed a few extended torch nozzle tip cleaner picks. Only cost a couple buck and have on hand the correct size, and the next couple sizes smaller. So at this point, the entire system should be about as simple, user friendly, and low maintenance as it comes, to operate trouble free over a long period of time.
I'll post updates when available. Will be developing loads next month.
later