Upgrading The Remington 597 22 Mag

[airedale]

Always been a big fan of the Winchester 22 mag cartridge, as a young boy I got to knock off quite a few chucks with my Dad's Winchester open sight model 61 pump which got me hooked. In my late teens I purchased a Mossberg "Chuckster" in 22 mag with a Weaver V22 scope mounted on her and proceeded to devastate the chuck population. As time went on I moved away from the maggie and became heavily involved in the centerfire varmint cartridges and rifles along with reloading and the Mossberg was sold off. 

Started doing quite a bit of varmint calling mostly in the woodlands, ranges for the most part were short so I used a shotgun quite a bit but there were times when I had shots in the 80 to 100 yard range and the shotgun was overmatched and the varmint rifles I had for the most part were just a bit much especially for foxes. Also I was seeing a lot of Squirrels during these hunts that I had to pass on because of the firearm I was carrying. I realized the old Mossberg would have been just the ticket for the kind of hunting I was doing so I corrected the boneheaded mistake of selling the Chuckster and purchased a new bolt action Ruger 77/22 Mag varmint model. With a little trigger and bolt tightening work the Ruger turned out to be a nice shooter. She would flatten Foxes out to 125 yards or so and easily make head shots on Squirrels if I did my part, all was good.

So one day some years ago a hunting buddy of mine shows up at my place with a new Remington 597 22 mag to sight in. My Dad happened to be there when we shot this rifle and we were amazed at how accurate it was, just as accurate as my Ruger 77 and the only bad was the lousy trigger pull. My Dad was so impressed he went right out and bought one for himself. He brought it over to be sighted in and the results were the same, very accurate, flawless operation but a lousy trigger. Well I could not stand it and like my Dad I picked up a new 597 for myself and bingo, same results, mine shot as well as the other two, I was tickled.

I settled on a Nikon 2X7 shotgun scope for several reasons, good quality and optics, compact with the right power for the caliber and the parallax was factory set at 75 yards which is perfect for the 22 mag. The 597 has worked out great for me and is my go to woods varmint rifle, made some real good shots on game with it and it performs exactly as I hoped for. As with all my firearms sooner or later I get inside of them and try to improve their performance, and after years of putting up with the 597's horrible 7 pound trigger I attacked the problem.  First thing I did was put in the Volquartsen hammer which cut the pull weight in half to 3 1/2 pounds. Hoping for a bit more lighter pull I then switched out the trigger spring with a Mcarbo spring and she went down another 7 ounces giving me a nice crisp 3 pound pull. The plain black plastic stock worked but I did not care for the look, found a new camo drop in on ebay for a song and bought it.

The 597 now suits me for a short range timber varmint rifle in every way, fast handling light weight autoloader, very accurate, good trigger and glass and most important a proven game taker.

[TreeGuy]

Jeez. Mines bone stock and I foresee myself cruising the web after I press send ! I have always liked the Boyd's stocks and I believe they have a new,cool, customizable setup available. It's been on my list for awhile but I don't use the rem enough to start investing in it.

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[Buckmaster7600]

I never knew Remington made a 597 in a mag, that would be a perfect tractor gun! My current tractor gun is an old savage that my dad bought new in the 70's. It rides with me for nostalgia reasons and that's about it, it has an awful trigger and on the best day holds a 2.5" group at 75yds. I have killed piles of wood chucks and other varmint with it but it leaves a lot to be desired.

That is one sweet looking plinker!


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[Buckmaster7600]

I never knew Remington made a 597 in a mag, that would be a perfect tractor gun! My current tractor gun is an old savage that my dad bought new in the 70's. It rides with me for nostalgia reasons and that's about it, it has an awful trigger and on the best day holds a 2.5" group at 75yds. I have killed piles of wood chucks and other varmint with it but it leaves a lot to be desired. I also have a 10/22 magnum that has never shot very well either.

That is one sweet looking plinker!

I have been contemplating the new savage semi 17 but I think this will go on the list.


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[TreeGuy]

That savage 17 is sweeeeet.

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[airedale]

The wife likes to hit the backyard range with me from time to time for some friendly plinking competition and is I must say a pretty good shot. I picked her up a standard Remington 597 22LR some years ago and mounted one of the early production high quality Simmons Japanese 3x9 22 mag scopes that I had laying around.  Of course as soon as she saw how I transformed the 597 maggie she clamoured for me to make hers over especially the trigger. So I scrapped the plastic black stock and found her a used laminated stock, refinished it to look new and did the Volquartsen hammer swap which gave the rifle a nice 2 1/2 pound pull from the 7 1/2 pull from the factory. We sighted her in 50 yrds and and she was laying them in there right on top of one another with standard velocity ammo, got to keep the wife happy!

Al

Edited July 28, 2017 by airedale

[Pygmy]

Your lovely bride's rifle is MUCH prettier than yours...I like laminates almost as much as walnut and MUCH better than birch or some of the other plain woods that have been used..

[airedale]

11 hours ago, Pygmy said:

Your lovely bride's rifle is MUCH prettier than yours...I like laminates almost as much as walnut and MUCH better than birch or some of the other plain woods that have been used.

Agree totally, not only do they look nice when done right but they are just as stable as a synthetic stock, their one caveat is they are HEAVY. My Ruger 77 22 mag varmint has a laminated stock that is done well and gives it a nice look. Using Birch should be against the law!

In the case of my Rem 597 maggie I went with function, camo and light weight over beauty that hopefully will give me a little edge in handling and concealment when calling in sharp eyed varmints at closer ranges in the timber. 

Al

Edited July 29, 2017 by airedale

[ny hunter]

Love the 597 22mag have had mine for years....

[SuperMag]

I have two 597s, one in 22LR, the other in 22mag. Love both of them. Unfortunately they don't make the mag anymore. They also made it in 17 hmr. Wish I could find one of those.


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