diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 8111f417d4..13ab3aa3a1 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ dev
  * ensure all files for an sstable are streamed to the same directory.
    (CASSANDRA-716)
  * more accurate load estimate for bootstrapping (CASSANDRA-762)
+ * tolerate dead or unavailable bootstrap target on write (CASSANDRA-731)
 
 
 0.5.0 final
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/locator/AbstractReplicationStrategy.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/locator/AbstractReplicationStrategy.java
index a982d2e445..24ccb1c0e5 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/locator/AbstractReplicationStrategy.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/locator/AbstractReplicationStrategy.java
@@ -153,7 +153,6 @@ public abstract class AbstractReplicationStrategy
             }
         }
 
-        assert map.size() == targets.size();
         return map;
     }