Remington 700. A Flawed Design?

[Hud556]

Im watching MSNBC and they have been showing videos of model 700's firing without the trigger being pulled. Is anyone watching this?

[53convert]

yeah, heard of that. The rem 721/725 had the same problems through the years....that was corrected with a recall and an up date to the newer problem free 700 trigger assembly...........sigh, guess my 721 goes back again........

[Highlander]

I am watching an investigative report on CNBC called "Remington Under Fire.". The show is a disturbing report about the Remington 700 discharging upon disengaging the safety and/or opening the bolt to unload the weapon.

According to the report, this has been going on with the 700 for nearly 60 years, resulting in accidental deaths, injuries and property damage. During this time, Remington has refused to acknowledge the problem and has paid out millions of dollars in settled suits. One of them was over 12 million after the death of a 9 year old boy and a 6 million settlement after a man shot off his foot. Both happened during unloading the rifle. There have thousands upon thousands of complaints to Remington.

Allegedly the design of their beautiful trigger is the culprit. They had videos of military and police snipers documenting the "Remington Incidents."' I was clear from the videos that the trigger was not touched. They even had the designer of the 700 stating that he brought it to Remington's attention prior to manufacturing the 700 along with a fix yet it was not implemented.

Has anyone here ever experienced this? Has anyone else heard of this possible cover up?

Unfortunately, my wife caught this program at the death of the child. She looked at me as serious as I have ever seen her and asked if I had that gun. Well, I had to tell her yes. I bought a gorgeous 700 in .308 with a bull barrel in Sept 09. I fell in love with it ad soon as I had shot it. When I zeroed it for 100 yards, my grouping was tight enough to put round through the hole of the previous round (from a resting position). It quickly became my go-to deer rifle.

Long story short, she is insisting that I get rid of it this week. I have never had or suspected a problem with it and deer season is two weeks away.

I am not happy with this one bit.

[Hud556]

Ive never heard of anything like this about the model 700... maybe people with 700's will chime in with their experiances.

[Rascals]

Ok hunny, But you understand with it only 2 weeks before season my new rifle (the only one I can get on such short notice) is going to be comming from Barrett. Ohh and by the way I need the Bors system also. As my current scope wont work. Then instead of hunting go do something else and then come home to your new toy. Problem solved.

[hatchet jack]

If your worried about it you can adjust the trigger to have better sear engagement and that should make it safe.

Or maybe even better just buy an aftermarket replacement trigger from Timney or someone else for a hundred bucks and keep the rifle you like so well. Wasn't that easy?

[cocador]

I've owned probably 15 or these so called flawed 700's. I never had an issue with the trigger.

Don't get rid of the rifle. That's ignorant. Go buy an after market trigger.

Rifle Basix
Timney
Shilen
Jewell

I prefer the rifle basix. Simply one of the best. Easily installed.

Jewell is more of a bench rest trigger and the tolerances are such that in a hunting situation if it gets dust and dirt in it it could fail to operate correctly ( seize )

[Hungry]

Highlander,
I was first made aware of this problem in the '90s while in the service. One way around the problem is to not use the safety. I trained with one for years, and now own one. I can count on one hand how many times I've used the safety. If your ready to fire, load a round, if you don't fire, unload it. Problem solved.

Good Luck

[53convert]

Originally Posted by Hud556

Ive never heard of anything like this about the model 700... maybe people with 700's will chime in with their experiances.

Well, I cant tell ya specifically on the 700 though my gun smith had mentioned but the 721/724, which by the way, is the father of the 700, had a problem with the trigger getting dirty and gumming up. Specifically the throw. So after years of neglect (not cleaning) the weapon could be put on safe, loaded and as the bolt was moved forward the safety would disengage and relase the firing pin..........made for interesting moments in the deer camp. Like I say, Rem corrected the 721/725 problem by replacing them with the 700 trigger assembly.

Oh yeah, the lake of cleaning ability on the 721 was because the trigger assembly was a beatch to put back together

[labotomi]

Seems the older (pre-2007) models could have this problem, but the new 700s have a redesigned trigger.

Interestingly, the 770 rifles have the same trigger that was in the problem rifles.



I had a rifle go off while I was unloading it when I was around 13 (.270 BDL). I thought that I had done something wrong, but it's possible that this had something to do with it

[stant]

ive never heard of it before.mine has never failed.this smells of a hit piece to scare folks. the military has used them as the m24 and m40 to this day

[robbiec]

actually, it is even older than that.. the rifles with the problem are from back in the early 80's and older. There was a lawsuit filed, a recall/fix issued, and Remington acknowledged the problem.... 20+years ago. The media is behind the times and just trying to drum up more anti-gun crap before the elections.

[Highlander]

YouTube - Sneak Peek: Remington Under...

[labotomi]

Originally Posted by robbiec

actually, it is even older than that.. the rifles with the problem are from back in the early 80's and older. There was a lawsuit filed, a recall/fix issued, and Remington acknowledged the problem.... 20+years ago. The media is behind the times and just trying to drum up more anti-gun crap before the elections.

Sounds like the problem was fixed in 2007 and there have been no recalls.

In 2007, partly in response to the lawsuits, Remington introduced a new trigger system for the 700 called the X-Mark Pro. The controversial trigger connector is gone, and the safety includes a trigger block, just as Mike Walker proposed in 1948.

But the Walker trigger is still used in Remington's 770 rifle, as well as older models of the 700 still on sale at retailers worldwide

And Remington never instituted a recall of the five million Remington 700s already sold.

Remington has made some changes in the rifle. In 1982, it eliminated a feature called a "bolt lock," which required the user to switch off the safety in order to unload the gun—a common source of inadvertent discharges.

But Remington did not publicize the change until 2002. That year, Remington came closest to a recall. The company offered—for a $20 fee—to retrofit existing rifles, removing the bolt lock so they could be unloaded with the safety on

http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...ger-cnbc_N.htm

[labotomi]

Double post

[rokitman]

I wonder if this flaw also includes the 710 and 770. I dont know if they have similar trigger and safety assemblies! Anybody know?

[labotomi]

Originally Posted by rokitman

I wonder if this flaw also includes the 710 and 770. I dont know if they have similar trigger and safety assemblies! Anybody know?

The article stated that the flawed trigger is still used in the 770, but I'm not sure about the 710

[Burtenshaw]

Here is a link to a page on that CNBC show http://www.cnbc.com/id/39554936/

And a link to the article http://www.cnbc.com/id/39759366

"In 1979, following a jury verdict that led to the recall of a similar Remington rifle—the Mohawk 600—officials considered whether to recall the more popular 700 series, but decided against it. The minutes of a Remington Product Safety Subcommittee meeting on January 2, 1979 listed two reasons for the decision. First, the minutes say, a Remington analysis had found “only 1%” of the guns could be “tricked” into firing. “That would mean the recall would have to gather 2,000,000 guns just to find 20,000 that are susceptible to this condition,” the minutes say."

The show said the "1%" today could mean 50,000 guns.

Originally Posted by cocador

I've owned probably 15 or these so called flawed 700's. I never had an issue with the trigger.

So apparently you may not be in the unlucky 1%.

[rokitman]

Originally Posted by labotomi

The article stated that the flawed trigger is still used in the 770, but I'm not sure about the 710

Thanks bud, just another reason to get rid of my 770! I've had bolt problems with it since I got it and now with potential trigger problems, might be a good time to get something different! I got a ton of 308win so I'll need to find something else to use it in!

[CZDiesel]

Originally Posted by Highlander

I am watching an investigative report on CNBC called "Remington Under Fire.". The show is a disturbing report about the Remington 700 discharging upon disengaging the safety and/or opening the bolt to unload the weapon.

According to the report, this has been going on with the 700 for nearly 60 years, resulting in accidental deaths, injuries and property damage. During this time, Remington has refused to acknowledge the problem and has paid out millions of dollars in settled suits. One of them was over 12 million after the death of a 9 year old boy and a 6 million settlement after a man shot off his foot. Both happened during unloading the rifle. There have thousands upon thousands of complaints to Remington.

Allegedly the design of their beautiful trigger is the culprit. They had videos of military and police snipers documenting the "Remington Incidents."' I was clear from the videos that the trigger was not touched. They even had the designer of the 700 stating that he brought it to Remington's attention prior to manufacturing the 700 along with a fix yet it was not implemented.

Has anyone here ever experienced this? Has anyone else heard of this possible cover up?

Unfortunately, my wife caught this program at the death of the child. She looked at me as serious as I have ever seen her and asked if I had that gun. Well, I had to tell her yes. I bought a gorgeous 700 in .308 with a bull barrel in Sept 09. I fell in love with it ad soon as I had shot it. When I zeroed it for 100 yards, my grouping was tight enough to put round through the hole of the previous round (from a resting position). It quickly became my go-to deer rifle.

Long story short, she is insisting that I get rid of it this week. I have never had or suspected a problem with it and deer season is two weeks away.

I am not happy with this one bit.

Just get rid of the trigger Highlander.... Replace the Rem trigger woth the much better Timney trigger

http://timneytriggers.com/

call it a win - win