I've owned Remington 700's since the late 60's & probably bought at least 20 of them of the years including 3 722's & 2 721's. Never had a problem with any of them & fired thousands of rounds during that time. Also owned perhaps 12-13 XP 100's over the years, many were custom rigs for Silhouette shooting or hunting, both big & same game.
However I did have one very odd malfunction with one while shooting rock chucks one day a few years back. I had fired perhaps 12-1500 rounds through this gun over a 3-4 year period & never had a previous problem of any kind.
On this day me & a friend were set up shooting & I had my sandbags setting on the rack of my 4 wheeler & I was sitting on a stool & had already taken several rock chucks with my 223 Ackley Imp. As I went to fire another round the gun didn't fire, the firing pin was already forward, it had went forward when I closed the bolt.I noticed the bolt was in the fired position by looking at the rear of the shroud. I set there for a few seconds, perhaps 20, trying to figure out what had happened, or not happened.
My buddy was sitting to my right about 5-6 feet & he looked at me & asked what was going on & I said my gun didn't fire. I raised the gun off the sandbags & turned it to my left towards some trees & just started to lift the bolt & it fired! This was with the firing pin already down! The bolt hadn't moved 1/4" & was still in the lug recesses. My 4 wheeler was facing left to right so I could shoot off of the rear rack & the bullet caught just the edge of my plastic wind shield, damn it! I looked at the case, no problem, took the bolt out, no problem, racked the bolt 8-10 times & it cocked every time & dry fired every time, just like it had done for thousands of rounds.
I took another loaded round, chambered it, held it more to the left & closed the bolt & the bolt followed the round forward again, just like it had been fired. So now the firing pin is down on the primer, just like the first time, very odd. I hold the gun for several seconds to see if perhaps it could be a hang fire, nothing happens. I start to raise the bolt & it goes off again, bang! I'm done! Again the bolt hasn't moved 1/4" & the firing pin is sitting against the primer when it goes off, no firing spring tension to drive it forward, it's already forward.
I go home & take the bolt assembly apart & clean everything although it doesn't look all that bad & head to the shooting range. So far I've never been able to duplicate that problem.... or explain it.
Dick
