Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters It finally happened to me - Remington Safety Issue

While hunting with my son last week we were using a Remington model 7 in a 7mm-08. We have owned this rifle for three years and have shot it at least 40-50 times. We have never experienced any type of malfunction whatsoever. When the safety was moved from safe to fire the gun fired unexpectedly. I unloaded it with the floorplate, removed the spent casing and closed the bolt. When I closed the bolt the firing pin dropped again. Had I just chambered another round it would have fired it as well. Sitting there in the blind with our ears ringing and thinking about all that could have potentially gone wrong I had a sick feeling in my stomach. Thankfully there were no issues but we were then done hunting for the morning. I tried repeatedly to get it to fail again and I did get it to a few times. It was very random and there was no repeatability to the circumstances that would make it fail. I own 5 Remington model 7 or 700s and now I am super concerned about their triggers. Where do I go from here? Do I need to send them back to Remington or can I send the triggers to a gunsmith and have them all looked at to make sure they are safe? I know there is a huge recall on the triggers but what is the general consensus about how Remington handles it and an approximate turn around time? I know I could replace them all with an aftermarket trigger but at $125-150 each that is certainly not in the budget right now. I am curious at to what the right thing to do is at this point. I like the guns but if safety is an issue, could be just as happy with something else.

Thank God nobody was seriously hurt or killed! I've never been impressed with or have trusted Remington's triggers since they've had ongoing issues with them since inception which has resulted in several lawsuits, redesigns, recalls etc.

The couple of 700's I have left have had the factory triggers changed out to Timney or Trigger Tech triggers.

Well now, you obviously have not followed this topic here on the 'fire. If you had done so, you would realize that Remington is completely blameless, and that this event was entirely of your own making, either through negligence in care, incompetence in adjustment, or careless gun handling. (We so badly need a sarcasm icon - please understand that I am in complete sympathy and agreement with you. Glad everyone was safe.)

Curious,
Was there any debris in the stock?
Was the stock rubbing on the trigger?
Have you adjusted the trigger?
How much sear engagement does the rifle have?
Does the adjustment screws look like they've been adjusted by a previous owner? That is there still a factory coating on the trigger adjustment screws?
Do you know the year of manufacture of the rifle?

But I have to agree, most of the issues are from people adjusting the engagement, and the trigger pressure screws. People trying to get benchrest trigger pull on a hunting rifle's trigger.

extreme -

I'm also VERY glad that no one was injured/killed. Obviously the 700 triggers can have problems.

I ask a sincere, not critical, question. Did you or someone else adjust or try to adjust the trigger?

Being an OLD shooter/hunter/Remington user, I would try a few experiments (EMPTY CHAMBER) with the sear engagement of your trigger and see if I could solve the problem.

If I could not fix it, I would simply get a Timney.


Good Luck

Jerry

The trigger definitely does not have the original sealer on the screws and has been adjusted. It has been tested by slamming the bolt, bouncing the buttpad on a concrete floor and has been fired on many different occasions with zero issues. I have taken it from the safe and handled it/dry fired it many times as well with no issues. If it was your gun would you feel comfortable having a gunsmith look it over/re-adjust the trigger and live happily ever after or would you always be skeptical of the trigger? I know I have seen mention of a few guys here on the 'fire who are well versed in the 700 triggers. Who would be a good smith to contact about having all of my triggers gone over to make sure there are no issues in the future?

My guess is that if you keep that trigger you will always wonder about it. I'd just send it down the river and be done with it for the peace of mind.

You could talk to Eddie Fosnaugh at Fosnaugh Customs.

The only trigger I've had an issue with was an after market trigger on a 700. Never with a Remington trigger. Just luck???

It's never happened on one of my guns but I've gotten used Remington's in gunshops to do it.

Personally I would never trust it. At the minimum all my Remington's would go to a quality smith to be looked at, but honestly I would replace the trigger in the model 7 and sell all my other Remington's and replace them with other rifles. So glad no one was hurt.

Glad you and your Son are ok...very scary stuff right there. I sold my last 700 to my cousin and I've begged him to send it in and as of yet he hasn't.

Send it in to Remington. They should be good to you.

Which trigger is it? Is it the an X-Mark Pro trigger covered under the recall?

http://xmprecall.remington.com

If your a remington type kind of guy, sell the 700's and get 760/7600s. If your just a bolt guy, sell the 700's and get a tikka/ruger/M70/CZ.

Live in the sticks, but was driving near Portland, Or a few weeks ago, and heard a Rem 700 recall on the radio. Sounds like they are at least concerned.

Typical!!
Some one set the return spring wrong on the trigger and 20 haters join on the feast of running down a product.

They will always be haters. But you have to tune out the bullshit.

I will agree that most of these remmy incidents occur after an idiot "tunes" the trigger, but why dont you hear about the M70/77/etc. that goes off when you dis-engage the safety? Idiots dont touch these guns? Sad to say, but in todays world there has to be a level of idiot-proof engineered into a trigger.

What year is the rifle?
Have you or anybody else adjusted the trigger lately?
Have you cleaned the trigger by shooting solvent (like brake cleaner).....ever.

Pull the stock off. On a right hand rifle, look on the left side of the trigger housing for a very small window. With the gun cocked, look into the window, you should see the sear and trigger lever engaged--meaning the sear should be on top of the trigger lever, overlapping it by ~.020.

Odds are the trigger is dirty.

Every follow down on the firing pin and/or AD on M700's/M7's I've seen have been dirty trigger or misadjusted trigger--especially if they mess with the sear engagement screw.

I have bought two M700's that had a dangerously small of amount of sear engagement (well under .020). Both of them from 'fire members.

Casey

It sounds like your trying to make this out to be a Leupold thread...