jk16 all your points are valid and all worth examination. So lets look and examine theses thing honestly.

Yes mathematically the M700 has been produced in very large numbers since 1961. I agree. But no where near as many as some other rifles because they have been in production for many time longer, like Mausers,Mosins and so on.

So not counting parts destroyed by "buba's" trying to modify parts when they don't know how to do it right, let look at facts.

In 5 decades of gunsmithing I have had to replace BROKEN Mausers extractors exactly................zero times.
Winchester M70s ..................................Zero times.
Pattern 14 and pattern 17 Enfields ......................... Zero times.
Springfield 1903 1903A1 and 1903A3s 1 time
Mosin Nagants I have replaced the extractors on 4 times. (M/Ns are the most manufactured Bold action in all firearms history Remington m700s are about 7% of MN production)
"T" head extractors from Savage, Mossberg and Howa (Weather Vanguard, and S&W marked ones too) 14 times.

Remington M721, m700, m600 and 660s 82 times. And I have not been doing that since 1957. Only since 1968.
My co-worker in Nevada also had a record of his repairs in the Service Station, and he did 54 of them.

Now lets ask how many bolt handles have come off that needed to be replaced on Remingtons. For me that number is 34.
I have seen 4 Tikka where this has happened and it's even worse in that the bolt bodies have broken, not the handle so there is no repairing a Tikka when that happens.

All other center fire rifles combined.......zero times.

"Brownells also sells a hell of a lot of m1911,AR-15 and Ruger 10/22 parts too. Does that mean THOSE designs are inherently flawed as well?"

Nope, but as you said some folks want to replace parts because of their wishes. I have seen my share of broken 1911s, but most have been work out, not broken. I have only seen 2 Ruger 10/22s ever with BROKEN parts, one was a broken trigger pin and one was a broken ejector. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I would guess the 10/22 is getting pretty close to the M700 in overall numbers.

As far as triggers go, you are at least 1/2 right. Many people screw up Remington m700 (and similar Remington triggers) from trying to adjust them and doing it wrong. But no more then try to adjust other makers triggers. But we don't hear near the reports of other makers trigger failing. As I said up above, I am not counting cases of "buba's" working on guns, made by Remington or anyone else. Only those that break or come apart with no incompetency added by anyone since they left the factory.

Go to our records and see how many that comes to from Winchester, Weatherby, Savage, Howa, Browning, Mossbeerg, Marlin, Springfield Armory, Mauser, Dumolin, Rigby, H&H, Purdey, Merkel, Walther, H&K, and Steyr combined, and compare numbers.

You also make an excellent point that your 30+ m700s have done well. I agree. You see this is a comparison. It's in answer to the 1st question asked. It's not really a condemnation. The question was not "who makes a bad gun" but who's gun is the worst one.

Now that means that if you have 20 guns with a 99.999999999% satisfaction rating and one gun with a 99.99% satisfaction rating, the one with the 99.9 is the worst one. Thats a mathematical fact, not an opinion. And it doesn't mean the 1 with the 99.99% is bad.

By far, most M700s made and sold do fine. Remington is in financial trouble over some issues on a very small percentage of their production. But that percentage is larger than everyone else's.

That's the reason for the answer I give.

I am not saying they are bad, but I am saying they are not as good as most others.

Last edited by szihn; 05/21/17.