Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Model 700 - accidental discharge

Why would you take all this precaution (holding the gun firmly, pointing at a 30" basswood etc..) instead of just ejecting the round and trying it on an empty chamber? Especially if it was "before shooting light" while "on stand"?
I know the LAST thing I want to do after making the effort to sneak into my stand in the early morning hours is go shoot off a round and ruin my chances of seeing game.

Pics texted to another member.

Brought to you by another member. LOL

Ut oh, it's a Leupold! LOL

It was really hard to Google up and image that had a NULA, and a barreled action 700 with a Shilen trigger. LOL.

I’m reaching out to Shilen and will work with them to test out my existing trigger, will be interesting to see what they find.

Jackwagon- I usually fire a warning shot to start every hunt, tends to equalize the playing field, otherwise I punch my tags to quickly. Wow.

^ This a thousand times.

Nice to see some common sense is still a thing in some places...

Make sure to let us know what shillen says

I was hunting on a ranch in South Texas were they brought in a Wildlife Biologist to help us manage the Deer herd. Mainly he was there to tell us what needed culling and it was a free hunt for him. So this joker is bragging about his custom Sako and how he can shot deer over the horizon, I tell him that I thought the whole idea around hunting was to get as close to the game as you possible so you can to make a clean one shot kill. Anyway we continue to piss each other off the rest of the evening, you might say I didn't like this MF. In the morning he decides he going to hunt with with another guy which doesn't hurt my feelings at all. They get in the stand and this guy loads his rifle which is a 7mm Rem ultra Mag and it wont go on safety. So what do you think the old rifle expert does? He setts it in his lap with the barrel pointed up and starts forcing the safety. Ole murphies law kicks in and the rifle goes off in side the stand blowing a hole through the roof of the blind. At breakfast they are laughing about it and thanking their lucky stars that they are not hurt other than the hearing loss. I ask one simple question, why didn't you unload the rifle when the rifle wouldn't go on safety. He didn't have a answer, so the same question goes out to each of you why would you ever test a loaded rifle for function while you are hunting. You should have checked it before the hunt.
TEXMAG

True and not ideal. I get all that, never happened on the range or in the 15+ years I owned it. Why did I have a feeling about it, not sure.

Hypothetical: I could have raised my gun up on a deer and gone off safe and replicated the situation I’d be in the same spot. But that’s not how it went, I was outside in a stand (open air not enclosed) gun pointed away and it wasn’t going to hurt anyone or anything if it went off.

Don’t compare to some joker ramming his action on a gun that wouldn’t function properly. I was in as close to an ideal situation to check it, period, end of story. And I thank my lucky stars that I am now more informed.

I've got 1 Shilen trigger, bought/installed it in '08. I've got +/- 3000 rounds through that rifle without any issues. That Shilen is easily my favorite aftermarket in a 700. Admittedly, I haven't owned a large number of aftermarket examples but I prefer it to the Rifle Basix, and Timney that I've owned.

None of the 700 triggers, factory or aftermarket "scare" me, they all do what they're supposed to with but a little TLC once and a while.

Simple thing to either clean or replace a trigger on a Rem 700. Very simple.

So you decided to test your rifle for function on a loaded chamber when you had concerns and you are now defending your decision when it is pointed out to you how it wasn't the smartest move. Please don't hunt where near me.

Also, it is my experience that someone who has to try to convince others that he is not an idiot usually is one.

My thoughts too........

Replace it.

My 1974 production 700 that I bought new in 1975 has done this. The trigger has never been modified from factory and is kept clean. This isn't new news. Rather common knowledge since the 1950's for those who pay attention. I first was made aware of the potential of issues during the 1980's but shrugged them off as BS. Until one day at some point around 1990 I pulled the rifle up out of my safe to do some dry fire practice. As usual the 1st thing I did was open the action to verify it was unloaded. The next time I moved the safety I heard the firing pin drop. I thought that I MUST have had my finger on the trigger, so I cycled the action and made sure my finger was no where near the trigger and it dropped the firing pin again when the safety was moved. It did this just a few times, no more than 5 and it stopped. I tried dozens of times to try to repeat, but it wouldn't. I continued hunting with the rifle until around 2005 when I just found something I liked better with no further incidents.

It sat in the safe only used occasionally but in 2014 it did exactly the same thing it had done 25 years earlier. I was only able to get it to do 3 times before it started working normally. Even though I rarely use the rifle anymore knowing one of my kids or grand kids will end up with it one day I bought a Timney trigger for it and replaced it myself.

Two incidents in 40 years isn't much. Just enough to create a bunch of non-believers. But if you do the research the issue was first noted in 1946. The issue is the trigger connector on those triggers. A device used on no other trigger by any other manufacturer. It is a tiny metal bar inside the trigger assembly that is free to move up and down as the rifle is handled. If it just happens to end up in the right spot at the wrong time the trigger doesn't completely reset and it only takes a slight movement of the gun for the sear to disengage. When that happens the guns safety is the only thing holding back the firing pin. Move the safety and the gun fires. Remington addressed the problem in the early 80's with a safety redesign that allowed the chamber to be unloaded without moving the safety to the fire position. This is when most incidents happened. This greatly reduced the number of incidents, but didn't address the real problem.

Every Remington bolt rifle made 1946-2007 except the 788 uses this trigger design. And it is just a matter of time before all of them drop the firing pin with no trigger pull. It is just a matter of when the trigger connector lines up in the wrong spot.

You'll read a lot of BS about how you won't have problems if the trigger is clean and adjusted properly. It is true that a dirty or improperly modified trigger will do this. And some incidents are due to this just like any other firearm. But Remington rifles have done it right out of the box, on the assembly line, and they do it far more often than any other manufacturer.

Remington destroyed all of their files documenting these issues in the 1980's just as they were being hit with a flurry of lawsuits. They claim because they need more file space. Sure they did. But estimates are that as many as 10,000 rifles have been returned to Remington since the 1950's with complaints that they were firing with no trigger pull. I've seen one document for 1980 where 134 rifles were returned just that year. If 1980 was a typical year, and the trigger was designed in 1946 that is 73 years X 134 = 9782. so the 10,000 number seems reasonable. How many Winchester, Savage, Weatherby, and Ruger rifles have been returned for firing with no trigger pull.

Probably the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock needed more file space when Hillary was running paper shredders at subpoena speed...

And more recently, her server was running out of room when those 30+K emails were deleted and destroyed.

Sure...

DF

This thread has degenerated into idiocy. Instead of a carefully thought out approach to diagnosing the problem with this particular rifle we have instead veered off into the fantasy world where the trigger connector is the root of all evil. The rifle in question does not have a Remington trigger and the trigger it does have has no connector so there is little point in flogging that particular horse any more.
Has the OP made any test of the safety function when the barreled action is out of the stock? Has he even tried to replicate the malfunction with the rifle unloaded and in the stock? If so, I must have missed it. The trigger for a Remington and it's safety mechanism is an exceedingly simple mechanism. Even the original Walker trigger, despite the efforts made to shroud it in mystery, is a simple mechanism and any issues are easily diagnosed unless one approaches it with such bias that he can see only what he wants to see.
By the way, I don't know how many Winchester, Savage, Weatherby, and Rugers have been returned for firing with no trigger pull but I have seen examples of each of those brands, among others, which did exactly that.
I have a Sako rifle with a Canjar trigger which had the same problem. I ascertained the cause of the problem (a worn camming surface on the safety) and corrected it by welding up, reshaping, and hardening the offending surface. Now it works as intended. I could have gone of on a rant about Canjar's design and accomplish just exactly what has been accomplished here; absolutely nothing. Figure out why the safety malfunctioned and fix the effin' thing. I would test it on an empty chamber, by the way . GD

Shilen will make it right.

Call them.

DF

Put a Timney in it, you are gonna worry about it every time you use it

You are going to have every Tom, Dick and Harry tell you what you did was wrong and blah, blah blah. With your gear, it comes down to having confidence in it. When you lose confidence, it's no longer fun. Replace the trigger with another Shilen. If confidence is lost in Shilen, go Timney or TriggerTech.

Also, not a bad idea to clean your triggers with Ronsonol lighter fluid every now and then.