Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Has anybody else gone sour on Remingtons?

I have always been reletively sour on Remingtons, they ain't got control feed, I dont' trust the triggers, and theys cheap look'en ..but thats just a personal opine on my part..one of the few rights, as an American, I still have since old big ears stepped up to the plate and spent all my kids inhertence.

You ought to get some kind of prize for that one! I wish I had thought of it!

It was at Outdoor Outfitters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They are no longer open but have moved most of their people and stock to H&H Gun Range in Oklahoma City - Phone #405-947-3888. Will Masaad was the salesman out Outdoor Outfitters and he works at H&H Gun range now.

It's been a couple years since I did it so Will might or might not remember it as well as I do, you'd just have to ask. Or better yet don't waste Will's time, just go down to a dealer with several model 700's. With the firing pin down lift the bolt straight up and straight back down with slight forward pressure on the bolt handle. If the rifle is in proper working condition the firing pin will cock and not go back forwards like it did on half the ones I looked at.

If you don't have any let the firing pin lower, Great! Remington is improving their quality control. Chances are that you'll find several that won't properly reset.
On used ones it's even worse. The soft metal on the bolt handle peens over quickly where the primary extraction occurs.

Take a Sharpie or Magic marker and blacken the back of your bolts recoil lugs. Chamber a FIRED case and eject it. Look at the back of your lugs, if less than 1/2 the black marks are still there have better than normal lug engagement than most new 700's.

The older 700's were noticably better made but the even the new ones can usaully be made to shoot quite well. Or you can buy a Tikka or the like that will shoot great OTB......................DJ

Can't testify to the newer guns from big green, but I won't listen to criticism of the older 700. I've owned one example for 47 years, another for 34. They have served well without fault. In my family-and-friend circle, I can add at least a dozen more 700's that have done the same. I worked for years for gun shops part time, just to qualify for employee discounts, and we never got a 700 back. In fact, customers raved about the accuracy and dependability of the rifle. I confess I half-believe the bad rumors about the latest offerings of the company. Perhaps if I were a young buck just starting to equip himself, I might think twice. But that's not the case. As for me and mine, we're set, and satisfied.

Some guys don't like blonds. Their loss...

DJ is right on the bolt lift issue.Seen it on many Rem 700's.If you very slightly move the bolt to the rear after cocking, it will stay cocked; on smany,if not,the firing pin will fall.Messed with one the other day.

I have a 700 BDL in 223 that I like a lot;and I have 270 MR that I leave at my friends ranch in Wyoming as a spare (never been used yet)I've owned quite a few.With 5 million of the things in circulation,it's hard to deny their utility and popularity.But I can only carry one rifle at a time. The Rem 700 ain't it; seen too much wierd stuff......I figured that out.....oh...about 25 years ago

Just to show I'm objective, I'm no big fan of New Haven Classics as they come from the factory,either.

Gone sour here. Newer Remingtons are out of time, don't feed as reliably and don't have the fit and finish of the older Remingtons. Also, for the prices Remington is commanding, give me a custom Remington clone that's trued out of the gate.

I saw two yesterday... a 770 that had so much drag in the bolt that I thought at first it was broken or that I was losing my mind and couldn't remember the super secret safety-bolt-trigger-bolt release combination necessary to open it up. The other was a 700 SPS tactical that was one of the smoothest I have seen or felt in a long time. I'm no fan of pushfeed actions, but it was a very well constructed rifle.


Plagued by careless inconsistency is how I'd put it. But if you're a guy who spends some time thoroughly going over a rifle before you buy it, I think you could do alot worse than a well inspected new Remington.

I have owned a lot of Remington rifles over the past 35 years and have never experienced the QC issues mentioned in this thread. I have never had a bad one and never had one that I couldn't make shoot under an inch. The triggers are superb once adjusted to a decent weight and they have the fastest lock time out there. I even slipped on some ice while hunting once and dropped a 700 that was loaded with safety on....it fell hard but it didn't discharge and wasn't even scratched. So much for the poor fire control system that no one seems to trust. I don't find them too expensive, considering what the competition wants for theirs. I have never had a failure on a Remington of any kind while hunting or target shooting and I do a heck of a lot of shooting. I think there is a lot of nay-sayers out there, kind of reminds me of school days....they must be bored.

The only Rem's I don't care for are the low line ones, such as the 770's and SPS models. They are kind of rough but they get the job done. They fill a place in the market for those on tight budgets that still want a good shooter. And a good shooter is what they'll have.

Last figures I saw showed that Remington was head and shoulders ahead of the competition for rifles and shotgun sales. Seems to me that the marketplace has spoken.

I like the CDL's but I am not too fond of their newer synthetic stocked rifles. That being said, I still would take an entry level 700 over a Mossberg ATR anyday.

All this talk is of past,not current production. A poster who worked there,said the supplier QC before Cerebus took over had been going downhill.

DJ
BUt what does the failure to cock thing you point out really mean? Do you normally hold the bolt hard forward when getting ready to shoot? Will it happen when you are hunting at some point? Or just shooting at the range?

Holding the bolt forward like that keeps the cocking piece down on the sear. A light touch on the top of the sear will polish the corner and allow the cocking piece to engage at the bottom of its travel and allow it to cock every time...

But why is it a problem?There are enough 700s here I do not know how many there actually are...
art

I have a circa '88 ADL action that is heads and shoulders smoother than than a circa 2005 LTR I own. The ADL action also shows no cratering in the primers where the LTR does. Lastly, timing on the ADL shows to be better than the timing on the LTR where a burr has been created on the bolt handle from being improperly timed.

Therefore, I will say that my LTR shoots but while having cratered primers from enlarged firing pin hole, timing being off as seen on the bolt handle and plagued with feeding issues due to a magbox needing modification after purchase. For an $800 gun, one shouldn't have these problems. I have always been a Remington fan but after owning Sako, Remington doesn't even come close.

Lastly, seeing all of these issues on the LTR has made me create a line in the sand not to purchase any more Remingtons. If they need this much work to be fixed, I might as well buy a Stiller, Pierce, Borden, Surgeon, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, the 2003-mid 2006 Remington's are not representative of what has been coming out the last 3 years. Every Remington built since late 2006 that I have owned and or handled has been palpably better in QC than what came out that prior 3 years.

Remington must have had labor issues the few years before they were sold. It's obvious in the quality that came out during that time.

I bet all of these guys busting on newer Remington's hasn't owned a single M700 built since 2007.

The problem arises from the soft metal on the bolt handle/extraction cam. Not only is the sear not resetting properly the primary and secondary extraction cams are not working as smoothly as possible.
But hey maybe it's just me, I like to have a brand new rifle function properly out of the box. The older ones did. Too many of the newer ones don't.

I've also seen more mis-adjusted trigger on Remingtons than any other rifle. You are the one that pointed out that the newer versions MUST be resprung in order to function properly at lower weights. I've lost count of the Remington's that guys show off their light crisp triggers to me only to go off with a light tap of the butt on the floor. They can be worked and adjusted properly, fortunately the poster above that fell hard and didn't have his rifle go off is lucky he didn't have some of the triggers I've seen!

Also thinking that sales figures determine the best rifle is poor logic at best. Chrysler sold a whole lot more Neons than they did Vipers but there's no doubt whatsoever which is the nicer car! 700's are a solid price point rifle. They became popular because they were accurate rifles that sold for substantially less than the competition, it doesn't mean they are the best out there. And unfortunately spotty quality control and stiff competition from some other rifles is making them less attractive now.......................DJ

................................DJ

Date code is on the barrel left side usually about an inch to the left of the serial#. Two letters. If it's got the new trigger though, it's mainly been built since things turned around.

I was just about turned off Remington myself on what was coming out for a while, but they've done a 180 the last couple years.

Just for the record, no shortcuts are taken on the SPS models. They are first class firearms.

The problem with cocking that DJ mentioned is so chronic with them, I thought it was a deliberate design feature. So. I'm asking...is it? Are they supposed to function that way? Or not?Just curious.

DJ
I agree 100% there are more Bubba'd 700 triggers than all others combined. That is not the trigger's fault IMO, though. The respring deal is not a big deal and not required for most... But I run mine at 20 ounces. Bubba is the problem, not the trigger.

I have taken a bunch of 700s out of the box and started playing with them. I have yet to have one that failed to function... Not even a 710. Lots needed some playing to make them better, but I have seen that on a lot of different rifles right out of the box.

You are using new versus old arguments about the camming surfaces, yet they have never changed... My old ones are as badly dinged by use as the newer ones so I am confused about what point you are making there.

Because of the numbers and because of the retrofit options the 700 will be around a long time and doing well.
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