Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Remington's official response to the CNBC report.....

Remington is posting official responses to CNBC's allegations and reporting methods' on their own vide website here-

http://m.remington700.tv/#

No matter which side you are on in this , their points are interesting, especially about the "experts" opinions on the CNBC show.

Ross Seyfried appears in the first video at the upper left hand corner about the history of the m700.

CNBC is anti gun and would only portray the negative and not necessarily the facts

I think Remington got a raw deal on this show, but that "fluff & spin" flashy video does not help them much. They need to make a response in print with facts. I thought I was watching a political commercial.......

Well the people who own Remington are not just going to roll over just because of CNBC. As for how they are doing it, well we live in a You Tube age. And this is political. Blaser of Germany went thru the same sort of problem. The 700 is as safe as any fire arm, they are always loaded and treat it as such. Keep you finger off the trigger, and don't let some plumber mess with with. Triggers do break from time to time or are not properly adjusted. In my hunting life, I had just two problems with triggers on some 60 + rifles I owned, one was on a Ruger M-77 MK, the gunsmith took it down to much and it would discharge if pressure was put on the trigger then push the safety off. The Gun was empty at the time and repeatable. The smith had me ship it back, and he took care of it, cost was shipping and a canjar trigger that I wanted. Shot that gun for about 15 years when I wanted to shoot for money, it was that accurate. The other was on a Set Trigger on my Model M Steyr Mannlicher 7 x 57. The Set trigger just was not right in the set mode, so I sent it back to Steyr, there was a broken spring and there gunsmith took care of it, and its been giving me good service ever since, I have this one since 1976 when I bought it. Accidents happen, mostly because of a distraction and a lack of good muzzle control. As for the Remington M-700, good rifle, no doubt about it, or they would not have sold them in the numbers they did and have. The Stock trigger is fine, just don't take it down to low, 3 to 4 lbs is about right, you want go lower, install and after market trigger like a canjar. With regard to guns, a good bit of common sense goes a long long way. And that extends to the handloading bench and making sure you are shooting proper ammo chambered for the gun. I seen guys come to hunting camps I been to on a couple of occasions that had the wrong ammo for there rifles.

Remington just needs to get together a government-appointed panel to look into it and declare its findings exonerating them. We all know that such government panels are the last and authoritative word on things.

Looks like another ploy to get people to think in negative terms regarding firearms. If you try to idiot proof anything, much less a firearm, it's headed for the scrap pile. Of course liberals want everything to go wrong with guns, as another nail in the coffin of gun ownership.

All of my 700s are and were perfectly safe. The most dangerous thing about shooting a 700 is the shooter, not the gun, and that includes you and me.

Wayne

The boy's father seems like a lifelong hunter and shooter, and pro-gun to boot. A rifle should not 'go off' without the trigger being pulled...period. It seems, from the internal Remington documents and talking with Mike Walker, that Remington was aware that a problem did exist, and that they were aware of it.

That response is more damning than the special. No substance at all. Tells me they are guilty as hell.

What about the internal memos showing the problem and ignoring it for the 5 cent fix?

What about the video from the police agencies?

What about the thousands of complaints over the years?

What about the original designer of trigger saying it was unsafe and petitioning Rem to change even after he retired?


I'm sorry but I did not view this piece as anti gun. I thought it was handled like any other product safety piece.

Is it a 'fact' that a small percentage of these guns definately 'go off' without the trigger being pulled?

Did Remington know about the problem, as Mike Walker suggested?

Did Remington know about the problem, as the internal Remington documents suggested?

Did the military videos, and the police sniper videos (folks who are typically pro-gun) show rifles that were 'going off' without the triggers being pulled?

Have there been thousands of complaints over the years, from hunters and shooters, who have experienced their rifles 'going off' without the triggers being pulled?

I agree. I think there is plenty of evidence from Remington's internal memo's alone that they were aware of a problem. Sometimes big companies make mistakes and compound them by in-action whether they are firearms manufacturer's or car or drug companies.

Mike Walker appears to still be shooting and reloading so I doubt he is out to slant a report on a gun company.

The saddest part of this story is that the few deaths and bunch of injuries that CNBC mentioned is a result of poor muzzle control. Muzzle control is the difference between a tragedy and just having the crap scared out of you. Thankfully, according to the broadcast, many more model 700 owners only had the crap scared out of them.

Even if Remington doesn't want a costly recall...why not just put in a new trigger and saftey in future production. Advertise it as an improvement not a safty issue.

It appears to me if CNBC is really out to promote anti gun sentiment then Remington, over the years has provided them with plenty of ammo regarding the model 700. We should be equally unhappy with them.

Dan

Wow, time to buy Kool-Aid stock!

No one watched Jack Belk saying he was unable to duplicate the accidental misfirings in any rifle he tested?

No one noticed the point about CNBC never asking about the conditions of the triggers in the military examples? Or rather, never reporting the conditions of the triggers.

It is easy to Bubba a 700 trigger... As it is ANY trigger.

Are you saying that since Jack Belk wasn't able to duplicate the accidental firings in any rifle he tested that the problem doesn't exist?

Here's some more that Jack Belk had to say...

In an interview with CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart, Jim Belk, past president of the American Custom Gunmaker's Guild, said he has known about the problem with the Remington Model 700 firing when the safety is engaged since 1969 and has told the gunmaker about it. The following is a full transcript of the interview.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jim Stewart: "Is it possible that the Remington 700 can fire without the finger being on the trigger?"

Jack Belk: "Yes, very much so."

Stewart: "You�re a gunsmith?"

Belk: "Yes."

Stewart: "You�ve known about this problem for how many years?"

Belk: "Since 1969."

Stewart: "Did you ever tell Remington about it?"

Belk: "Yes."

Stewart: "What did they say?"

Belk: "They said they�d take it under advisement. I�ve never heard anything more from them."

Belk: "I heard about the problem actually in gunsmith�s school. My old design and function instructor said that that trigger was just parts flying in loose formation."

Stewart: "It�s fair to say when most people buy a weapon, they don�t expect it to go off unless the safety is off and they pull the trigger?"

Belk: "That�s the two rules of gun design. No gun should fire with the safety engaged and no gun should fire unless the trigger is pulled. My contention is, if you don�t know when a gun is going off, there�s no such thing as safe. Right now, I could hold a 700 and take the safety off, and if it fired, people within five miles of here are at danger even if it�s pointed up, or down."

Belk has significant integrity issues and EVERYTHING he says must be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Well its a fact they do go off

I'm not an enemy of Remington and have used some nice Rem rifles, both out of the box factory and nice customs built off 700 actions. Have had some very nice triggers, but I have the opinion that they can be tricky if fiddled with by someone lacking sound experience. Of the best Rem triggers I've seen worked over by professionals with tons of experience, I have the opinion that they can be easily fouled resulting in issues and are not the type of trigger to neglect until something goes wrong. I think you could cake a basic military Mauser trigger in crud and not have issues, but I do not think this true with the Remington. I tend to stay on top of Remington triggers moreso than others, and when they're properly tuned and kept clean, I've found them to work well.

Flip side, I'm leery of a Rem trigger played with by anyone but a professional, I do not trust the best Rem trigger when neglected and fouled, and I try to expect and prepare for the rifle to go off when working the safety and bolt, even with my finger outside the guard.

Not sure how this will work out for Remington, but they do appear to be on the hot seat at the moment.

Best:)

This news is old as Moses. CNBC must have some alterior motive to drag this up again. Remington did a recall on the 700's to replace the safety levers on those that locked the bolt while on safe so that one could empty the chamber without taking the gun off safe thus making it more foolproof for those idiots that insist on having their finger on the trigger. And, at the same time clean the trigger assembly for those that never understood the concept of properly cleaning a firearm. IIRC this wasn't free but even so was a heck of bargain and for those that chose to ignore it, as the old saying goes, "You can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink".

The attornies suing Remington feel Belk is the best witness they can get... They have the money to buy anyone they want... Belk admitted he tested all available rifles that had been returned to Remington because of the firing problems and could not repeat ANY of them.

All guns that he could make fire without pulling the trigger had been altered... Imagine that.

Amazing how he dragged his gunsmithing school instructor into the equation... Tell me he does not have an agenda. Tell me his coaches did not do a good job.

I like the Rem 700 and have never had or seen any problem with their safety, unless the trigger was messed with. I am not saying that it isn't so, I just don't have any first hand knowledge of it.

My doubt with NBC on this issue started with the evening news on that date having a spot on Rem 700 problems and then advertising on the news that the show would be broadcast later on CNBC. I'll not forget that if ever watching their news again. Definitely a takeoff from Fox news.

I'm assuming that this statement, though, is something we can all agree on?

"No gun should fire with the safety engaged and no gun should fire unless the trigger is pulled."

Or are there exceptions to those two rules for our favorite manufacturers? ;-)

Jack Belk is one of the biggest flakes in the gun industry.