Remington 700 story on CNBC tonight

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batex

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CNBC had a full page add in today's Wall Street Journal about a story on the Remington 700 and Remington's problems with it that is suppose to air tonight at 9:00pm ET. Does anyone know anything about this? I guess we'll all get to find out tonight. I own one Remington 700 but it's an older model 270 left hand from the 70's. I've always wanted to buy another in 308 for longer range shooting so I'm interested in what this is all about. It's unusual to see investigative gun stories on any news network.
 
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Yes, it's about the Model 700 firing when it's not supposed to. There was a 9 year old kid killed 10 years ago when his mother went to unload the thing. Also, the U S Army has videotaped the rifle going off with the finger out of the trigger guard. Should be interesting.
 
I noticed that no other news outlet was even reporting anything about it. Could be the ultra liberal and gun hating NBC trying to give legs to the law suit that has been pending for sometime .................. You can go to the Remington website and see their rebuttal:Remington (check the videos on the right side of the page).


Here is Remingtons response to their vendors and customers about NBC's allegations: http://rem.brandednews.com/pdf/Remington_Vendor_Release.pdf

Don
 
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It was on the NBC Evening News with Brian Williams.
I had never heard anything about it, but they made it sound like a widespread problem that happens all the time.
 
I find it difficult to believe that there is any design defect in the Model 700. I've owned two -- one in .30-06, and one in .220 Swift, both VSSF models. Superbly accurate long range rifles, and nary a problem with any ADs at any time. It would seem to me that if there is a problem with the trigger mechanism, the AMU or the Marine's WTB would have picked up on it.

And what about all the police agencies out there using the 700 in its PSS configuration? This all has the smell of boooooogggggggguuuuuussssss sensationalized crapola.


Bullseye
 
I am with you Bullseye,

I have owned a 700 BDL in 6.5 Mag every since they came out. Have lighten the trigger up and shot a lot of rounds with cast and full Mag loads and never a AD. I don't believe that the rifle just goes off by itself.

There is a little lever on the side of the action called a safety.
 
Is is true that if someone that doesn't know what he is doing tries to do a "trigger job" (on the old models anyway) he can mess it up so that it can fire when the action is closed or the gun is jostled.

Is that what they are talking about or the "new models" with the lock on the side of the bolt cover or the new trigger group models?
 
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seen it firsthand. hunting, darkthirty am, get out of truck I load the winchester 70 which will open bolt on safety, brother puts round in remington 3006 and closes the bolt, kboom. fortunately he had it resting on his crotch pointed up or I might not be here today. factory trigger. it was the old rem which wouldnt open or close on safe.
 
What, pray tell, does that say about two of my Model 700's that have aftermarket triggers and NO SAFETY at all. I'm scared to death now, those damn things might just get up, walk out of the vault and come shoot my wife, the dogs and I........
 
Just finished watching the program and I read Remington's response.

IMHO....Remington is in a heap of trouble. Lots of documentation of the problem dating back to the 1940's and even an interview with the original designer. Wow.

That said, gun safety can still prevent shooting someone; even if the gun might turn out to be defective. One of the first rules is to never depend on a mechanical safety.

The 700 is an icon. I hope Remington can get through this.
 
Part of the problem with proving any of many of the claims, is that Jack Belk, the CNBC "expert" could not replicate any of the failures documented in later testing.

I believe all post-2006 Remington 700's, 710's, 40XB's, etc., all have a new trigger mechanism not compatible with earlier models.

It would be interesting to know if there were any "silent" recalls out there.
 
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I'm having a problem with a Rem 700 Varmint in 223 Rem.

But after firing 4,000 rounds at prairie dogs and other critters, something should be worn or out of adjustment.
 
Well it will be interesting to see how this plays out, to say the least. I watched the CNBC special on the M 700 ( it's actually the first time I have ever watched that channel & only because of this special ) and obviously it was heavily slanted against Remington for obvious reasons, but what we did not hear, was Remington's side of the story. When they interviewed Mike Walker who is the inventor of that particular trigger mechanism, he readily admitted there was a problem with this rifle going back to 1946. That is not going to help Remington any! Why the company never corrected the design is beyond me, especially since Mike Walker drew a schematic of the fix for them back in 1948! According to the program, this fix would have cost Remington 5 1/2 cents per unit, so it really does not make much sense for them to not do anything. They say that for Remington to recall all of the 5 million M 700's and change the mechanisms would cost them more than the net worth of the entire Company! I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out, but one thing is for sure, I doubt Remington will sell too many M 700's for Christmas this year.

chief38
 
I've got a nice Model 700LH (an early left-handed BDL-type variant) that was made in October 1973. It is super-accurate and chambered in .270Win and it has been my main hunting rifle since 1995 or so.

It, of course, has the older two-position safety which requires one to put the gun in "Fire" mode to work the bolt to unload it and such.

Naturally, I never have my finger near the trigger or point any gun in an unsafe direction when unloading it.

That all being said, has my M700 EVER gone off when I carefully wiped off the safety in a proper manner? Only ONCE . . . in 1996. Yes, it happened as I stood next to my truck, working the bolt to unload the rifle after spending a morning in a deer stand.

I've never been able to make the gun go off ever again that way. Could it happen again? Sure . . . anything can happen in this world . . . that's why safe gun handling is imperative with ANY firearm.

It hasn't stopped me from using this as my primary deer rifle, nor will it.

A later M700BDL in 30.06 allows one to operate the bolt to load or unload while the safety is on . . . a BIG improvement . . . but I stick with my tackdriving, lefthanded 700LH.

No, I would not loan it to a novice hunter . . . for this very reason though . . . for some folks don't practice all forms of gun safety in a 100% consistent manner. I do, and I'm fine with it.

2448471IMG0797e1.jpg


Tom
 
No doubt the lady made a big mistake. And you have to feel for her loss. But I am not sure how she was handling the rifle safely if she shot through both sides of her horse trailer?? That may be a crass thing to say, but it is the truth. Her husband seemed like a very knowledgable gun man. I would bet a dollar to a donut that their was some work done to the trigger on that rifle.

Anything mechanical can fail. I think we all know that.

But that program was very disingenuous. Not one time did they mention that most of the problems would occur if someone tampered with the trigger. And I think that was very bad. But it will not come off that way. They hurt Remington real bad. And they hurt the gun owners rights very bad also.

I do not mind them telling a story. But they should tell the whole truth. They were showing military rifles as if it was a rifle that just came off the Remington assembly line. And we all know that is not the way it is.

Overall I think it was a real bad hack job on a firearms manufacturer. But then what else would you expect?? Tom.
 
If it's on any of the "news" channels, I really don't think much of it.

However, in the spirit of the program, I will gladly help out anyone that would like to dispose of their 700 to me.

"Andy pays Cash for 700's! Sell your 700's to me for cash now! Highest price paid for 700's!" The top price of $25.00 is given for each 700 in NIB condition. Lesser conditions warrant less.

Disregard that fine print, send me the gun and get your cash! :D
 
I only saw the part from Brian Williams. But NBC will go after any firearm that is vulnerable. For Remington to have known about this for decades, and not fixed it, is reprehensible. It's like Toyota lying about their bad cars.

This issue with Rem. 700 triggers has surfaced from time to time for years. I wouldn't buy one. And I won't buy one because the bolt handle will very likely turn plum/purple after awhile.

I used to frequent a large gun shop, and M-700's in their racks rusted much more easily than other brands, especially on the bolts. I prefer Winchester, Sako, and CZ rifles. Weatherby also seems to have better metallurgy than does a certain brand. I think the difference is the amount of chrome in the formula and the degree of finishing.

This story will damage the firearms industry considerably, probably. I'm sure that it's exaggerated, but this time, there is some truth to NBC's allegations.

T-Star
 
I've been following this on another forum (Accurate Reloading.Com,,Gunsmithing) for a while and it's been quite a heated back and forth.
Mr. Belk has posted a long disertation about the trigger back on 10/11. Sides have been quickly chosen over it and some of it seems personal. Jack Belk has his enemys over there for reasons I'm not aware of. The announcement that this 'story' would be appearing on MSNBC certainly didn't help those matters.


Link to the discussion over there,,delete if it violates the rules here at all....
Remington-Walker Explanation - Topic Powered by Social Strata
 
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