Remington Model 700 (courtesy donshobbyguns.com)

“America’s oldest gun manufacturer, Remington, has agreed to replace millions of triggers in its most popular product—the Model 700 rifle,” cnbc.com reports. “Under a nationwide settlement filed Friday in a federal court in Missouri, the company is agreeing to replace the triggers in about 7.85 million rifles.” The agreement, which must be approved by a federal judge, follows the Remington recall of tens of thousands of 700’s equipped with X-Mark Pro triggers. Those guns, manufactured since 2006, had “excess bonding agent used in the assembly process” that could cause the guns to “unintentionally discharge.” The new recalls covers all Model 700’s made since 1962. Though likely to cost the company nearly a billion dollars and take years to complete, the agreement may clear the way for Cerberus to off-load The Freedom Group. Watch this space.

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123 COMMENTS

        • I read an article about the Remington 700s trigger problems being complete crap and caused by people who were in turn trying to adjust their triggers when there were several warnings not to make any adjustments.

        • @Anthony, Remington paid out over $25 million in settlements over defective 700 triggers — and that doesn’t account for the settlements that were sealed.

          You may read articles that poo-poo the whole bad trigger complaint. You may also read articles that extol the virtues of the fabulous R51 pistol. Both articles are pure, unadulterated BS and for all we know may well have been bought and paid for by Remington.

        • You are confused, this is about Remington rifles. French rifles are dropped once and NEVER fired!!

        • France lost 350,000 men at Verdun alone. Men that died for the freedom of Europe. That joke is tired, inaccurate, and offensive.

        • @wut Sometimes people don’t realize the internet is without borders. For my part – it’s a long story – but when we had injured people in Kuwait, French combat medics were the first to respond and they were fantastic. Thank you.

      • I’ll be getting the savage because I’ve yet to hear about any savage having a “trigger” issue unless it was a man made issue (finger pulled it by accident)

        I’d love to add a 700 to my collection but I do not want to have to buy a 700 for 550-650$ only to have to spend another 100$ on a aftermarket trigger…. Who knows how long it will take replace all the rifle triggers they anticipate they will have to replace. This is a huge black eye for remington…. How would ford motor company fare lomgterm if the mustang was recalled for having defective parts?

        • Also… About 8 months ago I almost bought a 700p but ended up getting a savage instead a model 10 TR 24″ heavy barrel 5r rifling, accustock, 1 piece scope base and accutrigger in .308 for 499.99 you’ll never get those features in a remington for that price. Sad I’ve yet to shoot it or put glass on it yet… That was a deal I couldn’t pass up.

        • Google search “Pinto fire”, and you will learn about just that sort of situation that Ford Motor Co. experienced back in the ;70s.

        • Don’t know about the newer ones my newest Remington rifle is an old 760 30.06 pump made back in the early 60s never had any problems

    • A billion dollars? Like… with a b? As in… nine zeroes? Is that correct or an embellishment? Is big green profitable enough to sustain that type of loss? We’re not talking about Toyota here. Wouldn’t they simply fold under that level of cost liability?

      Can’t say I’m heart-broken. Only remmy gun I own is an 870 police magnum whose finish was already flaking off out of the box. Magpul masada? Failed. R51? Failed. Iconic 700? Fatal flaw left uncorrected for decades. Marlin? Dead. AAC? Let’s toss that well established brand in the trash and call it Remington accessories as if anyone gives a shit about the Remington name anymore. I really want them to be an american success story but for whatever reason it doesn’t seem to be in the cards. As time goes by the theorists who believe Cerberus is an anti-gun conspiracy seem to be making more and more sense.

    • I went out today 10/13/2015 and loaded a bullet into my 338-06 rifle, closed the bolt and the gun fired. Luckily and for practical gun safety my gun was pointed down range, the gun fired. This is the 2nd 700 BDL that had done that to me. I just read that there is a recall, is that still in effect? I want the damn thing fixed.

    • Bob, go buy your Wal-Mart 300.00 dollar cheap guns. That’s what they sale for around here.I have 6 Remington’s and have had them in all kinds of weather and never a problem, my buddy’s savage he bought for 299.00 axis trigger wouldn’t go off in freezing temps.sale cheap, made cheap. Get what u pay for. I see on here u have a lot to say about savage,U must get paid to trash Remington,U want to go cheap then go buy it.Just keep you mouth shut.Just for your info I have been buying and saleing guns for over 35 years and worked in gun shop and did the gun show thing. They make cheap guns for a reason,for the ones that cant afford to buy Remington’s.Yea im a die hard Remington guy, I have never had a problem with one in 35 years and im pretty hard on my guns, I work 1000 acre farm and they get throwed around in farm truck. Left in freezing cold temps and always works just fine.so go to wally world and get your savage.The old saying is .U GET WHAT U PAY FOR>

  2. Got a 700 ADL in 30.06. I like it a lot. Guess I’ll contact Remington to find out what to do.

    • All that’s left of the 700 SPS 7-08 I bought a couple of years ago are the receiver, bolt, and bottom metal. A gunsmith trued the action, fit a Broughton barrel, a Timney trigger, and then bedded it in a Bell & Carlson stock. My impression is the 700 bolt and and receiver are the strongest production actions available, but the other parts are built to lower standards so the whole rifle can hit a cost mark. By comparison, Savage rifles seem uniformly good: no one part is best in class, but everything is done well.

      Cerberus may be using the same game plan that was used on Hostess. Bankrupt the company, settle debts, and cancel liabilities, including union contracts. Ilion will probably close and the tooling will move south. Hopefully, the craftsmen and women from the Ilion plant will continue to work individually as cottage industry, but eventually their skills will be lost. It really is the end of an era.

  3. Bankrupt Remington. Use the loss against taxes on income earned in other parts of Freedom Group/Cerberus. Reorganize. “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Life goes on.

    • The Angry Puppy has done worse things. they always have things structured to work out for them in the end. You’re right, this will be no different. The cynic in me says this was pre-planned, but the reality is most likely what they always do – cut to the bone, until the skeleton fails.

      • I do think this was “the pre-planned backup plan.” It’s the one that hostile takeover leveraged buyout artists private equity devotees always holds in reserve.

      • I like my 700 LTR and never had an issue with it but, I’m not sending back to Big Green. A Timney upgrade it will be.

    • Same here. Probably worth the money even if it wasn’t for the recall, but it’s really worth it compared to sending your rifle back to Remington to sit in a store room for 18 weeks.

  7. It shouldn’t take long at all to replace 8,000,000 triggers. They’ve already got a 10,000 or so unit head start . . .

    • If you send it in soon, you might be able to have it delivered to your adult grandchildren. Who have yet to be born.

      Seriously, even an incredibly conservative figure of say 3 man-hours per gun to receive, tag, fix, log, ship per unit leaves a potential workload of 24MM man-hours. With a 40 week and two weeks off, that’s only 12,000 man-years. So if Remmy hired 1000 people to do just this recall and fixed all the rifles out there, they’d be done around 2027…

      Even if only 100K people are crazy enough to send their guns in, to the maybe 100 people doing warranty work? It’ll be years before they get their gun back. If the company doesn’t just disappear before then…

  8. Think Timney is going to need to stock up on their Remmy 700 triggers… I’ve never had an issue with my 7mm Mag, bought 15 years ago…. but thinking Timney needs a few of my $$$.

  9. I have a Remington model 700 243 that discharges on it’s own, haven’t used it for years due to this issue, wonder if this is the issue with that gun? Be nice to have it fixed and back in use.

  10. Not at all surprising once the initial recall sunk in. Easier for them to agree once than fight many more small cases.

  11. How big of a deal is the defective part? I’m thinking that a bunch of people are gonna offload their 700s even though they only have a 0.01% failure rate or something stupid like that.

    If it was a serious concern, wouldn’t the rifle have a bad reputation?

      • I have never owned a 700 nor will I because of the problems that Remington ignored for decades. Had friend that had one, went to unload the rifle after a hunting trip, touched the bolt and went off. Scared him bad enough to sell it within the week. Oh well, so it goes. Sad too considering that the company is almost 200 years old with a long and storied history. So it goes…

        • Wonder how much he got for it after telling the prospective buyers that it liked to go off like that?

        • I highly doubt he was honest enough to tell them. I’m sure he just said “yeah sure it works great here ya go” and lived his life never caring to know if that rifle hurt the next person.

    • I will buy a 700 if people do off load them. If the price is right and I can drop in a new trigger, I’d do that in a heartbeat. I wonder if Geissele has a trigger for the 700’s? If not, I’ll bet that they, and many others, will be making them soon.

  12. 1) Just get an aftermarket trigger and safe yourself the headache.

    2) Remmington sucks.

    That is all.

  13. The X-Mark Pro trigger was intended to fix the Walker fire control system, which was dangerous and defective and cost Remmy over $25 million in settlements. One poor bast@rd had both of his feet blown off by that POS. Trust Remington to replace one unsafe and defective system with another.

    • Really, both feet blown off? It would take a grenade to do that, or a naval 5inch 38 deck gun! Shows how much you know about guns, other than what you have seen in the movies.
      Go out, buy a real gun, take shooting lesson, then tell us about gun accidents!

    • No way? No rifle bullet can blow off both a man’s feet. Maybe a grenade launcher or a Naval turret gun.
      I do not believe you know jack about guns. Just another troll trying to sound like a shooter.
      Strictly a wannabe!

    • The settlement has not yet been approved by the court, so nothing is happening yet. And Remington is refusing to call it a recall.

      While insisting its action is not a recall of the iconic gun, Remington says in a statement that it is agreeing to make the changes “to avoid the uncertainties and expense of protracted litigation.”

      Weasel words from a bunch of weasels.

      • Or: Weasel words necessary to create a debt which can be discharged more easily during a reorganization in bankruptcy.

  15. Called customer service two weeks ago. Said they would replace my trigger and would email me the instructions. Had the CS Rep read back my email address, it was correct. Dutifully checked my junk mail folder for a week, no email. Done with it, just installed a Timney.

  16. I’ve had my 700 (.308 PSS) since the mid 90’s with no issues. I think the 700 has become the new Audi 5000.

    • You (and the vast majority who own a 700) are just lucky. Nothing more.

      The 5000 was baseless hysteria, generated by fat American feet on Euro-sized pedal spacing. There is no possible failure modality on K-Jetronic that would cause unintended acceleration. Proved by the fact that it was never “claimed” on the multi-millions of other cars with the same injection system. No mechanical defects that could cause it were ever found either.

      There’s still thousands of Audis still on the road. As soon as the hype quit, so did the UI claims. OTOH, the Remmy triggers have been dangerous for decades.

      • For what it’s worth, my Ruger 77/22 started going off by itself (closing the bolt would occasionally release the firing mechanism) after I put a Timney in. Putting the factory spring back in fixed the problem. I contacted Timney who said they would send me a new spring, but they never did. I know Timney has a great reputation, but I’m not impressed based on one transaction. The product they shipped me was straight up dangerous.

  19. Looks like it’ll be a savage Axis or ruger m77 for me…
    I thought about looking for a 90’s Era 700..but I just don’t know if I want the Remington brand anymore

  22. So how many of you complaining about the 700 and own one ever had a trigger malfunction? I have several and family and friends have many. NEVER did any of us have this CNN manufactured story happen. This is just another liberal attempt at bankrupting a gun manufacturer.

    • Um, you’re lucky, and you probably use your rifle in reasonably good circumstances.

      The USMC found problems on their Rem-700 based sniping rifles, and documents from inside the USMC found their way into at least one lawsuit I’m aware of. More than a few competitors have seen problems with Rem700’s triggers, which is why most competitors switch out their triggers for Jewells or Timneys.

      Gunsmiths have known about the failure modes of the original Rem700 triggers for at least, oh, 15 years. Addressing the failure modes is an issue taught in course at two gunsmithing schools I personally know of.

      So… it’s not a liberal conspiracy. It’s a real deal. Remington has known about it for years.

        • The connector floats off the front of the trigger.

          When you have the safety on, the safety is holding the sear up in contact with the firing pin on the bolt. If there is any binding inside the side plates of the trigger on the connector, and you pull the trigger while the safety is on, the connector stays forward, the trigger returns to position. Now the sear is held up by only the safety, and when you let off the safety, the sear drops out of the way, the firing pin goes forward and ‘bang.”

          One of the solutions to the problem was to epoxy the connector to the trigger bar.

          Why does this happen? Simple. Some congealed oil, too thick an oil and cold temperatures, grit, grime, dirt, etc get into the trigger housing and retard the rearward motion of the connector, which after all, is just being pushed back onto the trigger bar by the adjustable spring for trigger pull weight. Lighten the trigger too much or get too much crap into the trigger housing, and the connector won’t follow the trigger back.

          The whole reason why there is a problem in the first place is because Remington wanted to heat treat as little steel in their guns as possible. So they made designs to allow them to heat treat very minimal pieces anywhere in the gun. This shows up as the Walker trigger design, with the hardened and polished connector, but the rest of the trigger group is “just steel,” and the bolt, where the front of the bolt is hardened steel, and soldered onto the body of the bolt. The 700 bolt is made in three pieces – the body, the nose and the handle. The nose and handle are both soldered onto the main body of the bolt. Not welded, just soldered.

      • Then why did we (Army) never have any problems with our M-24’s? Maintenance?
        I agree with the comment that this is just another liberal effort to bankrupt a gun manufacturer.

        • Possibly. It also could be that you didn’t set your triggers as light as the USMC did.

          The problem manifests itself due to dirt, gunk, crud, congealed oil, etc in the trigger housing, combined with setting the trigger for a pull (like less than 4lbs).

          Too many people thought that they should set the factory single-stage trigger down to 2 lbs or less. Once you do this, the spring pressure pushing the connector into engagement against the face of the trigger bar is decreasing, and the odds that the connector hangs up on any crud inside the trigger housing are going up.

          At least two gunsmithing schools I know of have been telling students of issues with the Walker Fire Control system for years – before CNBC did their special, before the lawsuits started becoming public. Once you’ve really started to learn how guns are designed, how they operate, what has worked, what hasn’t, why, how failures manifest themselves, which includes failure modes in trigger systems, etc… you look at a Walker Fire Control trigger and you spot the problem on paper pretty quickly.

        • As DG noted, this is hardly news unless you have your head in the sand.

          I knew it back in the 70s with XP100s, and every smith worth the title has know it since before then as well. Being ignorant is understandable, hbut not an excuse.

  24. Hmm. Shame, but it doesn’t affect me. Most of my hunting long rifles are 700XB or XBRs. I’ve never had an issue and considered it null and void since I never carry a bolt action rifle around with the bolt down. Come to think of it, I’ve never used the safety for that same reason, even on the ones that actually had them.

  25. I’ve had a 700 since 1998 in .30-06. I’ve shot many deer with it over the years and have never had a problem with it. No telling how many rounds I’ve run through it at targets. A couple thousand easy. I wouldn’t trade that rifle for 10 Savages.

  26. how many people have firearms as the original owner? Maybe this would be a great time to record millions of serial numbers and owners.

  27. According to the CNBC report this recall includes several models, including the 721. That means that Remington will be repairing rifles made as early as 1948, not just back to 1962 as this article states.

  28. I am not sure how they might handle this, there are a lot of gunshops who are licensed remington repair shops, I had one of those cheap 710’s with the detachable mag traded to me for a rusty mauser. the mag latch was broken and the latch pin or assembly is cast into the stock, so Remington had a recall on it, and I just gave the rifle to a gunsmith who came to the shows in Montana, he owned a licensed repair shop and bam, new stock at no extra expense. I would hazard a guess that might still be the case. I’ve got a slug of heavy barrel 700’s, never had a problem with any of them. But I know of at least one case up here where a lady killed her son who was standing on the other side of the truck when she was unloading a 700. I think it was one of those lawsuits.

    • Yes, that was one of the lawsuits. Turned out that it was an older 700 ADL that had to have the safety “OFF” so the bolt could be cycled. Right after that was when Remington started shortening the tab so the safety didn’t lock the bolt. I don’t think they changed the bolt to eliminate the groove the tab locked into until many years later.

  29. Savage rifles are about half the quality of a pre x mark trigger 700. I’d take this lawsuit with a grain of salt. If there was really an issue with the 700 trigger Remington would have dropped it along time ago

  30. I have a model 7400 in 30-06 and I love it! I didn’t want a bolt action because it’s harder to get back on target for a follow up shot. Hitting a moving deer or elk from 400+ yards sometimes requires quick follow ups.

    • Well, at least you started the story with a reasonable caliber, but moving shots at 400?
      Where I live we call that “throwing lead and hoping”, not hunting.

  31. Is the trigger really a problem? I’ve owned 700’s since 1969, and model Sevens since 1980, and had never even heard of a problem with the trigger until they “allegedly” changed the design. So, is there really a problem with the trigger, or has our GOVERNMENT come up with a plan to force Remington to “offer” to replace the triggers, then when they have all model 700’s safely locked up in a warehouse somewhere, just declare them to be “unsafe” and never send them back? That would take about 8 million rifles off the street, which is what the Obama Administration has been trying to do since HE has been in the oval office? My 700’s are going to stay in my safe, NOT in a warehouse that the government can control. Anyway any good Remington authorized gunsmith can take care of the “problem” in about 15-30 minutes under warranty, and most will do it while you wait.

    • If your rifle has the ridged-face trigger, it’s the “old” model and has never given any problems unless some moron has “adjusted” it that didn’t know what they were doing. The “new” design has a smooth face on the trigger, and were on the rifles in the first recall. Let’s not panic and send our rifles to the enemy at the gate in D.C.

      • Read a little about the history of this problem. The “new” design was used because of problems with the “old” model. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102236497 It would appear that proper maintenance combined with safe firearm handling eliminates the problem completely. A clean, properly oiled trigger won’t malfunction. Don’t point a loaded weapon at your foot and you won’t lose any toes in the case of an accidental discharge. I’ve owned a Model 78 in .308 Win for about 25 years now and, like millions of other Remington owners, have never had a problem with it.

  32. Not happening , I have two Remington 700’s and two Savages , I have had the same issues with the Remington 700 as I have had with the Savages , NONE !!! It ain’t broke , don’t fix it !!!!

    • I got a letter in the mail on this. You got to send the whole back. I brought a 243 youth for my grandkids in February. I shot about 200 round through it and had no problems.

  34. After 9 months I finally got my Rem 700 ADL back after it was recalled last spring. Is the repair Remington did good or will I have to send it in again?

  36. All I can say is my Remmington 700, 30.06 took down a PA black bear 2 weeks ago. I’ve never had a problem with it.

  37. The classification of the old Remington trigger as faulty is just stupid. If you don’t follow basic instructions, it’s absolutely possible to adjust an R700 trigger so that it can AD when switching the safety off. If you can follow basic instructions, the measurements, function checks and safety margins you add before claiming that the job is done will eliminate the risk.

  38. I have 2 remington 700’s. Great guns and I dont plan on sending mine in to be fixed. Left the trigger at the factory setting and find it just right.

  39. A billion dollars? To rework some portion of 8 million firearms? No way. I suspect no more than half will ever be offered for retrofitting. If Remington is smart, they’ll offer a trigger pack that will probably cost them ten bucks to make that can be dropped in by the counter guy at the local Walmart.

  41. This article is wrong its only rifles from 2006 to 2014. I thought you would look at the facts being a truth of guns web site .not just listen to the liberal meda!

  42. I don’t own any Remington rifles, but I am quite surprised to learn that they have had trigger problems for so long. For those of you who have had no issues, I am happy, but the new bolt action rifle I’ve been wanting to get is not going to be a Remington. Looks like either Savage or Mossberg are going to get my $$$.

  43. Why lie about the recall? It isn’t ALL Model 700’s at ALL.

    From Remington’s own website:

    “PRODUCTS: Remington Arms Company, LLC (“Remington”) is voluntarily recalling Remington Model 700™ and Model Seven™ rifles with X-Mark Pro® (“XMP®”) triggers, manufactured from May 1, 2006 to April 9, 2014.”

    Quit lying, Farago.

    • Fact check! Remington has clarified that it’s a voluntary trigger replacement program (not a recall). The settlement covers more than a dozen models, specifically the Model 700, Seven, Sportsman 78, 673, 710, 715, 770, 600, 660, XP-100, 721, 722 and 725. The settlement is still waiting court approval.

      So it’s not only ALL model 700’s but ALL Remington rifles that have the original Model 700 trigger mechanism.

  46. Own 2 Remington 700s. 30-06 and 22-250. Never had an issue. Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot. I unload with the muzzle pointed at the ground, away from people and everything else. Never had an issue…

  47. For me I have a 1972 Rem 700 in 7mm Mag. No problems even took a 4×5 bull last season. I shot it about 30 rounds in the spring put it away and now the tfigger issue! Mine goes off closing the bolt and after cocking with the safety on push the safety off and off goes the trigger. Lucky for me found this out without having a round in the chamber.
    My problem is a big one, I own a couple dozen Rems in model 721, 722, 725 and 700. So far only one 700 has this issue but since it happened so out of the blue how can I trust this not to happen with my other Rems?
    Any suggestions?

  48. Never forget nov. 14 1982 zeroing in my 700 BDL before opening day of deer season. Looked down the scope got everything set looked up made sure everything was clear…Touch the safety and WHAM!!!! the gun go s off SO THANKFUL IT WAS POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION. To this day that safety makes me nervous Love the gun never knew rem. had an issue with the trigger , hopfully i can get it fixed. THANKS!!

  49. I bought my Remington 700 ADL (.270 cal) back in the late 1960s and have taken many deer with it with no problems. Then a dry spell when I did not shoot the rifle for about 15 years. Went to the range recently to re-live old times and shot five rounds without incident. When I closed the bolt on the sixth round it went off. All by itself. Imagine my surprise. Shot five more rounds and the sixth round again went off as the bolt was closed.
    Contacted Remington who said they were sending a box to mail the rifle to them. Now I am thinking do I really trust that company to put in a safe trigger? Am seriously thinking about having a local gunsmith install a Timney trigger at my expense. I believe I’ll feel much better about the fix if I do.

  50. Remington’s 788 went out that way too, Timney Triggers work so very well to fix that rifle why would anyone want a 700?
    Looks maybe but Hey not worth it.
    Remington never paid for those rifles troubles and owners were left hanging.
    The 788 in IMHO is much better than the 700’s.
    Timney Thanks for helping me out.

  51. Many shooters replace standard trigger with one of the aftermarket ones right after the purchase. There are a lot of good ones, the best are Timney and Jewell HVR Trigger.

  52. I LOVED MY 700 7mm08 Mountain rifle. Also my son bought a 700 in 270 caliber. Shot and dropped many whitetail deer in Pa. with both. My son passed away in an auto accident. After that I used his 270 for all my hunts.I shot caribou in Quebec,bear in Maine and as I said deer in Pa. I had the shock of my life when one opening day of buck season a large 8 pt. buck followed out of the swamp up into the hardwoods. I layed the gun on my log rest, put crosshairs on deer and squeezed trigger. No response. Thinking I forgot to chamber round I pulled back bolt and out came unfired round. Pushed bolt forward to chamber new round and to my astonishment the rifle fired. Ejected shell and put safe on. Chambered new round. As I pushed safe off round fired again. NEITHER time finger on trigger. If ANY of you think this is BS I invite you park your new truck in front of me at firing range while I go through these procedures again. Remington still insists the rile trigger mech. is not at fault. I swore by these rifles until I personally had it happen to me. Man up Remington that’s all I ask. I will pay for repair but be honest.

  55. I had my older 7mag model700 go off when I flipped the safety off 15 to 20 years agowhile I was walking behind a deputy sheriff I’m glad I was paying attention and had my muzzle pointedat the ground.ever since that day I don’t hunt with one in the chamber and I don’t relie on that dam safety.

  57. Bogus lawsuit. Millions of guns and 24 deaths? Food and water has a better reputation for killing people then that. Media has been after the model 700 for decades because if you want to attack gun ownership start with the top dog. The 700. Recall starts for triggers made from 2006 and the media attack over the trigger predates that by years. Bogus

  58. By the way. Just as a side note. Don’t you have to point a loaded gun a t someone in order to kill them

  59. I have owned a 700 ADL for over 20 years. I love the rifle, however a couple of years ago I began experiencing trigger problems in a major way. Several times over the years it seemed to fire on it’s own. I thought maybe it was me or gloved hands or something. Until it began firing as soon as the safety was off. This is very scary and could have easily killed someone. My gun is very old. I had the trigger replaced at my expense.
    I was told Remington has known about this problem for over 40 years.
    No BS. I love my 700 but I treat it like it has a mind of it’s own and don’t allow my son’s to use it anymore.

  60. I’ll be more than happy to replace the trigger on my early 1990’s model 700 7mag. The trigger pull is so firm it’s difficult to stay on target, unless you carry out a concentrated, slow-motion, time consuming squeeze. One evening my hunting partner and I counted to three to fire simultaneously at a group of hogs. I of course pulled the shot and put a whole through the leg of the feeder.

    • In contrast I almost killed my hunting buddy (son) with my 700 ADL 7mm mag. due to trigger firing upon putting the safety on.

      • Brian, When was your 700 cleaned (completely), oiled & lube; the trigger screws checked for looseness, sear engagement tolerances checked and what was the trigger set for poundage before your accident. I’m talking about complete disassembly, firearm degreased, re – oiled with a good gun oil, lube and safety checked. Oil dries , becomes sticky and gummy over a period of time. For some reason people use WD40 for a lubricant, WD stands for water displacement & really dries sticky. It also removes a little bluing. John

  61. With all the reports of the 700 going off with out pulling the trigger. I have not read how the firearms were maintain, cleaned, oiled or inspected etc. If States such as New York State didn’t have mandatory car inspections yearly how many cars would be safe to drive. People just do not maintain what they own until it doesn’t work properly. As a gunsmith I have seen plenty of neglected guns that are really not safe to shoot or will not fire because of neglect. The vast majority do not understand have no clue how a firearm works except, push on the safety and pull the trigger. Who is really to blame for some of theses terrible accidents, I say the one holding gun, period. If they followed safe gun handling practices, then all there would been a loud noise and change of underwear. Then there should have been a complete inspection and proper maintenance performed. But people do not accept blame, its always the other guy fault. I would like to hear from the ones that had the accidental discharge how the rifle was maintain. Did a competent person(not necessary a gunsmith) recently before the mishap made sure the firearm was in good working order. I bet there will be no responses. If the firearm was properly maintain then I believe these accidental discharges would not have happen nor no one would have been hurt with proper gun practices. Sorry for the long tirade, but you can’t cure stupidity and common sense is not so common.

  62. John,
    I would ordinarily agree with you, because as a responsible gun owner and avid hunter I am very diligent in maintaining my guns. However, I too am the original owner of a Model 700 in .270 caliber that will fire when the safety is taken off. I have an older model that does not allow the bolt to be manipulated unless the safety is taken off, which as you know, is necessary to unload those rifles without the bottom plate feature. I unfortunately discovered this defect several years ago during a deer hunt. During that situation I removed my rifle off-safe in order to take a shot. Thankfully, my rifle was pointing in a safe direction with no one around me because it went off as soon as the safety was manipulated. These issues DO EXIST! And I assure you, had I not personally experienced this event myself, I probably would find it hard to believe that the misfires were due to negligence.

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