POS Remington rant

cam1936

cam1936

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This is sure to draw some attention. So the story goes as follows. I bought a brand new Remington 700 SPS in .243 this summer as a coyote/backup deer/ girlfriend deer gun. I have not done any sort of tinkering or mods to the rifle. I shot it at the range a bunch and worked up two different loads. One thing I don't do at the range is use the safety. This is because my gun is always unloaded with the bolt open until on target and ready to fire. Well I opened up my safe last night and reached for my old standby, but stopped and said to myself "why don't you give the .243 its first day in the field" so I took it out for a deer hunt today.

This is where is gets interesting. I'm sitting in a fold and see a doe in front of me, I raise my rifle and go to pop off the safety and BANG. Gun fires into the ground about half way between me and the doe. I think to myself WTF you didn't have your finger on the trigger. I meet back up with my hunting partners and they ask what I hit. I said something is weird with my gun. I chamber another round and flick on the safety, with the gun pointed in a safe direction I flick it off with my finger nowhere near the trigger and BOOM. Gun goes off. I played around with dry firing and about 4 out of 5 times when I flick off the safety the gun fires. This on a rifle that is bone stock with no trigger mods.

Now what if I had not seen the doe and flicked my safety off while unloading back at the truck. I'm always careful about where I aim but it would have scared the #### out of everyone at the very least. VERY dangerous to have a new factory gun that fires when you turn the safety off.

I'll contact Remington about this on Monday, I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.
 
They just had a tv show on this very problem as a small desine flaw in the trigger that they have know about for years but said it would cost to much to fix origionally. However my friend had one that did this and had it fixed. Still great guns even though they too have flaws. I think they fixed my buddies for free but not sure as it was an older gun, yours should be fixed for free. Only down side is unless you have a dealer that is really good and helps out you are in for a lengthy turn around from Remington.
 
According to the CNBC report they have known about the problem since 1946... Model 721, 722, 700 & 600 all have the same trigger group. Apparently effects about 50,000 rifles, if I remember right.... I currently own 2 that do not have this problem. Right, wrong or indifferent, there have been some large law suits over this problem... Like everyone knows; proper handling of a gun can prevent death or injury.... to a DEER!
 
"Remington. Now deer friendly!" I think it still has the fastest lock time for a factory rifle... Although yours might beat mine.........
 
Not a big Remmy fan, but I just had to have this Mountain Rifle LSS in 7-08. So, after hearing about this issue on the TV show, I went out in the backyard (cause I can) and beat the crap out of this Remmy and couldn't duplicate the problem. Did all the stuff on the TV show and could not get that thing to fire unless I pulled the trigger. That's just my take on it, not saying a problem is not at hand.
 
I think the problem has a lot more to to do with quality control. If inspection was up to snuff I don't think you would hear of this problem with the design.... Remington (IMO) can build some really good rifles & a few real dogs on the same production line. The only thing that really stood out to me was the fact that Remy has went with a new trigger group as well as the old one in their new rifles. Not unlike Savage or Ruger, but I haven't really heard them state the advantage...... Not a huge Remington fan either, but I can't say I don't like the good ones.
 
I had already made up my mind that never buy any model from Remington. Now I might need to check my hunting partners, if they are going to bring Remington on a hunting trip, I would either persuade them to change or myself to stay at home instead.

I will only buy Europe made Mauser.
 
Im kind of sick of people talking up the 700 and all of its great qualities when it is an average factory rifle at best. It gained a good reputation in the 1970s and 1980s when other companys were offering garbage models of rifles and the 700 was better than garbage offerd by other american manfactures. And for the price of the better 700s add a cupple hunered more and buy a sako.
 
tikka#1 said:
Im kind of sick of people talking up the 700 and all of its great qualities when it is an average factory rifle at best. It gained a good reputation in the 1970s and 1980s when other companys were offering garbage models of rifles and the 700 was better than garbage offerd by other american manfactures. And for the price of the better 700s add a cupple hunered more and buy a sako.
Click to expand...


You can't be serious! Other companies made junk rifles? Impossible. CNBC would have run a one hour special exposing these criminals!!
 
tikka#1 said:
Im kind of sick of people talking up the 700 and all of its great qualities when it is an average factory rifle at best. It gained a good reputation in the 1970s and 1980s when other companys were offering garbage models of rifles and the 700 was better than garbage offerd by other american manfactures. And for the price of the better 700s add a cupple hunered more and buy a sako.
Click to expand...

Your username says it all.:confused:
 
I've owned several 700's and none ever had this issue. I usually adjust all my own triggers for pull weight and after I'm finished I #### it, put it on safe and pound the hell out of the butt on the ground, then try the safety and trigger. Again, none ever went click.
 
Let's see.....
The OP's rifle worked fine for load development at the range, and was shot quite a bit without incident.
It then developed a problem.
Resulting in a 'net rant.
No suggestion of WHY it started to malfunction.
The WHY would be interesting and useful information.
I have owned and worked on a lot of 700s, and have never observed this phenomenon.
I have seen trigger mechanisms buggered by bubba, but reportedly that is not the case here.
 
i know 700 is not the best, but I believe they have been around long enough to have fixed this.
You might just have got a lemon, just get it warrantied.
SxxT happens to anything sometimes.
 
A few things struck me about that CNBC program.

Using the Toyota gas pedal fiasco as a template that is going on right now. Or the Ford Pinto gas tank, since both companys seemed to know of the problem and did not do anything until there was gov't intervention.

1-Remmington knows about the issue and has known since 1948.

2-The US government can force a recall on any consumer product, except firearms. It is ONLY up to corporate self governance to decide weather or not a product is safe or not. And of course corporations NEVER put profits first. Can we let the automotive industy set their own safety standards and not worry about The Department of Transport Standards. We would all still be driving GM Corvairs, Pinto bombs and Toyota unintended go fasts.

3-Even if Remmington recalled the rifles they have no way to contact the owners of the firearms. I know we all hate the gun registry and I could never find a use for it but actually in this case it would finally serve a propose. The owners of specific firarms could be notified that their gun had a problem and the company was being mandated to fix it. Don't get me wrong though, we still need to get rid of the registry like it is right now.
 
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