Remington 700 Fired With no Trigger Pull

Your right, the was a recall on these rifles; the gun would fire when the safety was released. A number of people were killed.

There was even a documentary on this on TV a couple of years ago.

I don't believe it was ' a number ' other than one... one who had the rifle pointed at him when another person was mishandling the rifle. Lawyers and media played that all to hell and back. It was interesting that none of them could duplicate what was said happened.
 
There is a possibility, maybe even a probability, that the safety and/or sear is worn or was out of spec from the outset. This is easily diagnosed and can be repaired.
 
Failure to clean your trigger every few years can easily lead to exactly what happened to you...

Flooding the trigger group first with lacquer thinner, then var-sol or lighter fluid and blowing it out with pressurized air each time can be done at home... but the $35 spent at your gunsmith is well spent.


This X2

The Walker trigger is a very good one if it's properly maintained. With great care, it can be safely adjusted to consistent and very low glass smooth let offs.

Slathering the trigger group mechanism with oil is not recommended. Oil is a magnet for dust and grit as well as lint. As this crud builds up chances of a premature let off increases exponentially.

I fully understand how bad factory trigger settings are. The thing is, they are only capable of being adjusted to around 2 pounds safely, as they come from the factory. With a bit of judicious stoning they can be taken a bit lower but even then care is needed.

I had a fellow bring me a 700 with a trigger that had been adjusted so light that it would discharge if the butt was set down to sharply. This applies to other firearms as well.
 
99% of time somebody has screwed with over travel, if you take too much Trigger weight
off the bolt will not #### on closing
 
The way it discharged is part of the checks in proofing the trigger safe...clean it up and retest it.

You might want to read this....http://quarterbore.com/library/articles/rem700trigger.html

When I got home I checked it for recalls, when I did that I cycled it and tried it about 50 times, no fail at all in that 50 times, hard to test it when you cannot cause the case to repeat.

Does engaging the safety lock the bolt handle down? It it does it was recalled. Remington recalled every rifle where the safety locked the bolt down.

Yes it has the lock down, this was not a recall. You could pay to have it shipped to Remington and back from them. You then paid them $20 for them to do the work to remove that feature, this did not replace the trigger, only let you unload so that you had the trigger failure on an empty chamber.

99% of time somebody has screwed with over travel, if you take too much Trigger weight
off the bolt will not #### on closing

Hard to do that when the adjustment screws still have the factory glue covering them up, this is what I checked for the first time I had the gun out of the stock.
 
When the safety is on does it lock the bolt down?
That was the question.
Your reply . . . Yes it has the lock down.
Then it was recalled. Maybe not on the current list but mine was purchased in the early 90's and following the recall I sent it back.

Your gunsmith should be able to advise otherwise deal directly with Remington.

I have two Remington 700 "guntech" adjusted triggers in my locker.
 
Fox, are you sure that's factory epoxy over those screws? Many smiths, will cover the adjustment screws with epoxy, after they've done work on them. I believe Remington smiths did the same with all of the triggers that were returned to them for the big fix. IMHO, I wouldn't use the presence of epoxy to make the decision the trigger wasn't adjusted.

You make it sound like your dollars are very tight and paying to get the work done to alleviate the issues with that trigger will be a hardship.

It isn't a difficult operation to do it yourself.

Go onto Google and do a search on how to adjust that trigger properly. You will find a couple of results from Youtube that will visually walk you through the steps. Use the proper sized screw drivers so the slots don't get damaged and increase the overtravel and maybe the let off pressure.
 
Fox, are you sure that's factory epoxy over those screws? Many smiths, will cover the adjustment screws with epoxy, after they've done work on them. I believe Remington smiths did the same with all of the triggers that were returned to them for the big fix. IMHO, I wouldn't use the presence of epoxy to make the decision the trigger wasn't adjusted.

You make it sound like your dollars are very tight and paying to get the work done to alleviate the issues with that trigger will be a hardship.

It isn't a difficult operation to do it yourself.

Go onto Google and do a search on how to adjust that trigger properly. You will find a couple of results from Youtube that will visually walk you through the steps. Use the proper sized screw drivers so the slots don't get damaged and increase the overtravel and maybe the let off pressure.

There would be more cost in the tools than what the guy wants to charge to pull it all apart, ha ha.

The cost issue was with buying a Timney or TT trigger, I was leaning to the TT trigger and my wife said that was fine but it would mean that the rifle would be shelved for a bit as it is not a summer priority at the moment.

True that it could be someone else's glue, I doubt a bubba would be gluing over that, so I guess I meant that it did not seem like it was home adjusted.

The fact that I can not get it to happen very often, like 2 out of 100 tries, means that it has some stuff in there sticking it, I am hoping to get it to the smith next Friday when I am off and will give an update when it is done. Worst case I put it away until I can get an aftermarket trigger group.

Horseman2, here is the link to the safety modification, this does not seem like a recall, you are shipping it and paying for it to be repaired, I can do that locally. I am glad you have a smith that adjusted things for you, we have a very well known one locally too, Jason Spencer.

https://www.remington.com/support/safety-center/safety-modification-program
 
Mine was shipped to Remington in the early 90's.
I paid the shipping but was reimbursed by Remington in USD.
They called me to advise the stock was broken . . . It appeared to have been stomped.
Mine had been bedded. Everything was returned on their dime. They commented on the trigger had been adjusted.
The "Lawyer Legal" repair was quickly modified by a smith upon return. It shot under an inch at 100 yards before and again upon return.

Good luck and don't believe it will never happen again if it happened once before.
 
Good luck and don't believe it will never happen again if it happened once before.

This is what I am trying to avoid

With the right load a 5 shot group at 100 yards can be covered by a dime, it is the ultimate tack driver, just needs to be safe and an aftermarket trigger may be in the cards anyway, when I can afford it.
 
Once again; the safety is not lifting the sear off the sear connector. You can adjust until the cows come home (cows not having much to do with trigger function anyway) and you will still have the same problem. Although, if one introduces enough sear engagement into the mix, it may fix the problem (sort of) but the trigger will suck. An aftermarket trigger will most likely fix it; so will repairing your existing trigger.
 
Once again; the safety is not lifting the sear off the sear connector. You can adjust until the cows come home (cows not having much to do with trigger function anyway) and you will still have the same problem. Although, if one introduces enough sear engagement into the mix, it may fix the problem (sort of) but the trigger will suck. An aftermarket trigger will most likely fix it; so will repairing your existing trigger.

First off how do you know that this is happening as you day? You have not seen the rifle, I did not even bother taking it apart at this time.

I also find it hard to believe that there is a broken part as I cannot cause this to happen when I want it to. I had it happen 2/3 on the first 3 tries, one of which is when it went off. The next 100 or do times it did do it.

I will be taking it to the gunsmith, not going to be messing with it myself.
 
Never gummed up on me, was a heck of a lot better on the bolt in super cold conditions than anything else.

Going to get it all cleaned up and go from there.
Are you sure it didn’t gum up your trigger. If you spray solids in your trigger they hafta collect somewhere. Mine was the remlube it sprays on white and collects as a black buildup
 
Are you sure it didn’t gum up your trigger. If you spray solids in your trigger they hafta collect somewhere. Mine was the remlube it sprays on white and collects as a black buildup

Never a problem with any gun outside of this one. Used it on semis, pumps, bolts, single shots, lever guns.

It does not get slow like oil does in cold temps and has never seemed to attract dirt like oil does.

This is not Remlube, I dislike that stuff too.
 
There is actually no recall on it though.

I checked now, nothing there, I will contact Remington to see what they have potentially from back in the day but it looks like no recall.

You may want to re-check that.

I did a simple query on MSN and got a page full of hits on a recall.

Mind you, they say it's for the trigger rather than the safety; same difference though.
 
First off how do you know that this is happening as you day? You have not seen the rifle, I did not even bother taking it apart at this time.

I also find it hard to believe that there is a broken part as I cannot cause this to happen when I want it to. I had it happen 2/3 on the first 3 tries, one of which is when it went off. The next 100 or do times it did do it.

I will be taking it to the gunsmith, not going to be messing with it myself.


Fox, both Leeper and Guntech know their stuff. They've both seen and repaired thousands of firearms of all sorts during their careers.

Mr Leeper is telling you, from lots of experience, what is likely the issue with your trigger. It's also documented as the reason for the unpredictable let offs by Remington themselves. They knew of the problem from the time they first started using the trigger. Usually just keeping it clean kept it safe.

Both of these gentlemen are very good gunsmiths, with good reputations.

I think your intent to take the rifle to a smith for the fix is a good idea.
 
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