CNBC's "Gunfight-Remington Under Fire"

DNS- I think this was a follow up to their 2010 piece. They were referring to the original investigation and reporting quite a bit.
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Sure enough. My bad. I am surprised I missed the airing. CNBC is one of the news outlets I follow, but I missed this.

Looks like they covered a lot of the same information and old footage, but some of the new stuff is interesting as well. The disclosure is very telling.
 
Rifles that are being recalled were manufactured from May 1, 2006 through April 9, 2014, according to Remington's website. What, then, is the status of older rifles re this recall? Do I need to contact them for permission to return my late 60s rifle?
 
Another question:

Are aftermarket triggers, like Timmney, that fit 700's safe? Or do they incorporate the connector in their design as well?

Rather than send in all my rifles, it might be easier and less trouble just to replace my 700 walker triggers with Timmney triggers.
 
That's another good point. ^^^ If they do allow older guns to be included in the recall, is it on their dime for postage?
 
Many years back I worked part time for a gunsmith until he passed away. A few years after that a neighbor brought a Remington M700 ADL over and asked me to check it out. Seems his cousin had one of those Remington trigger failures and asked if I could duplicate it and document it for their law suit. I said I'd try.
Well I tried for a couple of weeks off and on even going out into the desert to see if I could make the gun go bang using primed cases and a couple of live rounds. No go. My conclusion the trigger appeared OK Seems the guy went to unload the gun and it went off. I'm thinking he held the rifle at the pistol grip with his left hand and slipped the safety with the right hand. (Right handed gun and left handed shooter)
I have three Remington M700s, a BDL and two Classics. Triggers were professionally done by gunsmith and they have been trouble free.
If I were to change the trigger, I'd just buy Timney's and install them my self. They have none of the drawbacks of the Remington trigger.
Paul B.
 
A few weeks ago the judge overseeing the Remington 700 recall expressed to the parties involved his puzzlement over why, out of the "millions" of rifles involved, less than a thousand had actually been returned to Remington for a "fix". He told the parties involved to figure out more ways to get the word out about the recall.
 
It's my opinion that the Walker trigger, if not Bubba'd to lighten the pull, and kept clean, will not fire until the trigger is pulled.

If you futz with it to lighten the pull, or let it get gummed up with old oil and dirt, yeah, bad things can happen.
 
It is my opinion that any hunting rifle used for two weeks a year will last for centuries. If you have one get it fixed for the next 10 owners who won't know anything about CNBC, Walker or the defunct Remington Arms company.
 
Let’s take a look at some of the objections:

"It’s an anti-gun conspiracy / CNBC is biased."

Yes, CNBC is biased, and their story contains slanted perspectives and misleading information. What did you expect? However, just because the presentation is biased doesn’t necessarily mean that the core issue isn’t true.

"It must be caused by people fiddling with their trigger adjustments."

No doubt some of the problems are indeed due to improper adjustments. However there are lots of rifles that have adjustable triggers that don’t have anywhere near as many complaints. Something else is going on.

So let's take a look at what it is:

Here's the Remington 700 trigger cocked:

REMINGTONtriggernamed1.jpg


The Remington 700 trigger is a bit unusual in that it uses an extra piece, the trigger connector, to refine the trigger pull. The tiny red area is the engagement between the connector and the sear.

When the trigger is pulled, the connector goes forward and returns to this position, sweeping the area of the red triangle:

REMINGTONtriggernamed2.jpg

For this trigger to operate safely it is essential that when the rifle is cocked the trigger connector return 100% to the proper position, pushed there by only the light weight trigger spring.

Any tiny speck of dirt, rust, ice or other material that gets in between the connector and the shoe, or gets wedged between the connector and the trigger housing, will prevent the connector from engaging the sear properly. This can result in the safety keeping the sear from falling instead of the trigger connector. When the safety is released, the gun fires.

With all this in mind, let's take a look at a couple more objections:

“I’ve owned a Remington 700 for forty years and fired thousands of rounds and never had a problem.”

Good for you. This problem doesn’t happen very often, simply because it’s fairly difficult for stuff to work its way into the proper area of the trigger. But this is not a question of a few defective guns; it’s a design weakness that could affect any of the millions of guns with this trigger. If you haven’t had a problem, it’s because nothing has worked its way into your trigger.

Yet.

"This only happens on dirty or neglected guns."

This is more likely to happen on a dirty or neglected gun. However, a tiny speck of woodland detritus could make this happen on an otherwise pristine gun.

"No one would have been hurt if they followed The Rules of Gun Safety."

True enough. You should always treat your gun as though it could go off at any moment. That doesn't excuse making a rifle that actually does it.
 
"No one would have been hurt if they followed The Rules of Gun Safety."
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I'm not sure how many cases of people actually being injured there are on record. Several were presented in the video and I read about several others online. There were certainly some cases where very poor attention to safety played a role. There were others where handling was no worse than I have seen at local competitive shoots regularly. Ricochets, shooting through walls, injuries due to shooters being hit by the recoiling weapon/scope when it unexpectedly fires, etc. I won't believe for a second anyone who says they have never pointed a firearm at an object that could have caused a ricochet that, after passing through several walls could have hit another person. THe absurdity of that statement should be apparent to all. Very few of us walk around with a clearing station bucket affixed to the end of our rifle. Only a few less of us have never had the safety catch on brush, clothing, or other object in the field.

I never load the chamber until a shot presents itself.
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You are in a small minority. When I exit my vehicle I load/chamber a round. I don't unload until I prepare re-enter the vehicle. Every shot I have taken on deer has been at a range the sound of loading would have been heard by a deer.
 
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