jmr40 said:
Lotta truth there. The engineer who designed the gun sent memo to management in 1946 advising of what he called a "dangerous" design flaw. He even went as far as drawing up plans for a new trigger, but his plan was rejected because it would cost 5 cents more per rifle.
You are confusing memos, or blatantly disregarding the actual contents (which I have pointed out to you several times) because it doesn't fit your agenda.
The 1946 memo
(you can read it here) was regarding "A theoretical unsafe condition". The last line is the important bit:
Mike Walker said:
this change will be incorporated in the drawing as soon as tool procurement is completed
In other words, he found a potential problem, and fixed it.
There was a 1948 memo (
which you can read here) from Walker where he advocates adding a trigger block to the safety, and what that would involve, in the manufacturing process:
They also say that the cost would be 5 1/2 cents per gun, which is certainly minimal, but once again, unit cost and the cost of making the change are not the same thing. They do not mention tooling and setup costs, and depending on where they were in the design/manufacturing process, this could be a substantial setup cost.
I agree that a trigger block is a good thing to have on a safety, but that does not mean that a safety without a trigger block is unsafe. There are lots of rifles without a trigger block safety out there, for example the Mauser 98 and 1903 Springfield actions.
There was an actual recognized problem with early Remington 700 Triggers that Remington will fix (If I remember correctly), involving rifles that could be "tricked" into firing by putting the safety lever placed in between "safe" and "fire" positions (i.e, not actually on safe), the trigger is then pulled in this condition and the rifle goes off when the safety lever is moved to the "fire".
This isn't a huge problem on it's own, but compounded with the stupid pre 1982 700 trigger that locked the bolt closed when the safety is on it could become one. You had to take the safety off to unload the rifle. An estimated 1% of the rifles sold before 1982 could have this problem.
This was also fixed 30 years ago.
Read these threads:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=516968
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=498729
We will just say jmr40 and I disagree on pretty much everything on this subject. Not going to bring it up here, it was covered extensively in those 2 threads, and probably a couple others.
I am not saying there isn't a problem, I am just saying that the evidence provided as "proof" is suspect at best, and downright misleading in some cases.
A properly adjusted post 1982 Walker trigger is an excellent trigger and perfectly safe, but that does not mean you are exempt form basic safe gun handling. Yes, some people died at the hands of idiots using a Walker trigger equipped Remington 700, but EVERY one of them would be alive today had the owners followed Rule #2.
Jeff Cooper said:
RULE 1
ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
The only exception to this occurs when one has a weapon in his hands and he has personally unloaded it for checking. As soon as he puts it down, Rule 1 applies again.
RULE 2
NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO DESTROY
You may not wish to destroy it, but you must be clear in your mind that you are quite ready to if you let that muzzle cover the target. To allow a firearm to point at another human being is a deadly threat, and should always be treated as such.
RULE 3
KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER TIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET
This we call the Golden Rule because its violation is responsible for about 80 percent of the firearms disasters we read about.
RULE 4
BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET
You never shoot at anything until you have positively identified it. You never fire at a shadow, or a sound, or a suspected presence. You shoot only when you know absolutely what you are shooting at and what is beyond it.