I found a documentary in Netflix by CNBC called “Remington Under Fire” about accidents & deaths caused by a defect that could show up in the “pre X-mark trigger” Remington 700 rifles. There is also an abbreviated version of the documentary on the CNBC website if you don’t have Netflix. Apparently a very small number of rifles would fire when the safety was moved from Safe to Fire, which also unlocked the bolt in this design. Apparently the original designer discovered this problem a year after the 700 was put into production and came up with a fix that Remington rejected because it added 5 cents to the cost of the rifle. The documentary deals mostly with the cover-up at Remington but they have a few videos from Police & Border Patrol snipers at a range showing these rifles going off by just throwing the safety lever from safe to the fire position without a finger near the trigger. They also claim that releasing the new X-mark trigger was Remington’s solution to this faulty design without admitting liability or that there was any problem in the first place.
I had no idea this was ever a problem but apparently its fairly well documented, anyone here have this happen to them or ever hear of it happening? Most of us use after-market triggers but some still prefer a worked-over “old style” 700 triggers and I wonder if they are aware that this issue could pop up on day? It was an interesting film, they interviewed the 700 inventor (now a Remington hall of fame member) and talk about this rifles history, popularity, and prevalence just because of its accuracy which was attributed to the crisp break of its “revolutionary new trigger design” when it was first released.
It may be very rare given the sheer numbers of 700's in service throughout the world, and pointing your muzzle in a safe direction any time you flip off the safety to fire or unload the weapon is pretty damn basic gun safety that everyone should know, I have to say I am glad I have aftermarket triggers on both my 700's.
I had no idea this was ever a problem but apparently its fairly well documented, anyone here have this happen to them or ever hear of it happening? Most of us use after-market triggers but some still prefer a worked-over “old style” 700 triggers and I wonder if they are aware that this issue could pop up on day? It was an interesting film, they interviewed the 700 inventor (now a Remington hall of fame member) and talk about this rifles history, popularity, and prevalence just because of its accuracy which was attributed to the crisp break of its “revolutionary new trigger design” when it was first released.
It may be very rare given the sheer numbers of 700's in service throughout the world, and pointing your muzzle in a safe direction any time you flip off the safety to fire or unload the weapon is pretty damn basic gun safety that everyone should know, I have to say I am glad I have aftermarket triggers on both my 700's.
