A read from USA Today.

Remington Model 700

Properly used and maintained 700s have never experienced a problem.
I hate it when dirt and rust in the mechanism of any gun is blamed on the manufacturer. I own four Remington guns - among them one 700 and in all the years I have been using it I have never had any kind of failure with it. It is the most accurate rifle I own.
Who in their right mind would have a rifle pointed at someone while unloading it?
It used to be that people took responsibility for their own actions. Now it is popular to blame it on someone else and sue for compensation.
Makes me wonder.....

Same here, I have 2 model 700's in 270 and 30/06 and have never had any problem at all. Maybe its because we take care of our guns and keep them clean. But reading today's paper at work and seeing this splattered on the front page is really going to stir up the dollar signs in some of these peoples mind after the show tonight.

And like you said PaulS, you don't have the rifle pointed at anyone or anything while unloading and loading it.

Let see, between me and the wife we have 5 M700's. A Lefty .243, Lefty .270, Righty .243 and a Righty .30-06. Mine are the lefty's, hers the righty's. Oh and I also have a M700ML muzzleloader.

Never an issue with any of them.


-DallanC

Here's the link if you have computer or iptv.

Remington M700

This has been an issue for a long time and I looked into it when I first got my Rem 700 10 years ago. Primary concern is the older models can not be unloaded with the safety on because it locked the bolt. I thought this was corrected in the newer models and the issue resolved. This is just a way to dig up old dirt and PaulS is right, who would point a gun in an unsafe direction when unloading.

5 million guns sold, untold numbers of rounds fired since 1962, 1948 if you include its predecessors. While any loss of life is terrible "At least two dozen deaths and more than 100 injuries" doesn't seem like that bad a safety record. And obviously if safe gun handling had been practiced there shouldn't have been any injuries at all.

Watch this:

[url="http://www.nranews.com/#/nranews/VideoModule/VP Of Remington Defense Responds to CNBC Report Schauble.xml]Remingtons Response"[/url]

-DallanC

This is a very old issue and Remington has attempted to deal with the problem. The rifle involved in the shooting of the young lad was 12 years old and had been sold several times and someone attempted to adjust the trigger pull weight. Removing the bolt lock resulted in a bolt that does not lock when the safety is placed in the on position. Remington could have installed a three position safety like Winchester uses on their Model 70 and solved the problem. Remington did not so I went to Winchesters and never looked back. All the best...
Gil

Well those of you sitting in your chair and saying there is not a problem with any of the rifles have their heads in the sand . It's called denial !!
You just follow the safe rules of any gun , but take it from some one who had an unaltered cleaned regularly Reminton rifle,while loading a bind Mag with bullets .( No drop out Mag)
I closed the bolt and the gun went off . Well I thought it might have been the gloves I wore ( Hitting the trigger ) , but when this happened another year , and knew it was a bit more to this than "Human Error" It was sent to Remington , who repaired it with out a word, and to no expense to me .
Well I always practice safe muzzle control , but things do happen , and you can never call back a bullet as it is leaving the barrel .
And you know something , I used this gun at the range too firing maybe 200 rounds during the off season between the hunts . And never was there any issues with the rifle . So it was just going to happen when it finally did .
Yes Remington knew about the issue and never questioned a rifle brought in to them for repair , so there is probably yet a few model 700 as well as 600 and 660 rifles out there that could discharge .
All I ask anyone is have that remington checked out by a good smith or change it out for one of the newer units and just be done with it .
For those who insist there rifles never had a problem , well maybe they were corrected , but suppose maybe some day some one in your family takes a hit . then will you do something about your older Remington ??

It's been a known problem with the older guns for quite some time. Remington originally designed the safety to lock the bolt when in the "Safe" position. In order to cycle it the safety had to be in the "Fire" position. This led to a series of accidental discharges when the sear would slip as the bolt was closed. Not a real common problem but still a concern. The problem really seems to have come from basically too light of sear engagement, either from over-adjusting the trigger return spring (too light made them not be pushed forward enough to engage the sear properly) or users deliberately adjusting the sear adjustment screw too light in an attempt to lighten the triggers more than reasonable. Either problem is more user error than anything, but the fact of not being able to engage the safety when cycling the bolt merely makes the the case of a malfunction more dangerous.

This type of over-adjustment can even cause the rifle to discharge when the safety is pushed to the "Fire" position and can happen regardless of the safety style or age of the rifle...but this is true of any rifle. If anyone has one of these rifles that they suspect might have been "gunsmithed" to death, they might want it checked over and maybe replace the trigger with a Timney or other after-market trigger.

Bottom line is that any firearm needs to be pointed in a safe direction when handling it just in case something fails. Mechanical devices do fail with monotonous regularity. It is seldom a case of "if it fails" but more a matter of "when it fails".

What about the remingtons that go off with out having any thing done to the sear ?
Yep they go off too .
Funny thing is after Remington has a said unit in for a trigger repair , there is no longer an issue with the trigger . I had mine modifyed by a smith AFTER THE REPAIR .You could slam the bolt shut , tap the butt hard on the ground or floor, work the safety on and off and what ever but the gun would stay cocked . I tryed just about every thing to get that remington to go off before trusting it again on a hunt .
Remington has over many decades pounded the public that It is the rifle owner who is at fault with a modifyed trigger .
So all the defective guns are the ones that somehow were modifyed ? Yeah right !
In fifty years of using firearms I only started having the triggers modifyed in the last fifteen years . Before that , they were as issued
Never had this happen with any other brand , be it Winchester , Ruger ,Savage and even a worn out Enflield
Should one of your family get hurt , you would then see it differently!
Bottom Line .
Remington can't spend the $$$ on a recall , so lets twist the thing arround .

I can honestly say that I have never had a problem with the 2 M700's that I now owned for 35 years.

Maqwa: if you had a problem, did you contact Remington?
If not, then please state why as I think this Remington 700 stuff is getting all blown out proportion by the media (surprised).

And one more thing:

Quote: While I'm not sure Remington's hands are completely clean here, I think the real target is the exemption of firearms from federal regulation. The more the left can sensationalize that fact, the more pressure congress will be under to change it, allowing the anti's more avenues to tie up firearms manufacturer's profits in ridiculous law suits.. (i.e. Johnny loaded the gun and shot at spot, and sure enough, the dog died! SO firearms must be able to determine the age of the person using it!!!!

There's no doubt in my mind that Remington should have listened to Mike Walker more than they did !!!

I watched the CNBC's hour long report and can't help but feel as if they pushed their ideological stance a bit to far. I also viewed the link on the NRA site that has Remington's VP telling their side of the story. It was to no surprise to hear they were never contacted by military or police in regards to supposed issues.

In the CNBC show they stated thousands of complaints but no numbers on how many guns were sent back to be fixed under warranty. Of those thousands how many were altered by their owner ?
Out of all the complaints only 75 lawsuits were filed. Of the lawsuits they only referenced a few as settlements. What happened with the others ?
With over 5 million guns sold it's hard to believe that the problem is as bad as they claim it to be if only a hand full of cases were ever settled.

I feel great sympathy for the families that were represented in the story and whose lives were changed forever but can't help to wonder what the hell they were thinking.
A horse trailer isn't something that stops a bullet, you don't unload your rifle in the house after hunting, if your gonna point it to the ground.......make sure your foot is out of the way.
Muzzle, Muzzle, Muzzle !!! Keep it in a safe direction !!!


Once again.....I feel Remington needs to take a shared blame in this but the responsibility of safety falls upon us !!!
As we venture to the woods this hunting season let us use these tragic stories as a reminder as to why we need to be diligent and not become complacent with our safety values.