remington 700 firing pin not holding!

[malcarjeb]

When you close the bolt the firing pin releases about 50% of the time. If you manage to get the firing pin to lock and put the safty on when you take the safty off it will fire the gun.

I have taken the trigger off the gun and the firing pin out of the bolt and checked everthing to make sure it was clean and no burrs on any parts and the only thing I found was the bolt side of the sear(not sure if sear is the right name, the part that releases and holds the firing pin in the ready position), that you can see with the bolt removed, the chrome is a little bubbled up and coming off right were the firing pin and sear engage each other.

Do you think that might be the problem? and if so whats the proper name so I can order one.

Thanks for any help.

[James Jones]

it sounds to me like you don't have enough sear-trigger engagement , your trigger take up screw may be adjusted to far in so that its not letting the sear stay seated on the trigger which is what holds the sear up into the correct position to keep the firingpin held back.

[redbone]

Malcarjeb

Have you been workong on the trigger ?

Redbone

[malcarjeb]

redbone

No, I have not worked on the trigger. It still had the glue on it from the factory until now. James Jones advise was right. I just went to my shop and got the glue off from the factory and backed out the screw on the back of the trigger and it is working great now. It was adjusted to far in from the factory.

James Jones
Thanks for the advise, it workes perfect now. This gun is a friends that i was just putting a scope on and sighting it in when i noticed the problem. I have never really messed much with a remington trigger before. Can you tell me what the other 2 screw adjust on the front of the trigger?

Thanks for the help

[oldfamily]

Remington Trigger Adjustments

[James Jones]

The other two screws are for trigger over travel and trigger weight (I can never remember which one is which)

Some guys try to get their trigger to light by adjusting it and not actualy smooting it up and changing the springs and this will cause a very dangerous situation like you mentiond , the pin will drop when the bolt is cycled or the safty will trip the trigger and then the safety in the only thing holding the sear up. I bought an old used German Weatherby MK-V in 340 Wby with the safety on the trigger. I fired the gun at the owners house one time and bought it , three weeks later in mid Auguast I had a scope put on it and ready for sighting in , I loaded the gun cycled the bolt and put the safety on , a couple min later I got into position and started my shot phase , the gun never went off and I relized that the safety was on , I sat up wiped the sweat out of my eyes and hit the safety to fire and the gun went off with only my thumb touching the thing , nine stiches in the thumb from the safety lever and a fractured wrist are what I have to show for it. The trouble was that a garage gunsmith had "worked" the trigger and took to much off the sear.
I have also seen gun go off in a truck from the safety being knocked off.

[specweldtom]

I've had 2 very early Rem 700's that old lubricant had hardened so much that the trigger was slow to reset under the sear when you released it, and one sort of related because the weight spring was backed out too far. I like the firing pin safeties, but they are just as bad about dropping the firing pin if you don't have enough sear engagement. One additional test that I do is to cock the rifle, put it on safe, and rap the butt straight down several times pretty hard on my work table, then snap it off safe and do it again several times. If it drops the pin at any point, I add engagement until it won't.

old family, thanks for the link.

James, it couldn't have been a .22 long rifle could it? Had to be a .340.

Stay safe, Tom