M700 Trigger Malfunction

[Chopaka81]

Monday this week I had a accidental discharge with a M700. After chambering a round, the safety would not go on. So I opened the bolt, set the safety to Safe and then closed the bolt. After which I cycled the Safety from Safe to Fire and that is when the rifle discharged. Scaring the crap out of me, my partner, and the buck standing in front of us.
My hunting with that rifle ended right there. I refused to chamber another round.
The failure was very much like what was described in that infamous 60 Minutes Feature story about the dangers of Remington Triggers and unqualified gunsmiths doing trigger jobs on them - which is exactly what applied in my incident.
To say I am extremely upset with my gunsmith - goes without saying. Am I going to openly call him out here in public? No!
The scenario for this incident is as follows, the rifle was stored in my truck overnight, so it was very close to the outside ambient temperature of 35 deg F. I noticed that the trigger while it was cold was very sluggish almost as if is was contaminated with lubricant. As the temperature increased with the morning sun the trigger seemed to become "functional" again.
I tested the trigger pull and found the trigger pull to be very erratic, sometimes tripping at 3.0 lbs other times 1.5 lbs and once at 0.75 lbs. It was all over the place.
What in the world is going on with this trigger?
I am left handed and I am looking for a new trigger, looking at Timney or Shilen. This is a hunting rifle and I am not comfortable going below 3.0 lbs in pull weight.

 

[Gunpoor]

I have seen a Remington trigger FUBARed by a gunsmith (I use this term gunsmith very loosely in this case). I offered to adjust the trigger for him but he said the county required him to take it to a gunsmith only to do it. It was dangerous after this smith messed with it and he had to take it to another smith who replaced the trigger and adjusted it correctly. I have adjusted a half dozen or so Rem triggers and two of them, one a model 7 and the other a mod. 600, had to be readjusted later. These two triggers were on my own rifles and they sat for a month or so after adjustment and when they were dry fired later were found to be unstable and had to be set to a heavier trigger pull. I don't know what caused the two trigger to change while in storage but they did. I feel safer putting a Timney on them. The best after-market trigger I have ever installed was a Bold but they only make triggers for Mauser rifles.

 

[John-Pure Precision]

The exact same thing happened to me the other day! The smith that built the rifle and did the trigger job is highly known. I would think he knows how to work over a Remington trigger? From this day forward I will never have a stock Remington trigger worked over, I will always buy a Jewell or timney.

 

[shortgrass]

Just by the way they're manufactured (on a production basis) factory triggers are just too inconsistant to tune and still be safe.

 

[John-Pure Precision]

Just by the way they're manufactured (on a production basis) factory triggers are just too inconsistant to tune and still be safe.

If this is so then why do top producing gun smiths in the country still do this? There are probably better then 2/3 people on this site that have a worked over Remington trigger, ones who own them of course. You never hear this about old re worked savage triggers. We all know to use safe gun handling and should practice it, but come on this is a stupid problem to have to worry about. I love Remington but, having to spend an extra 150.00 to 250.00 extra on an action to make it safe then so be it. But for now on I might spend the extra money on a different brand, we will see

 

[Nimrodmar10]

If you don't know how to correctly tune a trigger, leave it alone.

 

[John-Pure Precision]

If you don't know how to correctly tune a trigger, leave it alone.

Once again if you send your rifle to a well known builder and they adjust it then you should still not trust it. The guy that built my rifle is well known on this site. Anybody would trust his work,My trigger did not fail until fired A LOT. I think you should not trust a Remington trigger AT ALL

 

[shortgrass]

All you have to do is disassemble a few and it becomes obvious that 'repeatability' in components isn't there. Without that repeatability, so called "tuning", is just tinkering and hoping it works. I haven't the time or inclination to tinker. I sure don't see hardly any builds by "top 'smiths" that wear a factory Remington trigger. Most wear a Jewell of Shilen, because of their repeatability.

 

[John-Pure Precision]

I'm agreeing with you about them not being repeatable... they are junk. You cant Tell me that there are not high end gunsmiths out there building rifles that have a "tuned" factory triggers. If you want to just argue that's fine, but I think your just going to go around in circles. Trust me when I say that the guy that put my rifle together is highly known on this site and in long range competitions and is not one to tinker.

 

[Nimrodmar10]

Never trust a Remington trigger??? Now you sound like the CBS Expose. There was never a problem with factory adjusted Remington triggers. There's millions Model 700 triggers out there that don't have a problem. The problem is with the guns that some dink that didn't know what he was doing messing with the triggers. That or some gun hater or sue-happy lawyer trying to get a quick pay day. The end result is that we've lost a really good production trigger and ended up with a monkey proof substitute.

 

[John-Pure Precision]

OK pal, we are not getting anywhere with this. I tend not to get to combative about arguments like this one. I have my opinions and you have yours. You might have the most experience with them or the least, I don't care. I will keep my thoughts were they are. Maybe you can teach dan lilja's smith's or charlie at score high gunsmith how to build a gun so there are no more trigger issues since they are such morons.

 

[Chopaka81]

Nimrod... I truly hope you never have one of those triggers malfunction in this way. It stirred things within my soul that I will never be able to ignore. This is one of the most frightening things I have encountered while handling a firearm. The trigger on my M700 is a piece of crap worthy of scorn. I will begin to replace every trigger on every M700 in my vault this will end up costing me nearly $800 because I do not trust them either. I won't sell the triggers as used parts, instead I will dispose of them with the trash.

I also think it says volumes that not a single gunsmith has responded to this thread. I was hoping for advise, but for guys in the profession I am thinking they just can't respond to this thread.

I have a installed a Timney Trigger on a M600 and a Vanguard, they are very nice. For this M700 I am going to give a Shilen trigger a try.

 

[John-Pure Precision]

I hear you don on getting spooked about them. I was more nervous with this trigger then on some patrols I conducted in Iraq! The reason why no gunsmiths are saying anything because they all have tried to lighten Remington triggers. Not to say there are gunsmiths that know a ton more then another and there are people who should not be tuning triggers. But it looks like no matter who touches them they WILL malfunction at some point.

 

[B4Dan]

Doesn't Remington say any mod. done to their weapon voids warranty, same as buying a new vehicle, can't tear into the engine, then take it back and say, it doesn't run like it should.lightbulb