Remington 700 Issues

[mfloski]

I have a relatively new (I bought it brand new at Walmart), prolly 14-6mo old, Rem 700 .243 basic SPS that I bought from Walmart. Before shooting it a single time, I replaced the trigger with a Timney trigger. I am no certified gunsmith, but installing one is NOT rocket science and this isn't my first go at them either. But, I have light strike issues with multiple different good quality ammo (Hornady, Nosler, etc)...the primer is struck, but not as hard as primers on a round that actually does fire. I have even reloaded the same round and after two or three times, it will finally fire. other times there is no issue and four or five rounds will fire fine.
Two questions:
what do you think might be the cause?
what course of action would you take to fix, i.e. some self smithing, send back to Remington, take to local gunsmith, etc?

 

[ShtrRdy]

I think the first thing I would do is call Timney and see if they have any suggestions.

 

[westcliffe01]

Buy a $30 "GO" head space gauge. The bolt should close on it. If you put a piece of paper on the back face ot the gauge, the bolt should no longer close. If the headspace is too great then the cartridge can move forward into the chamber when struck by the firing pin. That is how you get light strikes (assuming it is not a bolt internal problem.

The trigger only releases the bolt, it does not stop it. So light strikes have nothing to do with the trigger.

Your ammo could also be sized too short. I assume this is factory ammo, right ? If the headspace is good than buy a different brand ammo and try that. Or go to a good gunsmith and have him check the sized length on the factory ammo you have. He will know if it is in spec or not or if it is on the low end. Then after that he can take your bolt apart and check the protrusion of the firing pin.

If you want to send the rifle back to Remington, I hope you still have the factory trigger. You would have to put that back on.

It is always advisable to fire a factory rifle before you put any money into it since there might be something wrong with it.

 

[shortgrass]

You could try/do all the things that are mentioned above, or you could back the overtravel screw off just a bit and see if that does it.

 

[LoneTraveler]

Does the Extractor catch on the case and extract every time?? Check the extractor make sure it is jumping the rim. Take the bolt apart and check the firing pen and the inside of the bolt. There may be some rough burrs inside the bolt causing the firing pin to hang up. Also make sure the bolt is turned down completely. This can cause a major problem with a Remington action. Good Luck in finding the problem.

 

[FEENIX]

I'm no Remington 700 expert but it might need a longer sear on the trigger after the Timney trigger install.

Good luck!

ADDED: Check out >>> http://forum.snipershide.info/showthread.php?t=269772

 

[XringCG]

In all my dealings with working on guns I don't see a trigger causing light strikes it only releases the firing pin nothing else. The areas to look at are headspace like already mentioned, check firing pin protrusion out of bolt face, or you have a weak main spring.

 

[FEENIX]

In all my dealings with working on guns I don't see a trigger causing light strikes it only releases the firing pin nothing else. The areas to look at are headspace like already mentioned, check firing pin protrusion out of bolt face, or you have a weak main spring.

If you check the link I provided above, others have had experienced it.

 

[thekyrifleman]

Might want to take the bolt apart and see how much grease is mucking up the spring. Clean inside of bolt housing, spring assembly and try again to fire.

 

[Frostbite Slim]

My Timney trigger swap on my 700 SPS Tactical did the same thing, I swapped the XMP trigger back in, and the issue was resolved. Now I'm looking for three (non-modded) older 700 triggers for my newer 700's. The attached pic is with the Timney installed, I took a few for reference before swapping back.

 

[Punisher]

This could be a short trigger sear or bad headspace.

If the trigger wear is short, you won't have the proper length of travel on the firing pin, that spring should be more than sufficient to tolerate wear differences of a few thousandths.

Either way, we are going to get very technical, or you need a gunsmith. I have all of the tools to check this stuff, but you might just find a rifle smith.

I would put money on it being sloppy headspace.

Now that you have modified the gun, you might not get Rem to want to work on it.

 

[MR.SWIFT]

Have a friend of mine who's sps does this with his hand loads using rem 9 1/5 primers. Rifle is all stock, works just fine w/cci primers