Model 700 Remington's

Birdman2

Well-known member
WARNING....I have a model 700, 243 Remington. Today the gun went off when I was taking the safety off. I did NOT pull the trigger. Remington had recall on this issue. Now they are out of business. Take your 700's to your gunsmith and have your triggers replaced guys....VERY DANGEROUS !!! I am still shook up as you can imagine..
 
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I've got one that is a 7mm-08. Its about 15 years old. Are only specific manufacturing years in the recall? That is a scary situation.
 
They do have dates I believe. I have 2 that will have triggers replacement very soon. Guys very very important....After this happened I wouldn't take any chances on the stock triggers...
 
Here is the specific recall dates and triggers that are affected. Mine is from 2005, one year before the dates listed.

The recall includes all Remington Model 700 and Model Seven rifles manufactured from May 1, 2006 to April 9, 2014 with the X-Mark Pro (“XMP”) trigger. Remington’s own Product Safety Warning and Recall Notice states that Model 700 rifles with XMP triggers “could, under circumstances, unintentionally discharge.
 
WARNING....I have model 700, 243 Remington. Today the gun went off when I was taking the safety off. I did NOT pull the trigger. Remington had recall on this issue. Now they are out of business. Take your 700's to your gunsmith and have your triggers replaced guys....VERY DANGEROUS !!! I am still shook up as you can imagine..
Dam, didn't they get sued over that? some folks shot, maybe killed?
 
One of mine is older than that, but ordered a new trigger for it also. Triggers are cheap compared to what may happen..
 
I followed this story over 20 years ago when Remington was getting sued. I have plenty 700s, never a sniff of trouble, there are over a million of these out there. I know there were several cases that created a class-action law suit, when someone got hurt or killed by a 700, did they ever recreate the firing without the trigger getting pulled with the gun on a bench without any sticks, branches, dogs, fat fingered gloves, etc poking around? If that factory trigger has never been tampered with (adjusted by the owner or anyone else), I feel there would the same danger with these firearms as any other firearm presents. Anything mechanical could fail, due to wear, defective components or debris, that is why you never have the muzzle pointing at anything it shouldn't be, loaded or unloaded, safety on or off. Yes, guns, all of them, can be dangerous. Keeping fingers and everything else out of the trigger guard until you are ready to shoot solves most issues. I have no issues with these, I would even take that one off your hands (with the original trigger) if you can't get comfortable with it Birdman and I would be confident it would never happen again. I am not getting in front of the muzzle, as with another gun out there. It sucks, but you had about the same chance to winning the lottery as getting a unmolested 700 to fire without anything inside the trigger guard. Hope the new trigger solves any issues you have with it. Go Timney, just don't get the 2 oz ones, you will be swearing that one when off without touching it! With those you want to be on the bullseye when you start thinking about putting you finger inside the trigger guard, if you aren't real familiar with it (maybe even if you are). Save those and anything under 2 pounds for the shooting bench.

Aside from my rant above, I just don't think there is much cause for everyone to order-up $200 aftermarket triggers for every 700 they own.
 
I am not getting in front of the muzzle, as with another gun out there. It sucks, but you had about the same chance to winning the lottery as getting a unmolested 700 to fire without anything inside the trigger guard.
I am not sure if you saw his original post, but the rifle fired while he took the safety off. Nothing was near the trigger. You don't have to be standing in front of a model 700 when it accidentally goes off to be worried about that sort of thing, especially when it happened to him. That would scare the bejesus out of me. Even if it doesn't actually shoot someone, maybe it put a hole through is truck or the wall in his house. That alone would be enough for me to seriously consider a change. Sometimes it actually has to happen to you for you to realize that it CAN happen. I own a model 700 myself and I've never had a problem with accidental fire, but his post got my attention enough to think about it and look into it a little further. I don't blame him for being "shook up" over it. Everything is fine and dandy, until it isn't.
 
Amen. I did research after this happened. There are 1,300,000 out there with only 1 in 4 being worked on. There were about 100 lawsuits from injuries and or deaths. I know it happened to me this morning and it did scare the hell out of me. I just wanted to inform members here what CAN happen. Remy good luck with yours. I ordered the Timney standard trigger with a 3 lb. pull on the advise of my gunsmith. He has replaced a bunch of triggers on these.
 
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Same happened to me with a 700 (243) back in the 80's (way before the recall). Getting ready to shoot a whitetail and it went off as soon as the safety was moved. Returned it to the place of purchase. The store owner didn't believe me until he was able to replicate it (unloaded).
 
Same happened to me with a 700 (243) back in the 80's (way before the recall). Getting ready to shoot a whitetail and it went off as soon as the safety was moved. Returned it to the place of purchase. The store owner didn't believe me until he was able to replicate it (unloaded).
Ryedog, Thanks for info. So triggers were doing this BEFORE the recall. Interesting...
 
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In these incidents (2 in this group, seems to be an insane amount), were you both the original owners and had the triggers had any work, any kind of adjustment to them? I have around 10 in the vaults and have shot thousands of rounds through some of them... none in traditional "hunting situations" where there a could be weed stem, branch, twig, gloved finger or something else in the trigger guard that the shooter would not be aware of. Almost 100% of my centerfire rifle shooting is from a bench at prairie dogs, pretty safe bet on a table top, nothing but a finger is getting inside the trigger guard. It was the same trigger they used for 50 years or more, there would not be any recall/law suit if they weren't already having claims of issues. Gunsmiths/gunowners replace tons of factory rifle triggers in about every make of rifle made, don't assume it was due to being defective or folks thinking they maybe defective. Put those factory triggers for sale on a shooting site after replacing them, if they are as dangerous as you read about them, those fellas would not buy them, but they are still desirable.

I just goggled this issue, I thought there was just an "issue" with the original "Walker" trigger, but they have more recently had issues with the trigger that replaced it, the X-Mark Pro trigger. From all the CNBC and attorneys posting about it, I am surprised we all haven't been killed by them! The walker trigger had what they called a "design flaw" and the new trigger was assembled with too "much bonding agent" in the early years of it's use (2006 into 2014).

I also thought it was originally a problem of claims that the gun just fired, even unattended, which I thought was fishy, but it now sounds like (from here and reading the web) it is usually when the safety is turned off, not a desirable situation at all, but in that situation it shouldn't be killing people (just scaring the heck out of them) . It was a problem for sure. Be safe around firearms everyone.
 
I was the original owner of mine and it was unaltered. I probably shot it 100 to 150 times without a problem before my "incident". When it was returned, the gun store owner flipped the safety back and forth for 2 or 3 minutes before triggering the firing pin. The CNBC piece can be found on YouTube, and provides background on the issue.
 
Is that a question, a statement or just what are you saying or asking? I am guessing they (Remington) was informed or they would not have issued the recall on the 1.3 million X-Mark triggers....I guess, I am not sure I understand what you are saying/asking in that post.
Remy, Quick point, why did Remington try and recall 1,300,000 guns? I guess they were just not informed.

I am not sure any of mine have the recalled X-Mark trigger, maybe one, a 204 with well over a 1000 rounds through it with no issues, but that is not surprising, it is surprising that 2 of 5 posters here have issues with Rem triggers and Rye's should be a Walker design (those weren't recalled) and those are almost perfect. On the Walker triggers, over 5 million were sold on Remington rifles, mostly 700s, their failure rate was something like .005%, (they might have a few hundred documented issues when reading about it), none are perfect, but it not likely to fail.

I am just not sure, as you say, that we all need to run to our gunsmiths to have them install aftermarket triggers in every model 700 rifle we own. But if it would make you feel better (I might replace one on any rifles that have failed triggers or maybe any included in the recall), get to your gunsmith if you need, or just order a self contained one (which I am guessing they all are for 700s) and do it yourself. It will likely shoot better will be a extra benefit.

Now let's get out in the morning and get a limit of roosters! Those 243s are a little hard on the breast meat when aiming for center of mass!
 
Remy, Tally Ho. I am at least 14 hours away from Roosters unfortunately. Therefore I am deer hunting at present. Go get them Roosters.
 
Thus the 243! Good luck, sneak a pic in here if you get one down.

Edit: Got my 3 this morning, hope to see your pic!
 
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