Mike Walker designed a very safe and strong M722 action, which with improvements, turned into the M700
There are people who are careless, slothful, and by nature prone to errors which cause accidents, and the Remington action has saved their eyes, hands, from the consequences of their stupidity.
I do not want to denigrate the M700, it is a fundamentally sound action, though the older triggers have gummed up and accidentally discharged. And from the very beginning of production, people have been injured and killed when the old trigger malfunctioned. The old trigger mechanism not only held the sear, but locked the bolt down, so if you wanted to empty the chamber you had to take the safety off. If the trigger was defective the sear released the firing pin, and bang went the round in the chamber.
I actually prefer the M70. The safety happens to hold the firing pin back, which is a much safer and reliable safety. Sear blocking safeties, such on M700's, and striker fired pistols, just give me the willies, and the number of accidental discharges with the things help me maintain a high level of anxiety. The old tang safety M77 Rugers were nothing more than sear blocking safeties, and I noticed on the latest Ruger M77, the safety positively blocks the firing pin.
I much preferred the old M70 trigger mechanism. While I also do not like over ride triggers, as I consider them mechanically unstable and always on the edge of failing, of the factory over ride triggers, the old M70 trigger was the best. It was hard to gum up, unlike trigger mechanisms in housing, garbage falls off the parts. It was also hard to jar off.
As long as you press the round in the magazine box, a claw extractor will last forever. Rem M700 extractors, like all push feed extractors, wear. Early Ruger M77 rifles looked like controlled round feed actions, but actually, they were push feed.
Eventually the tang safety M77 extractor will break, because it has to snap over the rim of a cartridge. And I don't know where you can get new, replacement extractors.
This issue was fixed in later Ruger M77's.
the FN built M70 actions have improved gas blocking. Older M70's had a gap between bolt shroud and the left rail which allowed gas to go right into the shooter's face. The current FN built M70's, the shroud is extended to block gas release on the left receiver rail.
I like the M70 extractor, I can open the bolt and have the round eject into my hand. The Rem M700, that case is ejected off the bench, and I always lose cases.
It is much easier to take the firing pin out of a M70, and wipe and clean the insides of the bolt and outside of the firing pin. If you pierce a primer, a lot of junk gets inside the bolt, and I like the easy access I get with M70's.
I will say my M70 is a very smooth and slick action, the M700 is also. So it is six of one, half dozen of another. But I prefer M70's.