accidental 700 discharge.

[larry24]

A friend of mine was bragging about the new trigger work he had done on his Remington 700 7mm Mag. He took the gun out of the gun case and handed it to me, I then checked the chamber and then began to "test" the trigger pull a few times.................It was VERY LIGHT............After handing it back to him he opened and closed the bolt once again and then set the gun back in the cabinet, we then heard a "CLICK" which was the actull trigger disengaging.......................

Just something I wanted to share with you guys, perhaps preventing a tragedy down the road!

 

[Ivy Mike]

thats a bit alarming.

 

[cleardiddion]

Hope you don't have to be close to him next time he goes to the range.

 

[Eric F]

there is a process for doing a trigger job on a 700 I know I have done it twics there is a step where you "bounce" the but of the rifle on the floor a couple of times to see if the the trigger will activate the bolt. In some rare instances even really cold weather will shrink the parts enough to make it go click but if tollerances are that close the drop test should correct this. bottom line he needs to go back and turn some screws a bit. BTW the safest I could ever get mine was 14.5 ounces

 

[bensdad]

A friend of mine was bragging about the new trigger work he had done

Your friend has acted dangerously, carelessly and boisterously. I hope nobody gets killed.

I did my 700 using instructions found on the internet. I won't make a link here... those that are capable of using the instructions can find them with little effort. Anyway, the instructions were quite specific about testing the trigger multiple times after completing the job.

 

[larry24]

I can assure you I won't be at the range or in the woods with him!!!!!!

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

he needs to go back to the person who did the work and get it fixed. AD's aren't part of a good trigger job

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

I had a remington 600 that some gunsmith wannabe did a trigger job. I would go off sometimes when the bolt was closed. I had it fixed by a real gunsmith. There are things that I can do to guns, but messing with a trigger/sear engagement arent' one of them. It only takes one accidential discharge to ruin someones life or worse. One of my high school buddies was shot in the abdomen with a 7mm mag at point blank range. He survided, but his quality of life for the past 40 years has not been woth a darn. That's one of the reasons I taught the neighborhood kids about gun safety. And I always stress rule number one "always keep your muzzel pointed in a safe direction". It hit home on day while I was working on a piece of junk "survival rifle" (the one that floats). What a piece. I took it out back after a good cleaning and it fired 4 or 5 rounds before it jamed. I could not clear the jam so I brought it inside and took the mag. out. I cycled the bolt at least a dozen times, pointed the muzzel at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. There were 4 or 5 kids that witnessed first hand an accidental discharge. I told them all that it's just a matter of time before all of ya'll have one so keep your muzzel pointed in a safe direction. That was the best lesson I have ever taught them. And yes I have the patched hole in the ceiling to prove it.

 

[skinewmexico]

Safest way to do a trigger job is just to buy a Timney.

 

[RevolverMan567]

its unfortunate that it happened but its a good learning experience. Sear engagement is calibrated at the factroy with this huge projector thing that magnifies enough to make thousandths adjustment and remain safe. Too many wanna be gunsmiths go in and instead of changind overtravel and pull weight the reduce the engagement of the sear and hammer to give the illusion of expertise in a "light trigger" job. Buy the aftermarket triggers or gamble with your life or another that isnt yours to gamble

 

[MachIVshooter]

there is a process for doing a trigger job on a 700 I know I have done it twics there is a step where you "bounce" the but of the rifle on the floor a couple of times to see if the the trigger will activate the bolt.

This is the process I've used when trying to get the lightest and shortest pull possible on my varmint rigs. Turn it down 'til it will let go with this test, then increase the weight by ~30%. I got my Howa M1500 donw to 8.2 ounces this way. It would let go when "dropped" at 6 ounces.

That said, there is no good reason to have such a light pull on a big game rifle that is going to be subjected to abuse while hiking about. Mine are all 3-4 pounds.

 

[Ol` Joe]

A couple years ago I read of a woman I believe was from Wisconsin who after a day in the field released the safty of her M700 which had a trigger job done and the rifle discharged killing her son. I don`t remember the whole story but I believe he was behind the auto or some such barrier when it happened. Remingtons triggers have been known to be poor platforms for amatures experaments for some time. Any trigger that will fire without it being pulled is a accident waiting to happen and should be replaced. I would rather spend a few extra dollars on a after market trigger then trust one that had acted up.

 

[atblis]

Yeah

Just buy a Tikka/Sako, they come from the factory with "trigger jobs".

Triggers are nothing to be messing with. I have a few guns that I did trigger jobs on. They are range queens.

 

[alsaqr]

Have done a lot of trigger work in Model 700 rifles and variants that I have owned. Do not adjust a Remington 700 trigger to lighter than 2.5 pounds
on a rifle that will be used for hunting. Yes, it will probably pass the bounce test if adjusted to lighter than 2.5 pounds. It may not pass the field test, especially if the hunter is wearing gloves.

Know of two cases of ND with Model 700 rifles and light triggers. One guy I know was unloading his Model 700 by working the bolt and the gun fired.

 

[MCgunner]

I had a smith adjust mine to 3 lbs. Anything less and it will be very hard to feel the sear with heavy winter gloves on. This is hunting, not bench rest on a 80 degree day. 4 lbs isn't excessive. 3 lbs does it for me, though.

I adjusted my Savage myself. I did that because it's open and I could see what the screws actually did. One adjusts spring return pressure (let off), one adjusts creep, one adjusts the safety. You'd best adjust all of 'em right and finish the job with a drop of blue loctite. I couldn't tell what the screws did on the Remington and the smith didn't charge me all that much to do it. Money well spent. He was an experienced and good smith. Unfortunately, cancer took him some years ago.

 

[Jackal]

I had a Ruger M77 with an adjustable trigger. Well, one day I saw a coyote outside and decided my new .243 was perfect for the job. I walked around the house, put 2 rounds in the mag and with the rifle pointing toward the ground, I racked the bolt closed. Hehe, upon whacking the bolt shut, the rifle went boom and put a nice hole in the ground about 2 ft in front of my foot. Turns out, the previous owner had the trigger screw out so far, the linkage was barely engaging. Ya, always check your triggers by slapping the bolt shut and doing the butt-bounce.

 

[Slamfire]

As a general rule override triggers are “less safe” than direct pull. The best example of a direct pull trigger is the great old Mauser two stage trigger. You can bayonet, buttstroke someone, shattering the stock if necessary, and that Mauser two stage trigger will hold the cocking piece back, preventing an accidental discharge. It has so much sear engagement that it will not jar off.

The override trigger was developed because a large number of shooters do not comprehend how to function a two stage trigger. On a two stage trigger, you take up the light first stage, and then the trigger releases on the heavier second stage. This is too complicated for many, and I have heard people complain how their military trigger has “too much creep”, when in fact the final stage was nice and crisp. Well that first stage takeup is lowering a thick slab of sear so the final take up only has a tiny bit of sear to move.

Because so many people wanted a single stage trigger, manufacturers responded and developed the override trigger. The override trigger is like a trap door. Put weight on the door, kick out the prop, and the door will drop. In order to have a crisp trigger release, there can only be a tiny amount of sear engagement.

Having a tiny amount of sear engagement means that sear engagement and trigger pull weight are absolutely critical adjustments. If the sear engagement is insufficient, you can jar the mechanism, and mechanical tolerances being what they are, the sear can be overridden. Also, if the sear spring is not tensioned enough, the sear will drop out of the way when hit hard by the cocking piece.

Another blasted fault of override triggers is that most of them use sear blocking safeties. An override trigger out of adjustment, and the rifle will discharge when the safety is released. This is something that has happened with Remington triggers and caused lawsuits. If you notice, on new Remington’s you empty the magazine with the safety on. The older Remington’s the safety kept the bolt from flopping open, but when folks took the safety off to empty the rifle, a troubling number of them got shot when the trigger mechanism got over ridden. A senior citizen, HM distinguished shooter I know, told me of two accidental discharges with new M721 rifles. This would have been in the early 50’s. He either knew, or personally saw the discharges. In both incidents the shooter was proceeding to empty the rifle. Both rifles immediately discharged when the safety was taken off. One of those discharges put a hole in the floorboards of a car!

Overall, there are too many blasted things that can go wrong on an override trigger, and I hate them.

Unfortunately, all modern commerical bolt actions use them.

Stupid is as Stupid does.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

This is one of the reasons I like the Model 70 Winchester (the same applies to Mausers with original safties, Springfields, and some other rifles.)

When you first pick up a gun, you open the bolt. You do this so you know if it's loaded or not.

When you open the bolt, you cock the rifle. Now you close the bolt on an empty chamber, and put the safety in the midway position (and on the Winchester, this locks the striker -- there's nothing between safety and striker.) With the safety in the mid-position, you can now open the bolt again and load. When you come back after a day's hunting, you put the safety in mid-position again and unload. You never go hot with an M70 until you want to.

And you accomplish this with a safety that in the fully-engaged position prevents you from inadventantly lifting the bolt handle as you crawl through deadfalls and black timber.

 

[ArmedBear]

Vern, the current model Remingtons also let you keep the safety on while unloading.

Of course, this isn't a great thing, since they're 2-position safeties... They don't ever lock the bolt!

What the?!? Remington's obsession with cost-savings at work?

I just looked over a new Model 7 at the shop. There's a lot about it that I really like. It fits me very well, it comes with a Limbsaver pad on it, it looks somewhat nice, etc. But a plain-jane wood-and-matte-blue gun for $800 doesn't even have a 3-position safety?

 

[Tarvis]

When I adjsuted the trigger on my 700, I clicked the safety on and off really hard and BANGED it on the floor. The guy that did his adjust losened the sear engagement screw tooo much methinks... *ponders*