Can't make these up

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PapaG

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A couple days after the infamous 're-airing by 60 minutes of the Remington 700 story, a young guy, early 20s, comes in the shop with a, you guessed it, 700.
"Trigger's too heavy, can you lighten it?"
We checked it. 3.5 pounds on the scale. Crisp, no creep, felt lighter.
"How light you want it, and why?"
"Can you do two?"
"No. Why".
Finally, he told us he had seen the tv story and wanted to see for himself.
I asked if he was wrangling for a big lawsuit payoff and he admitted the idea crossed his mind.
Sent him on his way after a hint about the dangers of what he wanted, fraud, and so on. Also called the local gunsmiths and warned them.
 
A couple things:

* The most recent program wasn't a re-airing". It was a completely different program that focused on the new X-Mark Pro trigger, not the 1946-2006 Walker trigger. There have been 4-5 different programs on 60 minutes, 20/20, CNBC and possibly others going back to the 1970's. During the 1980's even Remington was placing ad's in gun and hunting magazines trying to get people to return their rifles to have have the trigger/safety assembly replaced. Every time someone dies they do another program. They never discuss the 10,000 rifles returned to Remington over the last 70 years that discharged on their own and no one was hurt. Or the thousands of others where the owners simply replaced the trigger with aftermarket and never notified Remington. That is what I did.

* If the rifle is going to discharge the trigger pull is irrelevant. It is just as likely to do so at 10 lbs as 2 lbs. Any rifle with an improperly adjusted trigger can discharge, but this isn't the issue with Remington. There have been well over 100 lawsuits against Remington for this. I can assure you that none of them would have ever gotten to court if the triggers on those guns had been modified.
 
I would of said sure I will be right back, and then installed the most expansive aftermarket trigger you could find, then doubled the cost for the labor cost. Also make sure the SD cards in your cameras are fresh.
 
PapaG wrote:
I asked if he was wrangling for a big lawsuit payoff and he admitted the idea crossed his mind.
Click to expand...

First, congratulations for sending him on his way. Your integrity is commendable.

Second, we should be mindful of the fact that shamefully dishonest people like the one that came to see PapaG can legally purchase and own guns.
 
Thanks, guys. I might be well into my seventies by still don't want to run afoul of the law or help anyone else to do so. Hate to lose my guns or gun rights.
No stories today but there's an hour left.
 
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