There are many reasons a gunsmith may not know of any stories of discharges but that doesn't explain the THOUSANDS of complaint letters to Remington. They have repeated discharges on film and it's repeatable.
He asked about Remington and I told him. His blood is not on my conscience. If he was blogging on Daily Kos, maybe I would recommend Remington, but I want to keep as many Freepers as possible safe. Frankly, it seems from some Remington owners they don't want to admit they own a boat anchor. Just sayin.
I've shot Remingtons, Savages, Brownings, Weatherby's, Battle rifles like Enfield's, and Springfields. I have over 50 guns in my collection and do my own reloading. I own a Remington mod 1100 shotgun my father left me in his will. That's the only Remington product I have and I didn't buy it. When I go hunting, I take my Ruger Mod 77 in 30.06. I sold my Savage because it was not the quality I'm used to. I love my Browning, but just don't use a 7 mag except for elk and above.
My advice to the man is a Ruger 77 in 30.06 or .308. I don't see how you could beat that. He should study "Remington discharge" on Google and make up his own mind. He asked and I told. If I was buying a rifle today, it wouldn't be a Remington. period! nuff said!
Good points.
From this thread ( http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/defensive-rifles-shotgun-discussion/115110-potential-remington-700-rifle-accidental-discharge.html ):
“This is not the first time that this has been brought up. In the last 25 years, its been talked about at least 3 times.
I have numerous 700’s in various calibers. I’ve been building custom rifles on Remington actions for years, with no issues..While its true that on the high end guns I usually install custom triggers, I have adjusted many triggers to a lighter pull...without any problems what so ever.
I have shot literally thousands of rounds without so much as a single unwanted discharge.
While I wont say that this issue is unfounded, I do think that it is highly exaggerated. If this problem were as common as the naysayers said it was, I would think that out of the millions of Remington rifles and actions out there, that the numbers of accidental releases would be much higher than it actually is.
With all of that out of the way, let me say this...
As one that builds custom shooters, I have had to replace several triggers that had been hosed up by the original owner. Adjusting the trigger isn’t hard to do. The problem is that they are adjusted too much. When the sear is engaged to the point that the trigger is much lighter than the factory trigger setting, the sear has much less contact with the notch that holds it in place. A sharp blow to the rifle, dropping it, whacking the side of it against a tree, slamming the bolt home, ALL of these actions can and will cause the rifle to shoot if the sear engagement has been tampered with and set to a point that it is not enough.
I’ve seen critical parts dremeled, pins holding the triggers groups broke off, wads of grease injected into it, I’ve even seen one where too much was dremeled and to get it to work the owner used JB weld to build up the surface that he ground too much off of.
One father brought in a rifle for his son, who said the rifle just quit working. The Dad and the son bad mouthed Remington the whole time. When I took it apart, the trigger was so hosed up that it had to be replaced. The kid admitted that he read an article on the Internet on how to adjust it and took a Dremel tool and went berserk. When he put it back, it wouldn’t even hold the striker back, it was useless. So here was two guys ready to sue Remington because they didn’t like how the gun acted...they were convinced it was a piece of crap while ignoring the fact that the problems with it were user inflicted.
Rifles are machines with lots of parts...parts that must work together and work correctly to function. If any one of those parts quit doing its job, then the whole thing quits working.
While any rifle is subject to failure due to many varied factors, I do think that for the most part, this issue is way over-hyped and overblown. Now, since virtually everyone has Internet access, when Bubba up in Podunk Alaska jacks with his trigger and his gun goes off when he leans it up against his snowmobile, millions of people instantly hear about how Remington products suck and how dangerous they are.
And seriously...if police and military snipers, sharpshooters, designated marksman, trophy hunters, match shooters all around the world really thought there was an issue with the trigger, how many of them do you think would still use them?”
Also see: http://www.remington700.tv/
The rest of the story - Granted, it is corporate media - but then, who to believe, the manufacturer of 5 million of these guns (and the millions of sportsmen who swear by it), or wacko-liberal tv editorials?
Not ONCE has the problem been repeated - not a SINGLE TIME, on a rifle that was properly cleaned, and whose config was proper.