Remington 700 long range rifle

[reynolds357]

RC20, long throat is usually desirable by todays standards. The manufacturers are purposefully doing it in long range rifles to accommodate the high B.C. bullets that have become popular. You don't have to replace the barrel if you do not like the long throat. Just put it in the lathe, cut 1/4" off the barrel, thread it 1/4" deeper, and re-ream the chamber with a reamer that has the throat you want.

 

[emcon5]

Emcon, I have to disagree with you about the Walker trigger, but agree with you that people and not the trigger have caused the fatalities. If the engineer of the trigger said there was a problem with it,(which he did) the company had legal and moral obligations to correct the problem. Having said that, it has been my experience that the Win. mod 70 has the trigger that is prone to A.D., not Remington.

The whole interview on the CNBC hit-piece, all Walker really said was he advocated for a firing pin block on the safety, and Remington did not do it because of cost.

There were three memos CNBC and the plaintiffs proclaim are a smoking gun about the "Unsafe" Walker trigger.

"his own memos, obtained by CNBC show he repeatedly raised concerns about the guns he designed"

Well, not exactly. They showed 3 memos from when he worked at Remington, all are posted online.

The first advocates adding a trigger block to the safety, and what that would involve, in the manufacturing process:

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/CNBC/Se...Remington_Under_Fire/Documents/Rem_Doc_09.pdf

They also say that the cost would be 5 1/2 cents per gun, which is certainly minimal, but unit cost and the cost of making the change are not the same thing. They do not mention tooling and setup costs, and depending on where they were in the design/manufacturing process, this could be a substantial setup cost.

I agree that a trigger block is a good thing to have on a safety, but that does not mean that a safety without a trigger block is unsafe. The Mauser 98 does not have a trigger block.

The memo they show like it is some sort of smoking gun:

As early as 1946, with the gun still in the testing stage, Walker writes about a theoretical unsafe condition involving the safety

The memo they show in the piece is here:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/CNBC/Se...Remington_Under_Fire/Documents/Rem_Doc_02.pdf

Yeah, he did. Which HE FIXED. The last line of the memo says "this change will be incorporated in the drawing as soon as tool procurement is completed" Now why wouldn't they mention that?

The third they show in the "he repeatedly..." section isn't even from Walker, it is signed by a guy named Leek, and all it says is some parts were out of "out of design limits".
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/CNBC/Se...Remington_Under_Fire/Documents/Rem_Doc_03.pdf

It does not say the out of design parts were used, or what was done with the information.

Again, I am not saying there isn't a problem, I am just saying that the evidence provided as "proof" is suspect at best, and downright misleading in some cases. I believe the biggest problem with the Walker Trigger is any nitwit with a small screwdriver can monkey with them to the point they can go off if you look at them funny.

 

[reynolds357]

I know that many of the triggers in which Remington settled lawsuits were not modified "by a nut with a screwdriver." I personally believe that a rifle is like a truck, it will break down given enough use and or abuse. Remington's problem is they reacted very slowly to problems they knew they had. Look how long it took them to modify the safety so that the action could be worked with the safety on.

 

[tangolima]

I know that many of the triggers in which Remington settled lawsuits were not modified "by a nut with a screwdriver." I personally believe that a rifle is like a truck, it will break down given enough use and or abuse. Remington's problem is they reacted very slowly to problems they knew they had. Look how long it took them to modify the safety so that the action could be worked with the safety on.

Locked bolt with safety on is a desirable feature among hunters, which the rifle was marketed to. I didn't know till I asked the question on TFL.

I personally don't care about this "feature" as I don't hunt. But it is not a problem, but something they purposely designed for. They should have made a 3-position safety. But the rifle should make coffee too.

A rifle is a machine. Wear and tear renders a machine inoperable, or even in some cases dangerous. But shouldn't the owners be responsible for keeping the rifle in shape and use it responsibly?

-TL

 

[KodaBear]

I just purchased the 700 VLS (Varmint Laminate Stock) in .223 Remington. I am still out on the X-Mark Pro trigger because of adjustment. The rifle manual provided states that one turn of the adjustment screw should increase or decrease pull by one pound. Adjustment is far less but it seems to be ok. Absolutely no creep or over travel on this trigger.

The first day at the range the accuracy seemed to be acceptable with right at one inch groups. The second day at the range, with no adjustments to anything, it was all over the place with a lot of horizontal stringing. I have a new Vortex 4-12x40 Crossfire scope mounted with Warne fixed Maxima rings and bases, and I was shooting Federal factory ammunition.

I took it home afterwards and actually removed the stock. Inletting was definitely not well done with the barrel resting on wood material about four inches fore and aft of the front swivel stud. The mortise cut for the recoil lug was larger than needed and allowed for fore and aft movement of the barreled action.

The factory ammo is shot up and the next rounds after some stock work & glass bedding will be hand loads. I will shoot it some more to see if I take a liking to the trigger. If I can't get comfortable with it I'll install a Timney.

Any rifle that is labeled "Long Range", "Varmint" or "Target" should be put together with a bit more care than this rifle was, but I enjoy a bit of trouble shooting and bench work on a troubled gun anyway, so I take it with a grain of salt. I have had far more temperamental rifles in the past.