Rem 700 Sear/trigger Problems

[EricW]

I just discovered that with the safety off on my 700 that if I shove the bolt home hard that it will trip the sear and allow firing pin to lower while closing the handle. This doesn't happen with the safety on, nor does it occur if I push the handle closed less hurriedly.

(I found this out with an empty rifle, so no AD's or anything.)

Questions for anyone who might be in the know:

- Can I swap trigger units to solve this? (Jewell or Timney)

- Can I readjust the sear to fix this? I had my sear tuned up by a gunsmith as I have no clue how to tune a 700 trigger and am not sure I want to learn.

For now, my plan is to build a paddle safety & always set it on safe every time I actuate the bolt. If this turns into a money pit problem, I'll probably just shelf the rifle and go to a DPMS 308.

Edited April 29, 2006 by EricW

[JD45]

I'm pretty sure there was a recall on some model 700 rifles regarding that problem. Also, if I remember correctly there were a few lawsuits on that issue.

A guy at our gun club posted a notice about it, and told me a couple stories about friends having that same problem. One resulted in an A.D. (no injuries).

It is the type of thing that can be hard to blame on the trigger and not a shooter's finger.

I have not had this trouble on my rifles from the factory. Although, as you would expect, I can make it fail if I adjust the trigger with a minimum engagement, and fall below 3lbs.

So far, I have been able to do a home-schooled adjustment and get a crisp break at about 3 1/4lbs. I do the slam-fire and bump test, and they always hold.

I'm glad you brought this up. Everyone needs to be aware, even if Remington can't decide what is happening.

[smokshwn]

Eric,

The problem you described can be attributed to a couple of things.

One. Rem 700's have been known to have safety problems. Namely when the safety is taken off the trigger will fire (bad juju if gun is loaded). Remington will fix this problem even thought they deny it exists.

Two. Rem triggers that have been "adjusted" a little too much can also exhibit what you are describing.

JD has it right there is a point that the trigger will not tolerate any less sear engagement without malfunction. It is somewhat gun dependant so a little trial and error are in order. The adjustments are not hard to do at all and with a couple of searches on either snipershide.com or snipersparadise.com you should be able to find very clear instructions on doing a safe adjustment on the stock Rem trigger.

As far as replacing the trigger, sure but from what you describe, unless your smith ruined the engagement surfaces there is probably no need. Unless of course you are after a trigger in the 1 lb category.

Good luck, Craig

[TRG65]

+1 to Craig's post

I adjusted my trigger on an LTR and it would go down to about 2.5 ok, then it started having the same issue you are describing Eric. If you close the bolt too hard it would drop the striker. I adjusted the trigger back up and it held for a while but the trigger felt awful, at least for me. I like sub 1# triggers on my rifles. I think it was about 3.5#. I replaced it with a rifle basix because that was what Midway had on sale and it was 1/2 the price of a jewell. The rifle basix is set at 8oz and I am very happy with it.

If you want directions on how to adjust the 700s trigger, I got a link off of snipershide, I think.

[yoshidaex]

I ended up getting a jewell after numerous attempts to get the trigger to my liking. a bit pricy but well worth it.

[EricW]

OK,

It's sounding like I need to replace the trigger.

I swear that guns must have calendars. They *know* when to go out of whack at the most convenient opportunity.

[George]

I went Timney on my Remmy. I have bashed the bolt mercilessly in practice and on several MOR stages and it has never done this to me (so far). It is a nice crisp 1.5 ish and I trust it. I will now be cognizant of this possibility in the future though.

[EricW]

Well, I figured I had nothing to lose so I started turning screws. I have a safe 4ish pound trigger for now. I have come to the inescapable conclusion that there really is no such thing as a safe, factory Remmy trigger. It's going to go out of whack sooner or later.

A bolt slam test is going to be part of my range pre-check procedure from here on out.

One of these days, I'll probably go with a Jewell since Midway has nothing but rave reviews of the Jewell trigger.

[wsimpso1]

My Rem 700's go down to 2 pounds just fine. The factory trigger is, well, a factory trigger. If you want it to go below a pound, well, you might have to spend more on the trigger. Frankly, if the trigger will not be solid until you have it all the way up to four pounds, either you are turning the wrong screws, or the sharp edges that do the release have been rounded.

The factory trigger has independant screws for engagement, overtravel, and trigger weight. Some High Power Champions say that the overtravel screw could be removed and forgotten about, but the length of engagment and trigger pulls weights both matter to the security of the striker during your bolt slap. Now if someone polished the engagment surfaces/edges and rounded them over, it will never be right.

Unless the folks at Ilion have reason to believe that a ham fisted amatuer gunsmith has been at work, they are likely to fix it for free. After all, they do not want AD's either.

Billski

[Dan Sierpina]

Eric,

You never said what the trigger was adjusted to, weight wise. I've done Remington's down to around 2 pounds with no follow. I slam the bolt, and beat the butt on the concrete floor too. The engagement is minimal in order to get a non creeepy trigger. I think the big problem is trying to achieve a light weight while using the factory spring. In order for the trigger to be reliable, you need some compression on the spring. The "valve spring" that the factory uses will only have just a slight bit of compression. Using a spring with smaller diameter wire helps a great deal. The spring is soft enough allow a lighter pull, and yet require some compression to maintain the weight. That said, one rifle has a Jewell, my 700 Police has an adjusted/tweeked Remington, and another a Shilen. If you're looking for something around a pound, toss the Remington, and get a 3 lever trigger.

[wsimpso1]

+1 on Dan's comments (unless someone has done a poor polishing job on the internal trigger parts). Really light requires a benchrest type. The Anschutz trigger is the hot ticket for High Power.

Billski

[EricW]

Dan,

I never measured the trigger pull. I took it to a guy who was the local highpower go-to gunsmith and requested he set it to 3 to 3.5 lbs. I believe that the screw had backed out over time because the trigger pull was *very* light the last time I went to the range.

It was just one of those deals where I felt like it was better to cough up the $75 and have an expert do the job. And he did a good job. Until recently, this was never a problem. I deliberately bounced my rifle 6 ways from Sunday when I heard about the Washington State Patrol having problems with the Remmy 700. I thought they were nuts....until a couple days ago when I replicated the problem during dryfire.

======================================

All I know is this:

I tried what seemed to be every possible permutation for how to adjust those screws, and I *believe* that I have arrived at the safe minimums for *my particular trigger*.

It is my *personal* belief that a trigger that can be rendered unsafe by a screw backing out 1/4 of a turn or less (as is the case with mine) is an inherently unsafe mechanism. For now, I've got a handle on it, but I'm going to replace it with one that I feel is safe. I plan to shoot some highpower this summer and I feel like I owe the guys in the pits at least that much respect.

I'm not trying to offend anyone because I know there's at least one Remmy former employee here. But it only took 30 minutes for me to arrive at a pretty inescapable conclusion about *my particular rifle*. But knowing what I know, if I ever bought another 700, I would budget for a replacement trigger right up front.

[Dan Sierpina]

Eric,

With the factory spring in the trigger, 1/4 turn will be enough for the thing to follow. That's why I changed the spring. I believe the specs on the trigger pull on a Remington 700 when leaving the factory is 5+ pounds. You can rest assured that it will be on the plus side! Policy at Remington is that if a trigger on a rifle returned for repairs is under their spec, the trigger is replaced with a current trigger. They don't tighten the spring.

Also, put some nail polish or something on the screws to keep them from moving. The color is your choice

[George]

When using nail polish for locking down setscrews, only the pink and lavender colors will do the job properly.

[rmfield]

Eric:

I put Timney triggers in all of my 700s and don't have any problems with light (1 1/2 pound) settings. If you want some more info on adjusting your Remington trigger try this link: http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/RemingtonTriggers.asp

Edited May 1, 2006 by rmfield

[HiCapMag]

It sounds like your trigger has slipped out of adjustment a tad. I used the Sniper Country directions and after you play with it for awhile, you will get it. I have a very crips 3lb trigger on my 300 mag. Of course you could have something broken, but give the adjustments a try first.