M700 Lawsuits?

[JeffH]

To Rich/WIS....Well, I had another of my M700's go off without touching the trigger. This was a 30-06 with an OLD DESIGN Timney trigger, not the new #510 models with the trigger block safety. I thought this one was "safe", but not so. Carrying the gun on a sling, safety tripped forward to "fire" position on some laurel, BANG. Big surprise but nobody hurt (except for ringing ears). The question was, WHY. Imediately stopped carring a round in the chamber but not really trusting gun, changed to my backup gun at the end of the day (a M94 Winchester). Back at camp, did an autopsy and found that cocking the gun and thumping butt on the floor would set it off almost every time. Hmmm. Clean as a whistle, washed out with Rem Oil, etc. Took it to a local master gunsmith and found that overtravel and letoff were so far out of whack a thump on the action tang with a rawhide mallet would set it off EVERY TIME. After proper adjustment with a 3.2 lb. letoff and all the parts looked at it was declared good to go. What did we learn? Somebody in the past had adjusted this trigger improperly (not me, I don't even own a set of those hair wire Allen keys that fit the screws) but l "assumed" that this was a Timney and should be OK. Not so--only the new design #510 trigger has a trigger block. Take heed, the problem was twofold: unsafe handling by carrying a round in the chamber while hiking in, even though it's not a great idea, and somebody screwed with the adjustment not knowing what they were doing. Since this is the second time this has happened to me with two different rifles I figure somebody was trying to tell me something. This time, I listened. Carefully. Could Remington be at fault here? Absolutely not. This rifle still did the bad deed and didn't even have the dreaded Remington trigger, so there you go.

[Swamp]

I know it is an old thread, but after 44 years I actually had a REAL problem with my 700 in 7mm Express. Now that I am older I don't burn up the ammo like I used to so most of my large caliber rifles sit in the cabinet for 10 months out of the year. I was set on my rounds after my handload session last year so I set up my bench and my bags, slapped the mag in and ran the bolt home and proceded to have a round go off and into the air. I just about had a stroke. I then carefully worked the bolt and chammbered another round and it didn't fire. I got all settled int to the bags and gently moved the safety to fire and AGAIN the rifle went off without touching the trigger. Before anyone gets worked up about the mag, I had trouble with the factory stock warping and touching my barrel and it seriously messed with the rifles typical good grouping and zero. About 12 years or so ago I added a synthetic stock and Remington factory DBM metal. The gun has been flawless until last year when the rifle would not fire. I have never really disassembled the rifle except to drop the stock so as the original owner there has never been any hanky panky with the trigger. Anyway I dropped the stock and found that there was a very bad case of varnish built up on the trigger group. I Typically use a Hoppe's or Rem oil and after some research I grabbed a bottle of gun medic and started letting it just run through the group to loosen everything up. It didn't take a lot, but based on the cloth there was a lot of gunk built up. When it appeared to be clean I used some hoppes oil and checked the function many times including several good raps on the but plate. It held safe fine and the bolt was also cleaned, but that I don't believe was the issue. Anyway FF to this year. After doing a bunch more research I ran into several forum posts about using lighter fluid to clean trigger group. I have always had absolute faith in this rifle, but should I get this thing to a smithy and have them go through it? It has been fine and I did not oil the trigger asembly as the forums all pretty much stated that the residue from the lighter fluid is more than enough to keep everything lubricated and all through the season I was very carefull each day when I loaded the rifle and chambered a round and it was fine.