While details are not yet finalized, the article reports the following details: Meanwhile, they spent piles of money in denying the problem, going as far as producing a misleading video to counter a 2010 documentary exploring the issue even though they reportedly admitted receiving 3,273 complaints about the problem between 19.Īnd now, almost six decades after the trigger’s designer issued a 1946 memo warning of a “theoretical unsafe condition,” Remington has finally been forced to do something about it.Ī recent article notes that a “nationwide class settlement” is being worked out. And they would, at the expense of the gun owner, alter older 700s to allow them to be opened with the safety engaged.Īnd Remington finally began installing a new trigger mechanism on new-production M700 rifles. This did nothing to cure the problem, but it did allow folks to unload their rifles without having to switch the safety and possibly fire a round without ever touching the trigger. Remington finally changed the manufacturing process to allow the Model 700 bolt to be opened with the safety engaged. Various lame “solutions” were implemented as more and more of this came to light largely thanks to the efforts of Gus Barber’s father, who dedicated his life after the passing of his son to unsealing court documents that had been sealed when Remington did behind-closed-doors settlements. The Model 700, however, had been built by the millions, and internal company memos revealed that the company opted, in the name of money, to keep building the same trigger–even though they did R&D and developed a new one in the early 1980s–and settle lawsuits when people were killed or injured rather than recalling the Model 700 and/or changing the trigger. The design was to blame, and the loose tolerances of stamped housings exacerbated the problem. These failed so often that Remington was forced to recall them.
The same trigger design was used in Model 600 rifles, but stamped housings were used in those. It was clearly a real and widespread problem, which Remington continually downplayed. And after I published that article, I was contacted by more than one person whose Model 700 had fired via the safety, including one hunter I knew personally. But since then, I’ve learned that Remington knew there was a problem with this trigger, even back in the 1940s when it was designed. She should have pointed the gun in a safe direction, says Remington. At the time, I concentrated on the sad case of Gus Barber, who was killed when his mother switched a Model 700 rifle from “safe” to “fire” and thus fired a round through a horse trailer and into her son. More than 13 years ago, I wrote an article about the Remington Model 700 and a CBS news segment that alleged the trigger could be fired by switching the safety to the “fire” position. Remington: Finally Making Good on Model 700 Trigger Defect?
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