Remington Model 700 "misfire" issue.

[rc26]

I was watching the news this morning and saw a story on Remington Model 700 rifles. According to the news report there has been a misfire issue for years.

I've put about 100 rounds through mine and have never had a problem. Anyone have a misfire with yours?

[Sisyphus]

Misfire issue? In the news? They've been making the 700 for what, nigh on over 40 years now and there's a misfire "issue"? In a bolt-action rifle, when you pull the trigger and just hear a 'click', it should be obvious that something hasn't happened. If it was kept clean there probably wouldn't be an "issue."

[12ci]

huh.

Another lawsuit has been filed against Remington Arms Company on behalf of an individual who claims to have been injured as a result of a Remington Model 700 rifle misfire. The lawsuit alleges that Remington has known about the Model 700 rifle trigger’s dangerous propensity to fire without a trigger pull for decades.

a little (very little) is here. google will probably find more.

i have not heard a word about this. while i do spend a bit of time out at the range, my focus is on handguns, not rifles.

[Pattio]

I'm thinking someone with a compelling interest in a news organization is interested in buying Remington stock at a reduced price.

Or perhaps Remington is about to announce underperforming earnings so they leaked this story as a diversion.

Just riffing. IDK if Remington is even publically traded.

[DerGolgo]

According to Wikipedia, the modern Remington Arms is owned by the "Freedom Group", which began life as the Remington Arms Company oddly enough.
The "Freedom Group" is owned by Cerberus Capital Management, who also own Bushmaster, but have sold their interest in Formica around the time they bought "The Freedom Group".
Kitchen surfaces out, guns in. They know which way the wind is blowing.

Also, looking at this image of what the internets tell me is a Remington 700 with the bolt open...what the fuck was he doing, shoving the bullet right into the bolt instead of the magazine??
Does the firing pin even extend far enough to reach the base of a round not firmly gripped against the bolt face?

[12ci]

a wee bit further research shows this coming up periodically.

here is an article from Business Week, 1994

here is one from CBS, 2001

and, DG, i strongly suspect that the pictured action is not a Remington 700. i've never seen, nor can i find by google search, a 700 action with that screw behind the ejection port. the 700 is famous (infamous) as a "push feed" action; it should not be capable of holding a cartridge in the manner shown.

look at the difference in these two bolts:


the one on the left is the remington 700, on the right is a winchester model 70. see how tiny the extractor claw is on the 700 ? and see the spring-loaded pin at about 4 o'clock? that pin is the ejector, and (if its working correctly) its spring would cause the cartridge to flip out of the action instead of being held like your picture shows.

OTOH, a controlled feed bolt (a Mauser design, like the winchester in the picture) would be perfectly capable of supporting a cartridge in the manner shown in your picture. (but again, i've never seen a mauser-pattern action with a screw like that.)

[rc26]

I'm going to keep mine, not going to get rid of it. When I am at the range, I load one round at a time. If I'm walking around the woods...don't chamber a round until ready to shoot. Seems like common sense, don't load the chamber until ready to fire.

[DerGolgo]

a wee bit further research shows this coming up periodically.

here is an article from Business Week, 1994

here is one from CBS, 2001

and, DG, i strongly suspect that the pictured action is not a Remington 700. i've never seen, nor can i find by google search, a 700 action with that screw behind the ejection port. the 700 is famous (infamous) as a "push feed" action; it should not be capable of holding a cartridge in the manner shown.

look at the difference in these two bolts:


the one on the left is the remington 700, on the right is a winchester model 70. see how tiny the extractor claw is on the 700 ? and see the spring-loaded pin at about 4 o'clock? that pin is the ejector, and (if its working correctly) its spring would cause the cartridge to flip out of the action instead of being held like your picture shows.

OTOH, a controlled feed bolt (a Mauser design, like the winchester in the picture) would be perfectly capable of supporting a cartridge in the manner shown in your picture. (but again, i've never seen a mauser-pattern action with a screw like that.)

So it's not a Remington 700, but the point still stands.
The firing pin is sitting in the bolt, and the base of the cartridge, with the little primer cap, has to sit against that for the pin to be able to do anything...but for such contact to happen while feeding the rounds into the magazine would require manually pushing the cartridge against the bolt, wouldn't it?
I mean, I get the unloading problem, from the Business Week article, he'd just push and pull the bolt to have it grab and expell one cartridge after the other, but how would the pin reach when loading?

[12ci]

how would the pin reach when loading?

it shouldn't.

even if the pin did not retract behind the bolt face, simply touching the primer is not enough to detonate the cartridge. the primer cup is usually made of copper or brass; while "soft" as metals go, it still takes considerable force to crush the primer chemical and light off the powder.

it should not be able to fire, at all, with the bolt open.

i suspect the issue is the sear is not correctly (or adequately) retaining the cocking piece, so you have two possible problems: a "slam fire", when the cartridge goes off as the bolt is closed, or a completely unintentional (and likely random) discharge as the cocking piece slips off the sear (which is what these cases seem to be about).

correctly, neither of these conditons should be called a "misfire". a misfire is when a cartridge fails to fire.