First time poster and long time owner of the model 700, never had a problem with it.
I saw the show on TV last night and have been interested in finding out as much as I can about this issue.
From what I saw in the program they showed videos of the police and army having misfires with their 700's. I think that's cause for concern. In the army video the 700 fired when the soldier touched the bolt. In another video the gun went off when the safety was moved to fire. I would not have believed it.
Also the inventor of the 700 called Remington "stupid".
Just trying to get to the bottom of this.
Panzer
First of all
WELCOME!To test your 700, make sure it's
unloaded.
When you close the bolt, put the safety on - if you can operated the bolt you don't have the "bolt block" feature on your gun and it is not subject to the "Safety Modification Program" which expires Dec of 2010. You should not have any problems at all with your rifle.
To further test the rifle's safety, do as M25 said, cock it, (close the bolt), put the safety on and pull the trigger hard. Flip the safety off, if no sear release, bump the butt of the gun on some padding FIRMLY. Slam the bolt closed several times. You can do the same test with the safety left on and after bumping the butt, slamming the bolt and pulling the trigger, flip the safety to the off position.
If the sear hasn't released, I would
and do feel just fine about using the rifle. None of my 700s has ever had an issue though I do know of one guy that did buy an old one - with the bolt block - and his daughter had the rifle fire when the safety was pushed off. He sent it in and Rem did the fix for $20.
That is the only 700 I have ever heard of personally having an issue.
If you have the cash get a Jewell trigger.
WARNING - my Jewell trigger has ABSOLUTELY SPOILED ME!
Every trigger in comparison feels like crap, even the ones I thought were really, really sweet before. I'll bet the ones from Shilen feel just as good but I don't have any experience with them. My Jewell is set at 1 pound and passes all of the above tests.
Picking a nit -
"In the army video the 700 fired when the soldier touched the bolt. CNBC had only vids of guys in cammie jammies from Border Patrol and Portland Maine police - not military.
Not that it really makes any difference.
Portland, Maine per CNBC, said they 'didn't get any satisfaction from Remington'.
Rem states that they never heard about it and never got to examine the rifles. 7th video on the 700tv site. Another 'he said, she said'.