My take on "Remington Under Fire"
[ Full Disclosure: Remington’s parent company advertises on the blog. ]
This weekend the CNBC documentary “Remington Under Fire” is going to be the hot topic of discussion at ranges and gun stores around the country.
The CNBC exposé, which they are making out to be a major 10 month investigation, is about 30 years late. This issue with pre-1982 rifles is well known. I wrote this last week …
I am interested to see what CNBC alleges is wrong with the Remington 700. It is widely known, and acknowledged by the company, that pre-1982 Model 700 rifles can fire automatically when the safety switched to the “Fire” position.
The problem with the pre-82 models was with the bolt-lock mechanism design. The bolt lock was enabled when the safety was turn on. The bolt lock prevents the bolt from being accidentally opened slightly, and therefor being unable to be fired, when stalking game. This mechanism was removed in 1982 after a lawsuit against the company.
The lawsuit was an unfortunate incident in Remington’s history. The company knew about the problem, as did users of the Remington 700, but they had done nothing about it. But that was over 30 years ago. Since then the company has, and continues, to offer a Safety Modification program
I even heard that 60 Minutes did an exposé on this back in the 80s. I am not sure what CNBC’s crew were doing for 10 months. A quick google search would bring up just about everything uncovered by the investigation.
CNBC also claimed that you can disable the safety by the use of a screwdriver jammed into the mechanism, or with dirt or rust. Do I really need to comment on this? Keep screwdrivers, dust and rust out of your trigger mechanism, regardless of the type of rifle.
Most telling is what was not shown. They did not go into stores and purchase Remington rifles, hand them over to gunsmiths and demonstrate the rifles firing without the trigger being pulled. They did show a video of two men, said to be police, demonstrating a problem with a Remington rifle but the problem they are having appears to be caused by a different issue.
Remington has published a video rebuttal of the interview with expert witness Jack Belk. During the 2007 trial, he admitted not being able to reproduce the problem …
Where I did agree with CNBC was when they questioned why Remington charges $20 for the safety modification upgrade. I think safety fixes should always be free to the consumer.
Remington’s side of the story is at Remington700.tv. If you have not already seen the CNBC investigation, it will be on again this Sunday, next week Thursday and next week Sunday.
What did you think of the investigation? Please post your opinions in the comments below.
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
More by Steve Johnson
Comments
Join the conversation
I am not Joe the plumber nor am i Gus the gunsmith. I am a 67 year old, retired from the USMM and all the kids call me grandpa. I have owned countless firearms in my time, some good some not so good. My favorite is the Remington 700 and when younger the fantastic Remington model 30 in fact i have had 5 or 6 of them through time. I have been reading about the Remington 700 going off without pulling the trigger, BS is what i say.Over the years i have slipped and lost grip on many 700's in all seasons and weather from 100 degrees + to minus 20. All were loaded with safety on, was up on top of a silo, for you city boys that's were we stored feed for the cows, and i dropped a 30.06 that landed on it's but plate and on this one the safety was OFF because i was just about to shoot a buck and slipped in the moist corn. We had a fellow who lost his 700 in the swamp one year and i found it the next year by stepping on it. Cleaned it up and put a new stock on it and she was just like new well almost it went from a prom queen to a biker chick but it shot well and never any safety issues. I could go on but don't need to. Remington is one of the safest rifles on the market today and years ago. I am sorry about the young man who was shot and have prayed for him and his family a lot. I am just a man no better or worse then anyone who reads my words. Granted if man made it it will break at some point." But i have never in my life had a Remington go off by its self or if i took off the safety dropped in fallen from a tractor or silo" ho it is so.
I have owned a few guns in the past... Lately i own a mosin nagant and the gun has no safety as far as im concerned and guess what... Never missfired. Not saying its anyones fault but i bet u 90% of the time its from people being stupid..guns are powerful tools and should b reggarded as such. Im willing tp bet that alot of these people were not as safe or caring as they should have been. Not providing excuses for the manufactures as it is their responsibility to make a safe product