[Greken12]

Hi fellow shooters

I have some concerns regarding the faulty Remington triggers.
I have an older Remington 700 (I believe it was produced in 1971) that I have had for about 2 years and shot 400+ rounds with. I have never had it fire without me pulling the trigger. Regardless, how do I know if it has the faulty trigger? Weapons safety is obviously my #1 concern so it would be nice to know if I should take it to a gun smith before a possible faulty discharge.
Cheers from Sweden
William

 

[Doom]

Your rifle would have come with the Walker trigger. This trigger was not recalled but Remington Arms offered to replace them as part of a settlement in 2014.

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/remington-fix-triggers-model-700-rifles/

The Walker trigger has a sordid history. Jack Belk is a gunsmith and was involved in lawsuits concerning the trigger. He wrote a detailed explanation of the issues which is available here:

Remington-walker trigger explanation

I requested and received permission to post this paper authored by JBelk over on ShootersForum. It is a rather long and detailed analysis of the Remington Trigger issue that was in the news about 10 years ago. It applies to the700 series triggers supplied prior to the introduction of the X Mark...

www.700rifle.com

In the states we usually replace the factory triggers with aftermarket brands like Timney, Trigger Tech, or others.

Unfortunately Remington Arms went into Bankruptcy in 2020 and the company was dissolved. A new company named RemArms is now producing Remington rifles. The recalls/replacements are no longer available.

 

[Greken12]

I read the article, however I am still confused about just how “bad” the walker trigger is? Is it recommended to always change it? I have not heard about anyone in Sweden replacing a pre 2006 Remington trigger

 

[Doom]

Over here there have been many cases of neglegent discharges and some deaths. In some cases the triggers were adjusted for lighter pull. There are also cases where the rifle discharges when the safety is moved to fire. Looking at some of the documents referenced below may help you form an opinion.

Here are documents held closely secret until released by a Federal Judge in Kansas City. It is important to have the facts and here they are.
Remington Documents | Remington Rifle Trigger Defect

Scroll down near the bottom to get to batches of documents gleaned from literally more than a million pages released as evidence in multiple cases. You'll see the case names across most of the pages or in Bates notes at the bottom.

Most shooters looking for accuracy ultimately replace the Walker and X-Mark Pro to get better feel and lighter pull. Hunters probably live with them unless they have a really bad one.

 

[Greken12]

Over here there have been many cases of neglegent discharges and some deaths. In some cases the triggers were adjusted for lighter pull. There are also cases where the rifle discharges when the safety is moved to fire. Looking at some of the documents referenced below may help you form an opinion.



Most shooters looking for accuracy ultimately replace the Walker and X-Mark Pro to get better feel and lighter pull. Hunters probably live with them unless they have a really bad one.

Alright thanks for the help!
I’m considering buying a triggertech or timney trigger. Are they using a different type of mechanism (not just copies of the walker) and are therefore safer? And is it possible to replace it myself with the right tools or should I go to a gunsmith?

 

[Doom]

My understanding is they do not have the extra piece that creates the issues and I've never heard of any issues. Installing the Timney 510 was not an issue. There are videos on YouTube and Brownells site that show how to do it. Assuming you can get to them.

 

[butchrx]

I have submitted this in the past, that I have probably owned 40 to 50 Remington 700's since buying my first 700 BDL in 30-06 back in 1970. Because of its unbelievable accuracy I bought a 243 just like it for a varmint rifle; it also turned out to be a great deer rifle. My reason for replying is that I have never had a problem with any of the rifles using a Walker trigger. Maybe one reason for no safety problems is that I have never adjusted or allowed any one else to adjust one of the triggers. Most of the accidents that I have ever read about has been the result of faulty trigger adjustment, someone
failing to put on the safety, or a real dummy pulling the rifle toward themself barrel first. Right now I have 7 700's of which only one (an LVSF 223) has the later trigger, one 721, one 722, one 788, and a 40X B which has the lightest trigger pull of any firearm I have ever owned. These, along with all the older 700's that I have bought, traded, sold or used as gifts have never had what I thought was a faulty unsafe trigger. Although I did get several requests from the past Remington Arms asking me to return my rifles for the new trigger, I did not have that done. If you are truly concerned about the safety of yours, you should replace it with a Timney trigger as has been suggested by others.

 

[Greken12]

I have submitted this in the past, that I have probably owned 40 to 50 Remington 700's since buying my first 700 BDL in 30-06 back in 1970. Because of its unbelievable accuracy I bought a 243 just like it for a varmint rifle; it also turned out to be a great deer rifle. My reason for replying is that I have never had a problem with any of the rifles using a Walker trigger. Maybe one reason for no safety problems is that I have never adjusted or allowed any one else to adjust one of the triggers. Most of the accidents that I have ever read about has been the result of faulty trigger adjustment, someone
failing to put on the safety, or a real dummy pulling the rifle toward themself barrel first. Right now I have 7 700's of which only one (an LVSF 223) has the later trigger, one 721, one 722, one 788, and a 40X B which has the lightest trigger pull of any firearm I have ever owned. These, along with all the older 700's that I have bought, traded, sold or used as gifts have never had what I thought was a faulty unsafe trigger. Although I did get several requests from the past Remington Arms asking me to return my rifles for the new trigger, I did not have that done. If you are truly concerned about the safety of yours, you should replace it with a Timney trigger as has been suggested by others.

Great to hear that you’ve never had issues with the triggers! However I’ve come to conclusion that it is better to be safe than sorry. Even though I’m always practicing muzzle discipline I would never want to risk a negligent discharge… so I’ll order a new trigger for the weapon. You recommended Timney, I’ve looked at Triggertech, but is Timney to prefer? And if that’s the case, why so?

 

[Doom]

I have submitted this in the past, that I have probably owned 40 to 50 Remington 700's since buying my first 700 BDL in 30-06 back in 1970. Because of its unbelievable accuracy I bought a 243 just like it for a varmint rifle; it also turned out to be a great deer rifle. My reason for replying is that I have never had a problem with any of the rifles using a Walker trigger. Maybe one reason for no safety problems is that I have never adjusted or allowed any one else to adjust one of the triggers. Most of the accidents that I have ever read about has been the result of faulty trigger adjustment, someone
failing to put on the safety, or a real dummy pulling the rifle toward themself barrel first. Right now I have 7 700's of which only one (an LVSF 223) has the later trigger, one 721, one 722, one 788, and a 40X B which has the lightest trigger pull of any firearm I have ever owned. These, along with all the older 700's that I have bought, traded, sold or used as gifts have never had what I thought was a faulty unsafe trigger. Although I did get several requests from the past Remington Arms asking me to return my rifles for the new trigger, I did not have that done. If you are truly concerned about the safety of yours, you should replace it with a Timney trigger as has been suggested by others.

There are many who never experienced an issue but the fact remains that many have regardless of the cause. Certainly maladjustment increases the chances. But as a mechanical engineer I can tell you that the Walker Trigger has an additional failure mode that most triggers do not have. All triggers have the potential to fail but the Walker trigger is more prone to fail.

This is of special concern when purchasing a used rifle. You have no way of knowing whether a trigger has been adjusted.

I can only speculate as to the purpose of the design but the most obvious conclusion is that it was to avoid a patent infringement suit.

On a separate note, prior to replacement I made adjustments to one of my XMarkPro triggers as a test and it did not require much pull weight adjustment to fail the drop test (Jar Off), and a little further adjustment resulted in a firing pin release on bolt closure (FBC).