“A Remington Moment”

In the Canadian Firearms Safety Course manual one of the review questions asks whether a half cock safety can be depended on. I use this question for open discussion in my classes to emphasize that NOTHING on a firearm can be totally depended on, let alone the safety. This last week I had an incident with my hunting rifle on a long awaited Elk draw hunt that prevented my collecting my first elk.

If you are not familiar with Remington Model 700 rifles and their inherent problems, then watch the documentary ‘Remington Under Fire’. The type of incidences expressed there is what I experienced last week.

I have sent the following letter to Remington and they electronically forwarded to a distributor in Quebec, Gravel Agencies Inc. What good they will do remains to be seen, but in fairness, I forwarded the reply from Remington to them and am waiting for their reply.

The letter is as follows:

Dear Sirs;

In the late 1970’s I purchased a Remington Model 700 LH BDL Serial # A6511326 on the advice of my fellow colleagues and hunters. Reason? It is arguable the most accurate rifle out of the box, it was left hand, it was affordable. As a beginning school teacher, I could only afford to be a one gun man so the calibre I chose was 7 mm Remington Magnum as it suited the variety of game in our area which ranges from antelope to moose.
I really like the rifle because with specific hand loads I could put 5 shots off the rest at 100 yards and use a 25 cent piece to cover all five shots. I have it sighted in for 3.2 inches high at 100 yards so it gives me an 8 inch diameter tube (no more than 4 inches high or low out to 335 yards) with a Nosler 162 grain boat tail partition bullet. Muzzle velocity is approximately 3100 ft/sec.

I have had 3 incidences with this firearm that I attributed to being my mishandling of the firearm that now I am convinced it is a symptom of the rifle itself.

#1 In the mid 1980’s when I was unloading my rifle during a cold weather hunt, when I pushed the safety off, the rifle fired. I assumed at the time it was because I was wearing gloves and the end of one of the fingers may have touched the trigger. Since then, I only put my hand on the trigger or in the trigger guard when my hands are warm and ungloved.

#2 Two years ago, as an instructor for the Canadian Firearms Safety Course, I was demonstrating to students how some rifles need to have the safety off in order to remove a loaded round in the chamber. I did not have a round in the chamber, but the firearm was cocked. When I pushed the safety off, the mechanism fired. I commented to myself that shouldn’t have happened. The students did not notice.

It was only two weeks later I watched a program ‘Remington Under Fire’ and realized that my rifle might have that symptom so I cleaned the rifle as well as I could and then took it to a gun smith to check it out for me. He said that after at least 100 repetitions of cocking and putting the safety on and off, he had no malfunctions. Rest assured that my firearm would not malfunction, I took this rifle on my one and only elk hunt that I waited over 8 years to win the draw.

#3 I had a 6 point elk with an estimated scoring between 350 and 375 in my sights at 328 yards. I squeezed the trigger, but when realizing the safety was on, I took my finger out of the trigger guard and the rifle off the rest and pushed the safety forward. It fired!

I was devastated to say the least. At 64 years old I doubt that I will have another opportunity again. Another 8 year wait is out of the question.

Knowing first hand that this firearm does this will not allow me to take it hunting anymore. Though I practice safe muzzle control at all times, if I sell this firearm in an auction or whatever, I cannot take the chance that the next owner will be as safe as I have been. I do not want this on my conscience.

Unless you have other suggestions, in my courses I am going to have to relegate this firearm as an example of a very accurate firearm but one that is quite unsafe. One thing is for sure, it will not end up in someone’s unsuspecting hands to have an incident far more dire than just malfunctioning on a once in a lifetime elk hunt.

Yours truly,

James L. Lazzari

I will keep you posted.

October 25: Received an email from the Remington rep and they wish me to send them the rifle and they will fix it.

November 25: I received the rifle back from Remington. They had changed the trigger assembly with an X-Mark Pro LH Black(OS). Now the bolt can extract the cartridge without the Safety being released. It now operates like the new models and the trigger is no longer the Walker model. Thank you Remington!

An update!

Remington is doing a recall on rifles with the X-Pro trigger installed. That is the new trigger they put in my rifle. Apparently it will discharge unprovoked.

After contacting Remington, they assured me that they would replace trigger and recommended that I not use the firearm and to send the firearm  back to them in the prepaid container that they will send to me.

Within three weeks, I had my firearm back.

I have sighted it in and every things seems  to work fine, thanks to Remington.