Remington Model 700 - Misfiring Controversy

Misfiring Controversy

On 20 October 2010, CNBC televised a program, Remington Under Fire: a CNBC Investigation, reporting that the trigger mechanism used prior to 2007 on the model 700 could fire without the trigger being squeezed. The report stated that Remington has received thousands of customer complaints since the firing mechanism was introduced in the 1940s, and that nearly two dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries had been attributed to inadvertent discharges of 700 series rifles. Through internal Remington documents, the program showed that on multiple occasions, the company considered recalling the product.

The inventor of the firing mechanism, Merle "Mike" Walker, 98 years old at the time of the documentary, told CNBC he proposed what he called a safer trigger in 1948 while the product was still in the testing stage. Walker said his enhanced design was rejected because of the added cost, 5 1/2 cents per gun. Critics of the documentary countered that every incident featured on the program involving loss of life was the result of firearms mishandling where owners pointed their rifles at other human beings. Remington responded with the website Remington Model 700 Network which gives direct rebuttals to the program, and the context to the incidents the program makes claims apart. Remington dismisses the allegations, pointing out that in every case either trigger mechanisms of the rifles were adjusted or altered beyond recommended specifications, rifles were poorly maintained and left to rust, or the misuser of the rifle admitted to police they might "possibly" have pulled the trigger.

Though Remington has since changed to a new, cheaper, trigger mechanism design, the original Walker trigger continues in production to meet the needs of the US military and buyers of custom rifles.