I own three Remington 700s and never had a problem. All three were manufactured in the 60s.Greybeard wrote:Yep, watched it. In fact, The Wife gave me a heads up on it in time to text a few buddies to watch it too. Tonight's show indicates a possible problem even with their newer trigger. But there are still over 7 million of them out there with the original "Walker" trigger.
In all of our hunter ed classes we have a segment where anyone who has had an unintentional discharge of any kind gets to tell the class what happened. In the past 20 years of doing the classes, I have had at least a dozen students describe their 700s going off unexpectedly. Sometimes by simply taking the safety off or working the bolt to chamber or unchamber a round. One our other hunter ed instructors has heard similar from about the same number of students (and sit-in parents) that I have.
Another instructor from Lubbock had a story of his own from the 1980s. Fearful of letting his 11 yo unload a .243 around other people, he took it (ADL model) from him and began jacking rounds out on the ground. The first few went fine, but the last one blew out side window of (unoccupied) Suburban then exited the roof. And as a certified hunter ed instructor, he had 2 hours to drive home and explain that one to his wife.
Back in the late 70s I went hunting with a friend [who was in my hunter safety class].
His Remington 700 30-06 rifle discharged a round when he engaged the safety.
Fortunately the muzzle was pointed in a safe direction.
He got a big blood blister on his thumb from the recoil.