Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 700 safety issues

A lot has been said about the safety issues on the 700. I’m wondering if this also applies to the Remington 721, 600 or 660? Any idea? Will replacing the trigger correct the issue. I personally don’t use Remingtons but my FIL passed away and left my son a 721 and a 600. At some point his kids will be old enough to use them and I’d like to correct any potential issues before that time comes.

Don't adjust it or listen to any "guns mything" advice on this forum, and you should have no issues.

The 600,660,721 and 722 are THE fhuqking worst fire control systems,Big Green ever concocted. Hint.

I'd Timney the 600 and TriggerTech the 721. Hint.

Just sayin'..............

From a safety standpoint, the triggers are fine. As Stick gently suggested, they ain’t as adjustable or as good as the Walker on the M700’s.

I’ve had 721s/722s with good triggers, and ones that couldn’t be helped…..

Just check the pull on the triggers with gauge and take a rifle with empty chamber and hold the butt stock about 12" up from ground and then let it drop straight down on butt stock. if fire pin doesn't release with safety on then you good to go. Same can be done with a custom trigger set to dam light, they will all fail if done incorrectly regardless of who's brand.

If you can determine it's not been monkied with keep it clean, be good to go if it passes test.. if been monkied with replace.... unless you know qualified Rem repairman.

TriggerTech makes a great trigger.

The same trigger was used on every Remington bolt rifle made between 1946 and 2007 except the 788. They are all flawed and it isn't a matter of IF, but WHEN one discharges with no trigger pull. The problem was a tiny floating piece of metal inside the trigger called the trigger connector. If it happens to align in just the wrong spot the trigger and sear do not fully engage. When that happens, there is a good chance they will disengage as the gun is handled. The safety is the only think holding the firing pin back. As soon as you move the safety to the "FIRE" position the firing pin drops.

Having an improperly adjusted or dirty trigger can cause this, but brand-new Remington's have been doing this for decades. No other trigger has ever used the connector like the original Remington used.

The problem was discovered by picking up brand new 721's off the assembly line in 1946. Popular Mechanics had a brand-new rifle they were testing for an article do this in the 1970's. The engineer who designed the rifle and trigger wrote a letter to Remington management recommending the trigger connector not be used in 1946 and again in 1948. That would have added 5 cents to the cost of the rifle and management didn't make the change until October 2006.

One lawsuit in the late 70's required Remington to modify the safety so the rifle could be unloaded with the safety in the "SAFE" position. Older guns locked the bolt when on "SAFE" and required you to move the safety to "FIRE" in order to open the action. This did greatly reduce the number of incidents but didn't really solve the problem.

There have been dozens of reported incidents and over 100 lawsuits which Remington settled out of court with non-disclosure statements. The most recent one was about 10 years ago where Remington agreed to replace any old trigger with the new design. They weren't required to advertise it nor call it a recall, but if you sent them the rifle, they had to replace it at no cost. I have no idea if the new RemArms company is required to honor that or not.

My 1974 Remington has never been modified and is as clean as is possible. At some point in the 1990's I pulled the rifle out of the safe, moved the safety to the "FIRE" position in order to open the action. The firing pin fell on an empty chamber. It repeated this 2-3 times then started working normally. For another 20 years it worked perfectly before doing the same thing about 15 years ago. I'd basically retired the rifle by then but don't want my grandkids to get it in that condition. I put a Timney in mine after the 2nd incident.

There was a 2nd incident with the rifles made 2007-2014 that were doing the same thing with the new trigger. There was a recall on those. It was determined that adhesive had dripped into the trigger assemblies as those rifles were being put together. The trigger itself was fine, this was a manufaturing flaw.