Caribou Gear

Remington X-Mark Pro Trigger

Brian in Montana

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Jan 20, 2017
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Ramsay, MT
A couple days ago I bought a Remington 700 SPS Stainless in a 7mm-HT (that's another story). All I've done with it so far is clean it, oil it, and dry fire it. I gotta say, I'm not exactly impressed with the trigger system. I'm a little surprised by it, in fact. I've had a couple of older-model Remingtons (still have a Mod 600 with an old Walker trigger). My wife has a 700 in a .270 with the same X-Mark trigger on it and I've been very impressed with that one.

On the 7-08, the trigger is very heavy. I backed the adjustment screw out until it was poking into my trigger finger and I could see it was obviously not making any difference anymore, but it's still pretty darn heavy. I don't own a trigger gague to test the weight, but it's well heavier than the .270 or my Tikka. I read on the intenet you could just remove the adjustment screw without problems, so I went ahead and did that. I plan on spending some time at the range before I make any major alterations, but so far, I think this trigger assembly is not great. It's crisp, doesn't have any real creep to speak of, but after the rifles I'm accustomed to, I don't think I can cope with it being as heavy as it is.

Any other 700 shooters experience this? Is there any other way, internally, to adjust the weight and get it lighter?
 
In the build I am doing I talked to a lot of gunsmiths and not one recommend that trigger. All of them told me they were not worth working on and to just replace the assembly with a Timney.
 
Super easy fix.

1. Remove stock
2. Remove pins holding trigger assembly
3. Throw away x-mark, Replace with timney
4. Reverse steps one and two, and torque stock screws to spec

The advice about the timney is spot on, and you can do it yourself in about 10 minutes. Keep your eyes peeled they go on sale all the time.
 

Every time I get a new rifle I look at a Rem700 --- so much aftermarket support, a standard for decades. And every time I start looking into triggers. Un-safe designs from the factory in recent years, sketchy feedback on aftermarket solutions, etc. and the result is all the same -- I buy something else, Tikka, Browning, Weatherby, Savage . . . . Seems weird the #1 seller for years has such problems at the primary user control point on the device.
 
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Never had problems with my old Rem. ADL 700 trigger even after adjusting it, but I dropped a Timney in it about 20 yrs ago when I went to BDL & new stock.
EZ-PZ excellent triggers.
 
I will probably get a Timney for it eventually, but I'll probably fart with it a little first because I like to fart with stuff.

I found a couple of youtube videos last night with guys showing how that adjustment screw in the trigger blade is essentially useless (I figured that out on my own), and they were showing how to lighten the X-Mark via the other screws in the trigger assembly, but Remington actually puts an epoxy over them as they come off the assembly line and if you break that epoxy and make your own adjustments, you have effectively voided the warrenty.

VikingsGuy said, "Seems weird the #1 sell for years has such problems at the primary user control point on the device."

I totally agree with this. It does seem weird. I've had a few Remingtons over the years and actually really liked the triggers. I also mentioned my wife's .270 - that one is an X-Mark, but it is crisp, light, and a pleasure to squeeze. Before I bought this new one, I'd seen lots of mixed reviews on line and didn't really pay a great deal of mind to it since my own experience had been pretty good so far. I'll probably wait until I've run 50 or so rounds through it before I start taking it apart and messing with it too much, just in case there's something else wrong and I wind up needing that warranty.
 
I put in a new trigger spring from Ernies Gunsmitthing dot com. Not sure it helped much but I never had a problem with it. Other than that spring I didn't mess with it. Files and triggers usually lead to problems. I dropped a jewell in it and have never looked back. Never had the jewell freeze up but I don't drag my rifle thru the mud/snow/water either.
 
On any new Remingtons, the first thing I do is replace the X-mark with a Timney. The new X-marks are junk and aren't even worth trying to tune. Older X-marks were not as bad. I cant remember when they changed them, but there is a difference.
 
Well let's think about this a moment. The old Walker trigger's were unsafe. The trigger they replaced it with is junk. I have never fooled with the new trigger's but I have had Remington 700 for a whole lot of year's. I have adjusted every one myself. I have never had a problem with any Remington trigger. From what I understand, less than 1% of the walker trigger's were unsafe. The only one's really unsafe, IMO, are the one's in the hands of someone who would be unsafe with a cap gun.

First I;d heard of the trigger problem was many years ago. Some idiot in Texas was unloading his Remington sitting on the front seat of his truck and managed to blow his own foot away! That qualifies as a stupid idiot mistake! He got a cheap lesson in gun safety and I bet he has no idea what that was even today!
 
Well let's think about this a moment. The old Walker trigger's were unsafe. The trigger they replaced it with is junk. I have never fooled with the new trigger's but I have had Remington 700 for a whole lot of year's. I have adjusted every one myself. I have never had a problem with any Remington trigger. From what I understand, less than 1% of the walker trigger's were unsafe. The only one's really unsafe, IMO, are the one's in the hands of someone who would be unsafe with a cap gun.

First I;d heard of the trigger problem was many years ago. Some idiot in Texas was unloading his Remington sitting on the front seat of his truck and managed to blow his own foot away! That qualifies as a stupid idiot mistake! He got a cheap lesson in gun safety and I bet he has no idea what that was even today!

I don't care if it is 1 in 10, 1 in 100 or 1 in 1,000, any firearm that is engineered in a way that is known to accidentally discharge in my opinion has no business being in anyone's gun safe. I get that accidents happen, nothing is perfect, and that is why gun safety demands we assume a gun may go off unexpectedly, but to carry a gun that can be expected to fail at a know rate and in a known manner is inexcusable from my perspective. In my opinion, "I haven't had a problem" is a weak defense, and is no more convincing than saying that in the 80's we all used to drive drunk and none of my buddies killed anybody so what's all the fuss with DUI these days.
 
Hmmmmm.... Guess I have some inexcuseable rifles then. The Remington trigger rant is a bit old. mtmuley
 
Hmmmmm.... Guess I have some inexcuseable rifles then. The Remington trigger rant is a bit old. mtmuley

For me gun safety never gets old - when it does, my kids have my permission to take them away from me.

Given all the time and money that gets spent on guns, ammo, etc. there is no excuse not to take the FREE new trigger from Rem or buy a $125 replacement from somebody like Timeny. If gun safety was only for the accidents I have seen or accidents that occur more frequently than 1 in 100, then I should be able to put my loaded rifle on safe and point it right at someone with my finger inside the trigger guard, as I am sure modern safeties have less than a 1% failure rate and I have never personally seen one fail. But to me a known, and easily fixable, risk is not ok. There are enough uncontrollable/unforeseeable risks in the outdoors, the least we should do is clean up the ones we know about.
 
After what Remington has been thru I am surprised they sell a rifle with less than a 50 LB trigger pull
 
700 CDL that had an X-Mark trigger. Didn't think it was that bad of a trigger, certainly I have guns with worse ones. But, after the safety issues I replaced it with a Timney for peace of mind.
 
Rifle manufacturer's should just send rifle's out the door with custom triggers on them. Then they could still sell at the reg price plus the cost of the new trigger plus say 10%. Actually I've only ever had one custom trigger, a Timney. Disaster! First couldn't get it in where it would work. Then when I finally did, the bolt stop wouldn't stop the bolt. Called Timney and they sent me a new bolt stop and again the bolt wouldn't work. Removed the trigger to get the bolt in and than it wouldn't come out. Think I'll stick with my old junk Walker trigger's, they have not failed me in about 50 yrs!
 
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