No the original designer did NOT say the design was flawed-he said it was POSSIBLE that IF people did not properly clean and maintain the rifle-dirt and/or excess oil in the trigger assembly MIGHT cause it to discharge-MIGHT,COULD POSSIBLY. The man who designed the trigger-Mr. Walker NEVER ONCE said the design was flawed.
If it is such a bad trigger assembly-why does the military specify that the remington 700’s that both the US Army,and the USMC use as their main sniper rifle-comes with the Walker trigger?
The US military has used the remington 700 as their main sniper rifle since the early sixties,and they still use it.
All CNBC did was try to make guns look bad,as usual,mayor for life Bloomberg likely financed the story.
For the same reason the Remington 700 became the most-sold rifle in the civilian market: it was the cheapest. The military gives the contract to the lowest cost bidder, not the guy with the best product design.
The entire history of the Remington 700 is one of cost reduction. That’s why it has a round receiver, why it doesn’t have controlled round feeding, why it has a flimsy extractor, why it has a three-piece bolt that is soldered together rather than a one-piece forged bolt that is selectively heat treated. Cost reduction. It certainly isn’t because round receivers are stiffer than flat-bottom receivers. It is because it is easier to machine a round receiver, because you can chuck it up in a lathe and dial it in very fast, without the use of jigs.
That’s what caused Winchester to drop the controlled round feed Model 70 and go to a push feed: cost. Competing with the 700 made it impossible for Winchester to sustain the cost of labor in the Model 70 after the early 60’s.
That said, the Winchester trigger (even post-64) is still a better design, and the three position direct-acting safety on a Mauser or Winchester is clearly superior to trigger blocking safety or (as in the original Remington trigger group) a safety that blocks the sear from dropping.
Cheapest isn’t the best. It is just the cheapest.