Remington's Model 700 EtronX Centerfire Target Rifle Redefines The Big Bang Theory
Consider it a shot in the arm for factory sporting rifles. Remington's new Model 700 EtronX centerfire target rifle and pesky varmint bagger is more than just another gun. It's the opening salvo in what could well be the next revolution in firearms. What Remington has done is take the mechanical trigger and related hardware required to energize and release the firing pin of its standard Model 700 and replace it with an electronic trigger and an electronic, versus the usual percussive, ignition system. Why? In a word--accuracy. In two more words--simplicity and reliability.Here's a schematic from the article:
Now, I know folks (NFO, I'm looking at yoooouuuu) who won't put powered optics on their guns because, well, powered anything can fail. I can't imagine relying on an electrical contact for a firearm that I might use as a defensive weapon; I've seen far too many electrical devices fall prey to the elements, Senor Murphy, power loss, static, and a host of other problems to trust my life to an electrical trigger.
And don't even get me started about the gun control aspects. First off, anyone want to place any bets as to how many picoseconds would elapse between the time the "electronic trigger" hit the market and the LE community clamored for a device to block these triggers? Or perhaps the FedGov will mandate that all guns have this technology built in - with redundant governmental controls a la RoboCop so they can never be turned against our overlords...
But you know, I'll bet that's one of the lightest, most controllable triggers out there - I'd sure as hell love to shoot one!
That is all.
23 comments:
Paging Tom Swift, paging Tom Swift... your electric rifle is ready.
(Although, to be fair, the original book, written in 1911, had his rifle firing electric charges, not actual bullets.)
CVA has a muzzleloader with electronic ignition. Never seen one in the wild, but they must be about. Fort Knox has a special section in their hunting rules about them.
Fortunately, Midway sells the primers for the frugal reloader, only $227.50 with Haz Mat fee (plus shipping) for a box of 100! That is 100, mind you.
I kind of lost interest there.
Ooooops, it looks like that is for 1000 primers, my mistake. -- Still too much. And they will last how long?
As long as they stick to a piezoelectric setup, it's not really any more likely to fail than a fancy mechanical trigger - (i.e. anything with more than about five moving parts). Similarly, outside of (possibly) an EMP, electricity doesn't provide any more options for remotely disabling it.
On the other hand, I say the words '8 bit computer' in the article. I'm hoping that's just some crap journalism, because if not, that opens a huge range of possible problems.
This was ringing bells, and now I know why. Look at the date on the article.
2004.
It was a neat idea plagued by problems, and Remington discontinued it. If you head over to their site and search for "etronx", link 7 is "Obsolete Manual Request Page: ... Model 700 Etronx"
But a big reason I like guns is because they're the last thing being made that haven't ben taken over by electronics. I like little springs and levers, I like taking apart my guns to clean them...
Yeah, that one died an early and well founded death... I don't run ANY battery powered devices on my rifles because they WILL fail at the worst possible time... Do I pay more for my 'outdated' technology, sure! If you want to call an ACOG outdated... :-)
Next up: the latest on Caseless Ammo! ; )
"This was ringing bells, and now I know why. Look at the date on the article.
2004."
I was going to say, "Did this not come and go about a decad ago?" and then I said to myself, How many times was America discovered, again?"
jimbob86
wv-"calum"
Calumny: the assertion that the Walker trigger, properly adjusted and maintained, is unsafe.
I suggested electrically primed ammunition on Fidonet back around 1990 and the forum moderator warned me not to do it again. I think he was afraid some half-wit would build a rifle cartridge with a spark gap for a primer and his cat would ignite it with static electricity.
Alright, alright. Mental note made: Check articles for expiration dates...
:D
@libertyman
I'm not sure where you're looking on Midway. I saw 5000 Large Rifle primers for $137 on Midway. The only way you go over $200 for 5000 is if you're looking at benchrest primers or primers for 50BMG.
@Laughingdog - the EtronX rifles won't function with standard primers, they have to use the special EtronX primers. Low demand, insanely expensive.
They're re-visitinig this crap after how long?
That is a remarkable failure to grasp "if it ain't broke don't fix it" regardless of original publication date. And when you can tune the mechanical ones to go off so light that you have to set them down *gently* if the muzzle is up... yeesh.
If you're going to go electrical, you might as well go whole hog like the guys at Metalstorm did, and actually do a quantum leap of what the weapon can perform.
(future weapons) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXECU3YKMfI
(shooting the Maul) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HurZ1dlPJk
(shooting the 3GL)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP_GTx4o134
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6GJLpDjuTw
Stingray - I actually understand WHY they did it, and I applaud Remington for spending the money on the research. That's how we progress.
The WHY is lock time. Since there are no sears, springs, etc involved, and the firing pin is actually touching the primer when the bolt closes, the lock time is from "switch closed" to "electrons reach the primer". The numbers I saw when re-reading articles today were on the order of 0.00003s lock time, instead of 0.003s in a standard 700.
From a benchrest point of view, that's ... unreal.
Well, there's a reason they put the system on a hunting rifle. Obviously you don't want things to fail there either, but checking that the battery's fine before going out isn't that hard.
I'm not sure that a standard trigger set up "to go off so light that you have to set them down *gently* if the muzzle is up" is really a better solution. One wonders if that little 8-bit chip'd be powerful enough to take inputs from some sort of motion tracking/vibration sensor and wait until the rifle was perfectly still to fire (with the trigger held down of course).
Well, there's a reason they put the system on a hunting rifle. Obviously you don't want things to fail there either, but checking that the battery's fine before going out isn't that hard.
I'm not sure that a standard trigger set up "to go off so light that you have to set them down *gently* if the muzzle is up" is really a better solution. One wonders if that little 8-bit chip'd be powerful enough to take inputs from some sort of motion tracking/vibration sensor and wait until the rifle was perfectly still to fire (with the trigger held down of course).
One of the original objections was "So when does the .gov state 'must use 'x' battery, and then restrict access to those batteries?"
Which, first time I heard it, I thought was kind of silly. Then I started actually listening to some of the crap from Schumer & Co....
Let's see. Large Rifle 9-1/2 primers are about 3¢ each. Electronix primers are about $2 each. Yeah, I want that. NOT. If they had retained a standard primer I might have thought about it.
Needs a "double set" trigger that generates the firing electrical charge so no batteries are needed. Of course, one EMP pulse and it becomes an expensive club.
@Unknown: Well.. haven't you always wanted a rifle with one of those survival light charging cranks on the side? 'Survivcool' can be the new 'tacticool'.
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