Remington 2000 - EtronX electronic ignition rifle - Brief Article

Guns Magazine, March, 2000 by Jon R. Sundra

A new electronic rifle and an ultra-high performance cartridge highlight Big Green's cutting edge technology.

Never will it be said that Remington came to the Millennium Table without a full plate. Some 16 new rifles and shotguns were unveiled by Big Green in October of last year, including the EtronX electronic ignition Model 700, an over/under 12 gauge called the Ideal 300, a re-designed 11-87 Super Mag. that shoots all 12 gauge shells, and a .338 Ultra Mag for big game.

Space limitations preclude any sort of in-depth coverage of the aforementioned, let alone the 12 other guns, so we'll limit this report to the EtronX or "E-rifle" as it's already being called, and the .338 Ultra Mag.

The Cutting Edge

I've mentioned Remington's electronic ignition rifle several times here in the pages of GUNS. Indeed, it was expected that the E-rifle would be introduced in 1998, but at the last minute Remington decided to postpone the introduction for another year to make absolutely certain it was right.

In retrospect, it's probably just as well they waited, for it's only fitting that such a -- dare I say "revolutionary" -- rifle be introduced at the dawn of a new millennium.

As this is written, the EtronX 700 is not yet available for testing, so my review is based upon one brief range session.

Surely there is no centerfire sporting rifle more familiar to GUNS readers than the Remington 700. If handed an EtronX version of it, about the only things you'd notice as being different are 1) a small "ignition key" sticking out of a slot in the center of the grip cap, 2) a toggle switch in place of the safety's normal serrated thumbpiece, and 3) a red LED recessed in a 3/16" hole atop the grip just behind the rear tang.

Other than these three visible features, the EtronX looks and feels virtually identical to a Model 700 Sendero SF (Stainless Fluted). It even wears wearing the same H-S Precision stock. On the inside, however, the gun is dramatically different.

A Shocking Change

Before we begin dissecting the gun, however, let's first examine the rationale: Why electronic ignition? Simply put -- virtual instantaneous ignition.

What's so great about that, you ask? After all, a plain ol' percussion Model 700 has one of the fastest lock times of 3.2 milli-seconds -- faster than any other sporting rifle. But the E-rifle has a lock time of 27 micro-seconds. How fast is that? Well, from the time the trigger breaks to the instant the bullet exits the muzzle of the EtronX 700, the sear on a regular 700 would not have started moving!

The E-rifle's lock time represents a 99 percent reduction from that of the regular Model 700. That's because there's no trigger/sear connection; no inertia of a heavy cocking piece and firing pin to overcome; no mainspring to expand, all of which contribute to gun movement.

The only "movement" going on in the EtronX is that of a 150-volt electrical charge along wires connecting an ordinary 9-volt battery in the buttstock to an electrode that looks a lot like a conventional firing pin, but doesn't move. Of course it's a lot more complicated than that; hell, there's a circuit board in the buttstock that could probably launch a moon rocket!

During those 27 microseconds from the time the trigger breaks to when the bullet exits the barrel -- "aiming time" if you will -- there's 64 percent less shooter-induced muzzle movement with an E-rifle. That holds true whether the gun is sitting atop sandbags on a bench or being fired offhand under field conditions.

A Matter Of Inches

Numbers-oriented shooters know that a bench-rested rifle will move around 0.12" per second during the period between let-off and bullet exit. On a conventional percussion rifle that degree of muzzle movement will account for .17" of shooter-induced dispersion at 200 yards; on an E-rifle the dispersion would be only .06".

For the average guy shooting from the standing offhand -- the unsteadiest of all positions -- muzzle movement is around .5" per second, which would result in a dispersion of .7" at 200 yards; for the E-rifle it would he only .25".

Obviously, the E-rifle will have the most impact in those disciplines where shooting is done from the unsteadiest platforms -- silhouette and position shooting, and hunting. For varminting and benchrest applications, on the other hand, E-rifle technology will be less noticeable. But with just a few ten-thousandth of an inch usually separating the winner from the also-rans in a benchrest competition, who could afford not to use this technology?

The Same But Different

It is ironic that such a seminal development takes place inside a rifle that outwardly is so similar to a percussion Model 700. The bolt looks the same; works the same; feeds a conventional cartridge from magazine to chamber, then extracts and ejects in the same way. The only difference is in the primer itself, and of course, the ignition system.

Even at that, the EtronX electronic primer is of the same dimensions as a standard 9 1/2 Large Rifle percussion primer; it's seated in the same manner using the same tools.