What's truly unique about the Anniversary Edition is its semi-gloss American walnut Classic Deluxe-style stock, which has custom laser-engraved checkering in an intricate pattern on the sides of the grip and wrapping around the fore-end, a raised "Model Seven" logo carved in both sides of the fore-end checkering, and "25th Anniversary" on the fore-end bottom. It also has an intricate pewter-finish 25th Anniversary medallion inset in the pistol-grip cap and a satin-silver Remington "R" trademark etched on the blued magazine floorplate. Plus, the stock features Remington's new high-cushioning, thick SuperCell recoil pad, which is frankly an unusual feature to find on a rifle chambered for such a mild-recoiling cartridge as the 7mm-08. But it does make this Model Seven an extraordinarily comfortable gun to shoot.

Overall, it is a beautiful, traditional American-styled package.

Trigger Talk
In performance terms, the most important new element of this otherwise classic Model Seven 25th Anniversary Edition, and the feature that will likely be seen as separating all future Model Sevens from those of its first 25 years, is the inclusion of Remington's new X-Mark Pro trigger system that was first announced last year. Even if you're only a casual rifle shooter, you're keenly aware that the trigger is the only point where a shooter actually interfaces with the mechanics of his gun at the moment of fire. No matter how "mechanically accurate" a rifle may be, if it has a stiff, crawly, inconsistent trigger pull, it will not be capable of consistent, precision accurate shooting--even for a champion marksman.

Remington's previous Model Seven/Model 700 trigger mechanism was a fine design with multiple adjustment capabilities. It was superior to the majority of other "standard factory" bolt-action rifle triggers and was capable of refined tuning in the hands of a skilled riflesmith. But Remington didn't want you, the owner, to adjust it and told you not to, in no uncertain terms. If the shellac seals on the adjustment screws were broken, the gun's warranty is void.

It was a tricky mechanism to set properly in the first place, requiring factory assembly fitters to reach an exact balance for each individual trigger mechanism in the positioning of the various adjustment screws. And as the many Model Seven and Model 700 users who ignored Remington's strictures and adjusted their triggers themselves discovered, it was also very easy to over-adjust on the light side, leading to a situation where the sear might not hold when the bolt was closed or where disengaging the safety might release the firing pin.

Remington's new X-Mark Pro trigger system, with its integrated safety mechanism, eliminates these problems. If you're an old hand with Remington rifles, you probably won't believe this until you actually work one. It breaks like glass, has virtually zero creep, and offers a truly superior level of shot control. The introduction of the X-Mark Pro comes during an industry-wide period of attention to the issue of quality trigger pulls (see "Trigger Renaissance: A New Era In Factory Triggers" in the April 2008 issue of ST). But while other new trigger systems use what Remington terms "gadgets and add-ons to hide inconsistencies," Remington's approach was to re-engineer its conventional trigger design by applying state-of-the-art modern manufacturing techniques with the tightest possible production tolerances.