"The 1988 Classic 35 Whelen I bought at B'Ham has turned out beautiful and it shoots real good, sub half inch. But it is light weight and when you get 200gr or more moving, that light rifle tends to thump you pretty good."
You got that right.
I have one but you shouldn't have a problem with the trigger. I believe, IIRC that Remington went to a newer trigger around 1982. I could be wrong.
I also have a Classic in 30-06. My BDL 30-06 was made before 1982 and has never given me any trouble. My Remington 660 was recalled and the abortion of trigger they put in as a replacement got seriously worked on and now works fine.
Years back before all this came to a head, I was invilved with an M700 ADL in .270 that supposedly went off when a fellow took the safety off to open the bolt. The bullet hit his wife in both knees causing her to lose both legs. As I had been working with the local gunsmith, who had passed away, the gun was brought to me for inspection and to see if I could make it fie under the same type circumstances as the alleged accident. Try as I might, I never could make the gun fire off accidently. My thought was he had his finger on the trgger when he took the safety off, thus shoting his wife. I told them I couldn't help them and I did have that gun for two weeks. I used a primed casein stead of a live round.
These days, when asked, I tell people to hunt with the chamber empty on the Remington 700. It's no big deal most of the time when hunting. Just chamber the round when a shot is imminent. Unload the chambe if the shot doesn't ccome about. The gun can't shoot someone if there is no round in the chamber.
Paul B.