Remington 700 safety hard to disengage??

[NYH1]

I have a Remington 700 BDL 223 Rem. that my parents got me for my birthday and Christmas when I was a kid in 1989. . . . .wow I feel old! When they bought it, they bought it new. It's been a great rifle. However, over the last year I've noticed that the safety has been getting harder and harder to disengage. It's as easy as it was from day one to put it on safe. It's just disengaging it so I/we (as in my young son and I) can shoot it that's the problem. Now it's to the point where it's really hard and something needs to be done about it.

Have any of you had this type of issue with a Remington 700? If so, what did you do to fix it? Mine is all factory, no aftermarket parts have been added. I'd like to keep it that way. I had the trigger pull lightened a little bit in the mid 90's. That never effected anything that I could tell in the 17 or 18 years since I had it lightened.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks, NYH1.

[C-grunt]

Dirty?

[NYH1]

I took it apart. Taking the c-clip off, removing the safety lever itself and the little ball bearing. I cleaned everything. Put a little oil on it and put it back together. It's still really hard to disengage.

NYH1.