Remington 740

[Cast Iron]

Anyone had any dealings with a Remington 740 in 30-06? I have shot this one about a dozen times and it has worked well with no jams or other problems so far. It is shooting factory Federal 180 grain at 1 1/2 inches or better at 100 yards. This is a gun I picked up about 10 years ago and just sort of forgot about it. I have loaded a few 165 grain bullets to try in it and was just wondering how reliable they are? It will not be used where dangerous game is located. If all works out well I might try it on a few deer this fall.

[Hunt&FishAK]

The Remington auto 7400? If that's the case then it's a reliable gun IMO. My father has put down many elk, bears and deer with his. However extreme cold weather can make a nightmare. 165s should do fine for deer, and black bear. I've never seen a malfunction with his. It's an early model as well.

[sayak]

The 740s are good I've heard. The 742s have a bad rep for the aluminum carrier wearing out; a problem Remington dealt with for a while and then abandoned owners with thousands of defective guns. The 740 fixed that problem, I believe.

Yukon Cornelius, if you read this, is that you with a Youtube about the 742's jamming problem? I had one briefly several years ago, then got rid of it when I found out about the problem. It was a pretty rifle too.

[Cast Iron]

The gun I am talking about is a 740. The 742 took it's place after it was made for about 5 years.

[gunbugs]

740's were made from '55 to '59, 742's from '60 to '80. They both suffer from the same weakness, that being when the bolt and carrier are blown to the rear, they strike the rear of the receiver, and when they do, it tries to cam the bolt into the closed position, and the topmost set of locking lugs strike the edge of the slot that they ride in at the top of the receiver, and after several hundred strikes, will beat a set of notches into the slot. Then, when the rifle is fired, the bolt will go to the rear, strike the rear of the receiver, cam over, and engage the new set of notches it has made, and lock to the rear. Now you have to pull the trigger housing to release the bolt forward, every time. The later 7400 series did away with the multiple lug arrangement and had a sheet steel insert in the top of the receiver to solve the issue.
The other issue is keeping the chamber clean. As there is no easy access to the rear of the barrel, the chambers will get dirty, carboned up, and rusted, which will cause failure to extract and/or eject. Also they will break extractors, as this puts excessive force on the extractor. The chambers must be kept clean for reliable functioning. A flexible cable type cleaning rod will help do this. Remington sells an angled wire brush widget as well.
I've worked on a LOT of these rifles over the years, and these are the two common failures. They have a limited life span as to the number of rounds you can put through them.
And to clear up misinformation, none of the parts are aluminum, they are all steel.

[sayak]

The gun I am talking about is a 740. The 742 took it's place after it was made for about 5 years.

Yup, had that backwards.

[sayak]

I looked into a gun shop that would turn the 740 into a pump action. Decided it wasn't worth it.

[Cast Iron]

I shot 4 of the 5 rounds I had loaded today and they worked well. I shot then all within less than a minute and 2 were touching and the other 2 were at a 45 degree angle high and to the right about a 1/2 inch apart. I laid the gun on a cushion and shot from that. My main concern was that my handloads would cycle through the gun, and they did. I saved the 5th round to measure to see if the bullet had slipped in the case from recoil and it had not. Loaded 15 more rounds tonight to check for accuracy and conograph when I get time.

[Lowrider]

Had couple 742's and both didn't work out. I came across a 760 pump that shoots every time and shoots nice hunting grade groups with whatever I feed it. The secret is the 760 has a floating barrel and I was going to sell it for a 7400...glad I didn't..it seems to have found a comfortable spot in my truck!! I have thoughts about a rebore to .338-06 but there really isn't much the 06 won't do as it is.

[Hudge]

My dad's only hunting rifle was a 742 .243 Win. I have it sitting in my safe right now, and just put a new scope on it recently. I have taken a couple of whitetails in AR with it, and so has my oldest son. I have thought about taking it caribou hunting a time or two, but never have. I did have a jamming problem one time, but it was the magazine, not the part that gunbugs talks about. I am well aware of that issue as well, and have told few people about it and they eventually replaced the parts to solve the jamming issues.

[akblackdawg]

7400 problem

740's were made from '55 to '59, 742's from '60 to '80. They both suffer from the same weakness, that being when the bolt and carrier are blown to the rear, they strike the rear of the receiver, and when they do, it tries to cam the bolt into the closed position, and the topmost set of locking lugs strike the edge of the slot that they ride in at the top of the receiver, and after several hundred strikes, will beat a set of notches into the slot. Then, when the rifle is fired, the bolt will go to the rear, strike the rear of the receiver, cam over, and engage the new set of notches it has made, and lock to the rear. Now you have to pull the trigger housing to release the bolt forward, every time. The later 7400 series did away with the multiple lug arrangement and had a sheet steel insert in the top of the receiver to solve the issue.
The other issue is keeping the chamber clean. As there is no easy access to the rear of the barrel, the chambers will get dirty, carboned up, and rusted, which will cause failure to extract and/or eject. Also they will break extractors, as this puts excessive force on the extractor. The chambers must be kept clean for reliable functioning. A flexible cable type cleaning rod will help do this. Remington sells an angled wire brush widget as well.
I've worked on a LOT of these rifles over the years, and these are the two common failures. They have a limited life span as to the number of rounds you can put through them.
And to clear up misinformation, none of the parts are aluminum, they are all steel.

I picked up a 7400 30-06 and have had it out a couple times, shoots fine but the cartridge in the magazine is going into the chamber ok, just not firing. I fire the first round, it ejects and reloads ok, but won't fire. Its like the slide is going back far enough to reload it, but not quite far enough to cock the hammer where it would be ready to fire. I squeeze the trigger for the second round and nothing, just a squeeze, no pop, no click. I just gave it a good cleaning and everything seems ok to my ignorant eye, any suggestion on what I should look for to fix the problem if the cleaning doesn't do it. It appeared pretty clean when I went through it.

[BrownBear]

One other thing to check: You probably already did this, but make sure the bolt is all the way forward. There's a trigger disconnect that prevents the trigger from being pulled if the bolt isn't 100% closed. Dunno what to suggest after that.

I've owned both 740's and 742's in 06 over the years and fired thousands of rounds through them with only one hitch. The lips on the magazines eventually opened a little and I had feeding problems. Ditch the mag and put in a new one, and all was good again. Virtually all of my shooting was with 200's and 220's and recoil was a little starchy, but no other issues.

[gunbugs]

Sounds like the hammer is following the bolt forward when firing. The problem will be in the trigger group. The lever that engages the operating slide lifts the disconnector on the trigger group. It is possible to assemble it with the tab on top of the disconnector, instead of under it, where it belongs.

[Smitty of the North]

GUNBUGS:

Thanks, I appreciate that info.

Smitty of the North

[akblackdawg]

GUNBUGS:

Thanks, I appreciate that info.

Smitty of the North

thank you, I will take a look at that.