Because who doesn't like wood, 30.06, a 16" barrel, and semiauto?

It'll go nicely with the 16" Ruger American.

Brings back memories, my neighbor's father had one and we would get to see it sometimes before deer season while growing up in the midwest.

It's no BAR, but I'll pretend I'm hunting Bonny and Clyde with it. Lighter than a Garand, by a bit, and mags can still be found. Apparently there are rare 20rnders.

I bet it barks. We'll find out.

I have a model 742 as well. It was my first rifle. Dad gave it to me when I started to hunt.

They certainly don't get much love. But it's a decent rifle for its intended purpose. I never had a hiccup with mine.

Found among the "nobody cares" rack. The same place I got my flesh colored used police Mossberg 590.

That looks to be in real good shape. If the plastic dust cover isn't cracked, the gun was either fired very little or not at all.

It is intact. If Gunbroker prices are accurate , I stole this thing.

Keep it clean so it doesn't live up to its nickname of "Jam-o-matic"

Bit jammy are they? Well, this one won't see hard use, I bought it on a whim for amusement.

Yeah... A bit.

Just fouling? Or ammo sensitivity as well? I have a shit ton of Garand flavored ammo. Not planning on putting anything exotic through it.

They have a very poor reputation for reliability, which seems to come down to two issues:

First, they're kind of a pain in the ass to fully disassemble and clean thoroughly, but prefer being thoroughly clean to function properly. (Especially the chamber area.) So many owners tend to neglect them, to one extent or another.

Second, the receiver rail that the bolt rides along tends to wear/deform rapidly from use, with the bolt literally beating the receiver rail to death, so even somewhat used rifles end up with cycling issues from internal wear and deformation. (This is why you can't hardly give away a used 742, and why many gun shops won't take them.)

There were apparently enough complaints that Remington even had a voluntary recall of sorts for 742s several decades ago, where you could send in a 742 for credit towards another Remington firearm. They stopped supporting the platform around the same time.

They're kind of the epitome of the "3 rounds a year Fudd gun", where a guy takes it out of the safe at the start of deer season, puts a couple rounds through it to ensure the scope is still zeroed, then puts a round into a deer, fully disassembles and cleans the rifle, and puts it back in the safe until next year's deer season. With that regimen, it'll work fine for years.


They're also not particularly accurate. Usually decent enough for minute of deer vitals at basic hunting distances, but don't be expecting the kind of MOA or sub-MOA accuracy that even budget line modern hunting rifles offer these days.

Well heck, that just makes me want to run it into the ground, but if it's that easy, is it fun?

I'm glad I didn't pay a lot for that muffler, if they're troublesome.

This sort of "shooting from the hip" on buying guns, is why I learned so much so fast about firearms when I was single. At one point my safe had a revolving door.

I didn't buy it with high expectations, so we'll see how it goes.

Just so no one gets confused or conflicted, this is a good example of when and how to be "negative" in a thread. Telling someone in concrete terms that the gun they bought may be trash. What would not be helpful or appropriate, would be a post consisting of only "Those suck," or similar terse offal.

Always happy to serve as an example of how to be a (mostly) polite asshole.

You just let me know when my powers are needed.

Growing up, a lot of my friends dads had one of those in the rack for deer season. They’d get Shot one or two times a year and that was it. Given that volume of use, they’d probably last a lifetime. Never heard any real gripes about them back then.

With any volume of shooting they get dirty quick, have issues with jamming, and the gun beats itself to death fairly quickly. That said, if I found one in good shape for a fair price I wouldn’t mind picking it up out of nostalgia.

quote:

Originally posted by copaup:
Growing up, a lot of my friends dads had one of those in the rack for deer season. They’d get Shot one or two times a year and that was it. Given that volume of use, they’d probably last a lifetime. Never heard any real gripes about them back then.

My exposure to these is fairly short, in time and money. "Hey neat, a boiled down BAR/Garand" is what I thought. Frankly, how could one knowing the volume of either of those guns, expect this one to take similar punishment? I'd say that this is a rifle meant for casual use, if ever one was. I do know guys who only hunt, and their time at the range is enough to check zero, then they fire enough to get the job done. It might actually be perfectly suited to that. It kinda is, I guess?

I might not have time to shoot it til spring. We'll see what happens then.

Call me crazy, but I'm not at all put off doing it the old fashioned way. Buying a gun I know nothing about, without asking anyone anything. Sometimes you get burned. You pays yer money, you takes yer ride.

I'll take it any day, over finding something, posting on the internet about it for dubious info, only to learn it is a hens tooth, and go back finding it gone.

Man that does look to be in great shape!

This is what I used as a kid for deer hunting. It belonged to my grandfather, but its what he loaned us kids when we went hunting (he cutting his risk used a .270 Remington bolt action with a scope).
He dutifully sighted it in every year before we got to touch it and confirmed it ran and we had to practice with a full box of ammo in front of him hitting a 'deer sized' target with enough regularity to satisfy him. Which continued for a number of years and I didn't recall it every missing a beat. So they aren't that fragile. In addition they continued to make them for a couple of decades. I still have both as passed down to me, but haven't had any inclination to go shoot either the 742 or the .270. But that one looks very nice. Good find, I love older rifles even if they can only tolerate limited use.
Good luck.

Another thing this thread brings up that I've never seen discussed. It would seem clean ammo is a necessity. Its not always produced by the big makers, and never discussed except with 22s. Some 22s are so dirty that they're not worth shooting. Worse, they aren't consistent in that regard. You buy one box and its great so you buy another and its so dirty you never buy another. Barrel length and bullet weight may have an effect.

I only rarely buy center fire ammo preferring to load my own. When I load something dirty, I switch powder. What I'm getting at is we've identified a gun and action that really needs to be fed clean burning ammo. Most of us have more than one gun in a caliber. Some of us even have semi-safe queens (lets call them princesses) that we really have no desire to dirty up. Better to fire known clean burning ammo in them.

I've never seen a rating system for how clean ammo is. Maybe we should start one. I'm not smart enough. But I know I'd like to see ratings of .38 wadcutters using both Unique and Bullseye. I don't even own a can of Unique these days. Because of how dirty it was. That was 40 or so years back. I saw no reason to give it another chance.