Nice looking rifle, the type many hunters would buy in my youth, who wanted a new gun. Though the pre-WWII fineness of American guns was slipping, they were still blued steel and nice walnut. Compared to most guns today, with laminated stocks and flat bead blasted metal, these still look like American guns from several generations previous in the 20th century.

 

A 308 woodsmaster , along with an eleven hundred are some sweet long arms that put a lot of meat on the table in the early sixties to the early eighties. Millions made , they looked damn good doing it too , American Style . Probably in a Ford or Chevy 4x with a clutch , as well .
Great times to be a baby boomer , aye ?
Shot @ Lordship as a pre teen , no 57 Chevys for me……….. Anyways , sweet rifle - brought back some good memories. You know they’d still drop the game as good today , while still commanding visual attention. Thanks for a good thread

 

A 308 woodsmaster , along with an eleven hundred are some sweet long arms that put a lot of meat on the table in the early sixties to the early eighties. Millions made , they looked damn good doing it too , American Style . Probably in a Ford or Chevy 4x with a clutch , as well .
Great times to be a baby boomer , aye ?
Shot @ Lordship as a pre teen , no 57 Chevys for me……….. Anyways , sweet rifle - brought back some good memories. You know they’d still drop the game as good today , while still commanding visual attention. Thanks for a good thread

I can relate Sir…. It was 1979. My 3/4 Ton 4X4 Chevy Long bed. 4-speed with granny 9.00 Buckshots on the rims. And a .270 as stated above in the rear window gunrack. That was my Era. 💪💪

 

I worked in a gun shop for a couple years around 1980, probably 90% of the new deer rifles we sold were either 760's or 742's and 95% were in 30-06. I was in MD and guys who hunted in PA bought the 760 pump, everyone else bought the 742 auto loader.
I helped a lot of guys sight in their guns for deer season and a bunch of my friends had either one of these Remington's. Many or most of these guys weren't avid shooters and their rifles weren't cleaned from year to year, put away last day hunting and never taken out of the gun case until the following year. Most never seen more than two boxes of shells fired through them. The 742's never shot well, they functioned but shot all over although good enough for deer in the woods. But the 760's shot pretty good and stayed sighted-in, but they were rattle traps, the pump rattled.

 

Here in Michigan many, many meals were provided by that rifle and still are. Someone forgot to tell a lot of skilled, big woods public land hunters that those rifles don’t work.

 

 

I recently acquired a 1989 30-06 Remington 7400 Carbine. It's in near perfect condition.
Short 18-inch barrel carries well! I think Remington made 40 thousand of the carbines.
I cleaned it up and took it to the range. The mags are junk! Otherwise, it shot well with a cheap 1X4 scope.
It kicks like a mule!
I keep my eye out an older Leupold for it. I won't shoot the hell out of it.
If I hunt next year, I'll take this lightweight handy carbine out.
A few photos.

 

The Remington autos in my neck of the woods held up nicely for those who fed and cared for them well. The couple-few who treated them like rented mules or surplus autos... not so much. And MAAAAN, were those clowns vocal about what piles o' crap they perceived them to be. Also, buying used was one of the first firearms that I recall my seniors advising getting a professional opinion on first. One jack-wagon ruining ONE gun can lead to years of bad experiences for the many unfortunates who later bought the same rifle only to keep garnering bad experiences from it. Like a bad penny that won't work in any machines just keeps getting passed off except in that scenario - folk don't bitch about pennies in general being crap.

Some regular rules kept them happy like never bring a 'cold' gun into the ice-house, cabin or heated cab of the truck unless it was going to get properly cleaned and oiled in short order.
Never shoot that dirty *** ammo sold so often back in the day. It's all gone now so mentioning it will only start heated debates.
Spare magazines are only for alternative loads and NOT quick-change-ammo-dumps!

Like the slide-action series of outstanding hunters - this architecture suffers fools poorly but rewards a conscientious owner with many years of reliable service.
Seeing folk appreciate and respect them as above makes me wonderfully happy.

 

Semi-autos were not permitted for hunting here in PA, one of the largest deer-hunting states in the NE. It's pump-action 760-7600 stablemate was a very popular rifle and was often referred to as the "New Pennsylvania Rifle".
Though Remington used some nice wood, that pressed-in 'checkering' pattern really looked like hell IMO. The first versions of these rifle used a plain walnut stock.

 

Taking that Rem-Varnish off really helps one cope with the phoned-in 'checkering'.

 

Don't know if it is true, but the story I heard is that guys who had used the Garand and M1 Carbine in WWII and Korea were the customer base for these semi autos. Cared for they were not unattractive and performed decently. Seemed like a handy woods gun. I always favored and used bolt guns.

 

For many years teh Remington 742 was THE deer rifle throughout the mid-west, and it seemed most hunters used them.
At my old gun club we held sighting in days for hunters and about all that showed were 742's.

Where they failed to stand up was in lots of shooting, especially fast shooting.
We had a couple of people who used 742's to shoot the DCM match to qualify to buy an M1 Rifle.
As I call, non of them went the course without trouble.

But for the usual 2 shots or so needed for a deer they worked well.
Very few of them ever fired more then 10-15 rounds in their lifetime, being a deer-specific tool.

 

I've seen some 742-760s that were easily 1in 5-shot guns. They both had a fairly heavy free-floating barrel.

 

My dad hunted with one of these in .30-06 then in 1964 he traded it to a friend who needed a semi auto for some kind of competition. He told this to me later since I was only seven then. But the gun he got was his favorite until his death in 2008. A first year production 1963 Winchester 88 in .284. it’s in my safe now.

 

Nothing like a little slamfire to make your heart skip a beat.

 

Here’s one in action. My dad holding his .30-06 in 1963 a year before he traded it for his Winchester lever action Model 88 .284. I was six then.

 

Great photo.

Related, the .284 did everything right. Should have been a runaway success.

 

Never owned a 742, but did have a very similar 760 pump in 30-06. There was a kit you could buy that would reduce the front slide rattle. The thing I liked most about that rifle was how it balanced and fit me. It handled like a Remington 1100 autoloader shotgun, which is to say, very well. It was always reliable, and I remember pretty accurate. Another good one that went down the road...

Larry

 

1100 Special Field - just wonderful. 870 SF just behind.

 

My cousin's husband owned one of these rifle in 243 Winchester. At its best It would only shoot bucket bottom 5 shot groups at 100 yd from a sandbag rest. It usually jammed before you fired all five shots. Yes and a big bucket at that! I was a hand loader and he kept wanting me to make the thing shoot decent groups so he could ground hog with it. I despised that rifle!
Dennis