A hunting buddy dropped of his 742 in 280 Rem last night. He shot a boar and the bolt was stuck open. I took it apart and got the bolt to move, but the rotating bolt head had left marks on the sides of the receiver when it was completely back. I cleaned it and reassembled and it works but have not test fired it. I did some internet reading and found that this gun has regular issues with the rails and bolt because of soft metal and or design flaws. I'm pretty sure if he shoots it again it will do the same thing. I figure no chance of a hot load as he only shoots factory ammo, but you never know.

Anybody seen the same thing?

Thanks in advance.

Pete

My sons and I own 4 742s in 30-06 and have never had an issue with any of them. Like you, I have heard them referred to as jam masters and inferior quality but I have not seen it with the ones we own. They have not been babied and have only shot factory ammo since we owned them and have killed a pile of deer.

It may well be a situation where once they fail the first time, they are prone to repeated failure.

Don't know the rail and locking open issue but the 742 is known for poor primary extraction due to inadequate extractors. The chambers really have to be kept clean and slick to prevent any hint of case sticking.

yes , there were 2 issues with the 742 , the issue your having is the over rotation of the bolt because the gun is over gassed

the 742 has a non compensating gas system originally designed pre WWII then put on hold until after the war it was first released as the 740 the 1955-1959 then the 742 to resolve the extractor issues and the barrel loosening issue of the 740 , the 742 was made 1960-1980.

I have spoken with a few smiths who fix them , they stone the receiver to get the operation smooth again they say it will happen again in 50-100 rounds it depends on how hot of a load you are shooting .

the other issue was the chamber rusting , guys would go get wet in the morning and ride around in the truck in the afternoon , mag in pocket so the bolt had to be closed moisture condensed in the chamber and it rusted causing ti to rip extractors.


interestingly the short action 742 owners seldom seem to complain of the bolt over rotation into the receiver

the short action and long action only varied in barrel and magazine the receiver was actually long action on all of them.

always clean and lube all 742s well make sure to clean the chamber the 742 was later sold with a angled patch holder to get a patch with Hoppes in to that chamber after use and make sure it got clean

my answer was to while my 742 was still running and had minimal bolt lug impacts on the rail/receiver was to down load 30-06 to 308
I can confirm it definitely cycles drops all the brass in a nice pile about 3 feet away now shoots much softer and still kills deer same as any 308. I load 44gr of H4895 under a 165gr Speer BTSP

if your friend hand loads I would suggest he work down a load to 7mm-08 velocity it should still be very effective on those Euro deer with a M1 garand safe powder to keep gas port pressure down

it would have been great to see some sort of a gas port restriction kit for the 742 , I have read about people making such a thing just never seen one commercially available


I suspect part of the reason no commercial option was available is it often takes about 500 rounds to get to failure , and few hunters at 10 rounds a year average ever get there

the rifles were made to a price point they already had a lot of less expensive rifles on the market and Remington core locks were and have apparently always been since released in 1939 the same year as the design of the 740 m1 garand safe and would likely lead to less wear if used exclusively than other brands optimized for max velocity form a bolt gun.

when looking at a 742 in a shop or looking for the damage on your own pop the mag out and holding the rifle but down look in the mag well just in front and to the right of the rear most scope mount hole you will see 5 little indentations that match the 5 lugs of the bolt

The rails wearing was common on the 742's and there is no REAL fix to them. There was a shop that would convert them to a pump but with the price tag you may as well just buy a new pump. I scrap a few 742's each year simply because of bad rails with chatter marks on them. The fastest way to ruin one is to shoot it with the little plastic dust cover broken.

742 Jam-0-matics

If you got a good one, as some did, you were blessed.

We had one of each in .243 and 6mm.

Thanks to all...especially Greencountypete. The plastic dust cover was there but was broken.

We'll see what happens. Not every gun is well thought out I guess. That must be why there are the legendary guns like the model 70....the model 12..... the Ithaca 37.... the 870... the A-5 etc.

Pete

Had one years ago if you went from cold to hot the bullet would stick in the chamber I did not have it very long.

had one for years never had a problem, only shot factory load

numrich has new reproduction dust covers , mine also broke so I will be getting a new one they sell for 9 dollars I suppose it helps to slow the bolt travel and maybe be a barrier , I am not sure it was a while ago years wise but not many rounds ago mine broke.

the 760 seems to hold up very well from all who I know that own them

the 742 was my first rifle bought it when I was 14 mine is 30-06 like a good majority of them were

I have been told not to shoot the 220 grains in the Remington.

My dad always had one clip with the 220's. Most time 180's.

He always said, "when in the bush he would change the clip to 220"s. Carrying affect through brush.

Brush bullets are a Myth

I bought a bag of 10 because they will quit making them again someday and the rifles won't work without them or at least not for very long.

Remington told me in 87 to have the gas ports cleaned.
That helped for a short time

Another common failure is that when the chamber is dirty (it really can only be truly cleaned by removing the barrel), they have extraction problems. When that happens often times they tear the corner of the bolt out and then there is no fix to them. Even extractors and the rivets to hold them in are hard to find these days.

there is a little myth and a little science

I did some testing with 308 shooting through a 1/2 inch sheet of plywood then catching the impacts on a big sheet of card board

the heavier bullet did have less deflection a smaller groups size after passing through the 1/2 inch plywood

I think the initial target was at 25 yards and my big sheet of cardboard between 35-40 it has been a few years since I ran the test I do recall when I started the cardboard was just about 5 yards behind and the groups were not that much bigger still would have made a kill on a deer standing behind the barrier.


I shot 4 groups each group at the initial target was shot to just catch the edge of the wood again aiming points on a 1 inch square shoot middle then each corner

while not conclusive by any means the 150gr bullets group on the big card board was around twice that of the 180gr bullet

it does come down to newtons law an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force

the plywood being the same , the mass and velocity make the change

a 20% change in mass and a 10% change in velocity 30% total change is enough to see a difference
if you had a 110 gr bullet at an even higher velocity I expect you would see a greater difference

if your thinking you can hit a willow the size of your thumb at 25 yards with a 180gr bullet and make true shot at 100 yards it isn't going to happen but if you hit a willow the size of your thumb at 45 yards with a 180gr bullet and the deer is at 50 you will likely get a hit within a few inches of where your aim was

the bullet is effected but the heavier the bullet the less it seems to be effected from it's original path

if the bullet is light enough and fast enough it fragments when it hits the barrier

the change in weight is buying you much shorter distance than people would have you believe about "brush bullets"

the take away was yes better but your only gaining a couple yards greater effective use after hitting the barrier with the heavier bullet.

LIke I said, that was with my fathers Remington 740 in 30.06. He had faith in changing when down in the brush.

The gun was purchased in 1954. I believe he had a bit of practice in WW2 with a Garand.

The difficulty of finding 180 or 220 round nose soft points are increasing. A good friend likes to use the 180 gr.sft. point/round nose.

I like your dads way of thinking.