No-group Remington 740 30-06

T

The Plainsman

New member
I realize that there are probably a thousand things that could contribute to this situation, but we're looking for ideas that we haven't thought of.

My neighbor has a Remington 740 (semi-auto) 30-06 with a Simmons 4-14x scope on it. He's been trying to get it sighted in for several weeks, to no avail.

Today, he and I put about 75 rounds through it with not much luck. At 50 yards, the best we could do was about 3" to 4" groups. When we moved out to 100 yards, we had hits all over the place. We were using an Outers Varmint benchrest, so we felt like we were pretty darn steady. We used both PMC factory loads (don't recall the cartridge) and some of my friend's reloads. It didn't make any difference. To my way of thinking, at least with the PMC rounds, it shouldn't have made any difference how bad the sights might have been, we should been able to group the shoots at least a little, but we couldn't. With my 7mm, we could get good groups, but not with his 30-06.

He had a different scope on it originally and he replaced it with this Simmons when he first saw he was having the grouping problem. Didn't help. He's about to throw this Remington away.

Any thoughts?? :confused:
 
1, 2, 3, 4

I've been there and I know the frustration. That 740 should do 2" at 100 yds with good commercial ammo. So first try a different brand of ammo, the rifle is a Remington so try Remington ammo (sounds dumb, but it seems a lot of Remingtons like Rem ammo, which kinda makes sense). Second, buy or borrow a different scope, one that's new or known to be good. Simmons is not the pinnacle of perfection and it might have gone bad, over the years I've had 2 or 3 cheap scopes die like this on highpowers. If the scope is new take it back and exchange it (my guess is it's the scope). Third, when you put the new scope on make sure all the base and rings screws are tight. Don't over torque them with a 3' cheater-bar but make sure they're tight, use loctite on the base screws. Fourth, look for an obvious "ding" in rifling at the muzzle. If you see one have a gunsmith recrown the muzzle, should cost about 20 bucks. That's what I'd check, good luck. -- Kernel
 
Without one in hand I'm not real sure, is the barrel tight? Been a while since I had one apart but I believe it's possible. A special wrench is required if ya don't want burrs where no one can see them. A slight tap on the bolt handle for each shot might tell you if there is some crud causing this problem also. beertrucker-x
 
I have been using a Rem 7400 Carbine in 30-06 for 4 years now (deer hunting). Are your groups stringing vertically? If the forearm screw is loose my rifle will string approximately 10" @ 100 yards. With a tight screw I typically get 2.5" 100 yd groups with receiver sight. The only other limitation is powder selection, my "gas gun" likes IMR 4895 and IMR 4064 with 150 - 165 grains bullets best. It's no bench rest gun but I have killed lots of deer with mine. Good luck!

Kerth
 
The 740 was the first model of that Remington series, and most of them suffered the same problem you have had. It's a forend screw tightness problem. The gun barrel flexes and changes pressure against the gas tube and forend cap as you shoot. Result is wandering zero. The only easy solution is sighting with a cold tube, not an easy thing. Williams Gun Sight Corp. used to make a little aluminum spacer block for 740's that went on to the forend screw behind the cap and supposedly stabilized the whole lashup, I had one on a 740 that I owned for a while. I don't know if Williams can still supply this, but a gunsmith who's a passable machinist could turn you one. I think that the Williams forend swivel set also includes some provision for this problem. Suggest you give them a call.
 
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