Project - Quite possibly the worst rifle ever made.

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smith357

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Or so I've heard it said about the Remington 742. :)

Well I bought one just for giggles. A 742 in 30-06 for $200 should be a fun tackykewl project.

I mounted an old 870 1.5x scope on it that was laying around from a long gone 870, gotta love those Remington mounts, I just cut some kydex spacers to make up for the narrow receiver. I took it out this weekend for a function test, it ran fine on factory ammo but did not like my reloads, gonna have to work on that a bit. My biggest issue so far is small charging handle and the sharp edges on the ejection port on the receiver, it ripped my hand open a couple of times charging it, and that was before I put the scope mount on it.

I'm not sure what my plans are at this point possibly an eventual refinish the stock with your basic dull military linseed oil finish maybe duracoting the metal flat black or possibly a camo job. What ever it ends up being it should keep me busy over the winter.

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Worst ever? What gives a 742 that reputation? At least it goes bang when you pull the trigger and not Kaboom.

BTW - those are some quality photos!
 
Project - Quite possibly the worst rifle ever made.

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Or so I've heard it said about the Remington 742.
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No one ever told my father's 742 it was supposed to be the worst rifle ever made. Over a span of about 20 years, he took so many deer with it that he had to have the barrel replaced. I don't recall it ever failing him. The only reason he stopped using it was becasue it was stolen. :mad:
 
^^^ Got my father in laws... in 30-06, several home made ( soldered together ) extended magazines... that gun has killed more deer than I could ever hope to match... always went boom, so long as the COL was correct & the charge sufficent to cycle the action... mine has a scope with a similar Remington mount...

if it didn't have so much family history, I think it would be a fun gun to "play with"... but instead it's deserved a semi retirement to go out to the range on sunny days to play

can you still get 10 round magazines ??? I have several I think were soldered out of 3 lower capacity magazine bodies... those babies have charictor ;)
 
can you still get 10 round magazines ???
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Yes 10 round magazines are still readily available, both in plastic and metal. The plastic ones are single stacks and very big and bulky, I like the smaller double stack metal mags better. I have one of each and both function properly.
 
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Someone gave me some plastic ten rounders when I last bought a 742 rifle. I see why they gave them away. :rolleyes:

The 742 rifle is not horrible. Certainly there are lots of worse choices out there.
 
Remington 742

I never did understand why the Remington 742 gets such bad reviews. I have had mine since 1964 and shoot it regularly with factory and reloaded ammo. It is plenty accurate for hunting in my neck of the woods and has never failed to chamber, fire and eject a round yet. I have a plastic 10 round mag. for it but hardly ever use it. Mine is a 30-06 by the way.
 
I never did understand why the Remington 742 gets such bad reviews.
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Honestly, I think it is because folks try to compare it to battle rifles like the M1,M14/M1A, FAL, etc. Or they try to compare it to simple bolt-action hunting rifles.

That's not what it is. It is a relatively lightweight, handy, and reliable semi-auto optimized for hunting. That means using quality ammo all the time and relatively little shooting (sighting in and hunting - not dumping thousands of rounds as a range toy). It's also not going to be as accurate as a bolt-action (but it's definitely pretty accurate in its own right).

For what it was designed for, it is a fine choice. It's not the best choice out there (but most better choices are also a bit more expensive), and it's far from the worst.
 
I would say you got a vary good buy for $200.00. I had one years ago and killed alot of deer with it, never had a single problem with mine. Unfortunately I had to sell it, and I've regretted it ever since.:(:(
 
++++++++++1 for Fishbed

I owned a 742 in 30-06 for many years. It shot very good groups until the barrel heated up and then it would throw high & right.

The 742 haters do just what Fishbed said and most of them have probably never owned or shot one but "read it on the internet" so that makes it a fact.

Anyone who would be interested in a Weaver Tip-off scope mount for a 742, drop me a PM. I have one from the rifle I sold and would part with it pretty cheap.:D
 
It's also not going to be as accurate as a bolt-action (but it's definitely pretty accurate in its own right).

Fishbed77
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I've had two friends that asked me to sight their .30-06 742's in for them since they did not have time. I love to shoot so it was a pleasure helping them out. They gave me the ammo (Remington CoreLoks) and I got them zeroed. BOTH were absolute tackhammers. I haven't seen many bolt rifle shoot tighter groups then those two rifles. I can't say about how they function but they functioned okay when I was sighting in and man did they pack groups. I've only used one (borrowed .308) that didn't shoot all that good.
 
I had two 742's back in the 80's (243 and 06) neither gave me an ounce of trouble. Both killed deer...

I wish the both were in my safe now.
 
Fishbed77 said,

"No one ever told my father's 742 it was supposed to be the worst rifle ever made. Over a span of about 20 years, he took so many deer with it that he had to have the barrel replaced"

The average centerfire .30 caliber say a .308 or 30-06 starts to loose fine target accuracy at about 6 thousand rounds or so.

Highpower shooters sometimes start to notice some accuracy loss on the 600 yards line but at 200 and 300 they still shoot well enough.

So assuming your father fired 6,000 rounds through a 742 the bore was still much more than accurate enough for deer hunting.

He would have to go through alomst twice that before the accuracy would drop off enough that it would not be fit for deer hunting.

I don't think the rest of the rifle would stand up to that sort of round count.

These rifles serve the average hunter well. The average deer hunter would never fire their hunting rifle over 6,000 rounds in ten lifetimes.
 
So assuming your father fired 6,000 rounds through a 742 the bore was still much more than accurate enough for deer hunting.
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If might have been more than accurate enough for deer hunting, but that doesn't mean it was accurate enough for my father. ;)
 
I know remington makes GOOD guns, but they dont make the BEST guns. If someone can think of a rifle, rimfire, pistol, shotgun, ect, I can think of a better one. I'm just saying I haven't had much luck with them. Especially with the 700 and 870. I've always had accuracy problems with 700, all in .270 and .308. I went to the winchester 70 and A-bolt, both in .270 short mag and not a hitch. This is with the same scope. As for the 870, growing up in eastern arkansas, as soon as it would see any water or a touch of mud, it was a sure fire gum up. I know its a best seller but its a lower priced gun. A mossberg 500 was always used for back up for the rare ocassion when you dropped, lost or ran out of shells on your benelli. These are all my opinion of course, of which we are all entitled too. The 870 does make a good boat paddle if you run out of gas ;)
 
since we are talking about a gun that is no longer made... we're talking Remington history... & of course unless you're buying a custom gun, there will always be a better gun... but through out history, Remington has had some "pretty darn good" guns... & I do think they make the best 22 Hornet brass :)

my Rolling Blocks we about as good as they got back then... of couse till the Browning high wall came out...;)

I'm sure there are years they made other "best" models... but really Remington has always been about guns for the masses

but then the OP never claimed his project gun was better than anything... just that it wasn't "so bad"
 
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