Been working on a classic today.

[muleman]

A good friend of mine handed me this rifle and asked If I could make it go bang again. It seems a young man that we have been coaching in football for the past few years is going to get a chance to go elk hunting. This young man has no father and a pretty rough family life. He has drawn a cow elk tag and my friend has offered to take him. The gun is a Remington 740 built in the early 50s. I don't have a lot of experience with auto loaders except ARs and shotguns but in looking over the 740 it looked a lot like an 1100. It was my friend's grandfather's gun and hadn't been fired in 10 years and the last time out failed to cycle the second round. Sounds like fun .......right?
I brought it home and looked up an owner's manual on line and went to work. The 740 was never meant to be completely broken down. The owner's manual even said that full disassembly should be done by a competent gunsmith :shock: . I pulled the forearm, trigger mechanism and magazine out and that's where the manual said to stop. In the later 742 and 7400 there is a nut that can be removed that lets the bolt be removed from the action. The 740 needs a specialized spanner. I made my own out of some bar stock using a grinder and file work. I removed the gas tube and spring and the spanner nut. This allowed me to break the gun down completely. The insides of this gun were a mess. Hardened grease, carbon, dirt and some rust (but nothing to serious) were encrusted on the internals. All the small parts went into the sonic cleaner for a double cycle and I went to work with brushes and solvent on the rest. The barrel was clean of carbon fouling but the copper fouling was terrible. Once everything was down to metal I treated all the internals with a dry/lube rust preventative and then lightly oiled moving parts and a little grease in the heavy wear points. Then I had to put it all back together............It went smoother than expected. The first reassembly is usually a trial for me.
You probably are all wondering why I'm doing this. I thought of just loaning him one of my guns but the young man is left handed and we're both normal :grin:. I got the gun back together and it's running very smoothly. I made some dummies and they cycle well. I mounted an extra scope and sling that I had and loaded up some pressure loads working up to full book load for the 30-06.
I'll be loading IMR4350 and 165gr NABs up to see if it'll shoot'em. Should make a decent elk load for a 15 year old young man and 60 year old rifle. I'll be sighting in and load testing tomorrow.
Scott

 

[gerry]

Sounds really good Scott, I hope it all comes together nicely for the young guy and he bags an elk with this gun. Would be cool to see the old gun working well again. He sounds like a fine young man being a lefty and all.........

 

[Vince]

Good luck to the young lad.
That's a fine thing ye be doing aye.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[SJB358]

Very cool Scott! Man, that fella has no idea how much work it took to save that rifle! Hopefully you can get it up and running for him and teach him the same dis/ass procedures you just used to clean and maintain the rifle.

Sounds like a worthy cause, you had me at elk! :lol:

 

[DrMike]

That is a great account of true consideration for both a new shooter and an old classic. Sounds as if you know your way around the innards, Scott. Good job.

 

[Tjay]

I had a Rem 7400 that shot very well, less than an inch, with IMR 4064 and 165gr Nosler bullets. Best accuracy was with 49 gr 4064, Rem cases, Fed 210 primers and 165 gr. BT. The Partition shot almost as well. I never had a jam or other problem but I kept the chamber and action very clean.

Also Great job getting the gun running and helping the young man.

 

[Guy Miner]

Very cool! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have taken that thing all the way apart...

Congrats!

 

[Dwh7271]

Nice.
Fine thing to do.
Neat to fix an old train wreck into something worthy.
Good luck with the loads.

 

[sask boy]

Scott it sounds like you got everything working fine on that Remington-06. Very nice to see you helping out a young fellow that has had a tough go of it . I believe there is no better way to connect than getting them involved in hunting & the outdoor GOOD JOB!!
Thank you for the post.

Blessings,
Dan

 

[bobnob]

Nice old rifle. Nice deed to do for someone growing up on struggle street.

Thanks for sharing the tale.

 

[muleman]

Took the old gal out to the range and she performed flawlessly. Worked up the pressure curve and everything stayed together. Final load was a max load of 57gr of IMR4350 and 165gr. ABs. I got her sighted in but she is real sensitive to a warm barrel. Cold bore shot 1.5" high on bull, second shot 2" lower and 3rd shot lower by another 2". I shot six groups and if you grouped all #1s together it'd be a 1" group same with #2s and #3s. When the barrel cools it goes right back to aim point. I've had groups do vertical stringing upwards when a barrel heats up but never downwards. The first two shots stay within 2" and that'll be fine for minute of elk. I don't think they'll let him shoot beyond 200yds.

Scott

 

[Oldtrader3]

Nice project to do for that young man? I hope that he gets a chance to kill an elk with that .30-06?

 

[preacher]

Nice save! ( For both the rifle and the boy!) I grew up with a guy whose dad used a 740/30-06 with iron sights for deer. We ran them with dogs back then in Texas and running shots were common. My friends dad was a fine game shot too and he never had an issue with his Mod 740. Of course, he didn't shoot it enough to wear out any parts and he kept it clean. I later on used a 742 with irons for a few seasons, my dads rifle, but it was a jammomatic. It didn't matter as I killed everything with the first shot as all my shots on deer/hogs averaged about 50yds, ha. I'm glad you guys are helping the lad, he will have a ball. And cow elk? My favorite eating elk! I can say this because (a) its true, tasty indeed and (b) I've never had an opportunity at a legal bull in my hunting life! ha, but I have shot 3 cows. Any elk on the ground is a good one as they say.