Remington 740 in 280

[orchemo]

Was at the LGS and they had a Remington 740 in 280 on the shelve. It was in decent overall shape. I know people have a love/hate relationship with these, but I have been looking for a set of wood stocks for a 7400 to fit a beater 35 Whelen that I have, so I looked it over closer. Thought, if nothing else, I could take the stock set and re-sell the rest.

It was a bit dirty, but not too much wear for the age, the trigger.....was actually VERY nice. Someone did some work on it. I have had a couple Remington 7400 and the newer 750 and none of those come close to how nice a trigger on this old 740.

Took it home, took it all apart and gave it a deep cleaning. Used a chamber brush to really give the chamber a good brushing. A local gunsmith told me once, this is the primary problem with these rifles....dirty chambers impair the ejection and jam the rifle.

Loaded 20 rounds of 162 gr Hornady bullets and stopped by the range today. Bang, bang, bang...ran perfect. Did not shoot for groups just function.

Another rifle in the safe that I will probably never hunt with, but another 280 saved.

 

[DrMike]

Good move. The .280 is such a great cartridge, and the old 740 shot quite well when it received a bit of attention. Sounds as if you have a pretty good handle on this. Congratulations.

 

[pre6422hornet]

I had a 7400 in 30.06 for a few years and even though i never hunted with it, it shot very very well and never missed a beat. I put 100 or so rounds through it without a hitch.

280 is a great round. NIce save.

 

[JD338]

Sweet. Load Ber up with the 140 gr PT and go hunt.

JD338

 

[baltz526]

Remington 740 has always been On my wish list to play with. Always thought the 30-06 would be the prime candidate. But the 280 would definitely fit the bill. Not that I need another Deer rifle. But I have a pile of 140-160gr 7mm Bullets My 7mm rem mag hates.

 

[orchemo]

Here is a picture. Mount a Leupold 3.5-10 for now

 

[truck driver]

Looks like it has a lot of character and seen a few hunts in it's time. It should serve you well.

 

[Darkhorse]

It was a bit dirty, but not too much wear for the age, the trigger.....was actually VERY nice. Someone did some work on it. I have had a couple Remington 7400 and the newer 750 and none of those come close to how nice a trigger on this old 740.

Took it home, took it all apart and gave it a deep cleaning. Used a chamber brush to really give the chamber a good brushing. A local gunsmith told me once, this is the primary problem with these rifles....dirty chambers impair the ejection and jam the rifle.

One of my earliest mentors hunted with a 740 in 30 '06 and his influence caused me to buy a M742 in '06. This old fellow was quite a character, having shot the National Matches in his youth, and was a collector of military rifles.
He taught me how to smooth that trigger up and it turned out quite decent for a semi automatic.
He used coffee pot brushes to clean the chamber and that really made the rifles dependable and jam free, as long as you cleaned the chamber regularly.
My 742 was a 1.5 MOA rifle though it was a kicker with the plastic buttplate. And I still have a light scar where an ejected case burned my right bicep (LH shooter). Those ejected cases were really hot.
Back then I kept all my empty bullet boxes for some reason. When I sold the gun I had 27 empty boxes, and figuring the factory loads I bought for brass I shot that rifle nearly 3,000 rounds.
Basically I learned to shoot centerfire rifles with that gun. And as long as you cleaned it properly it was/is an excellent hunting rifle.

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

The local vet Dr. Stanley McGough (Mick-goo) had one of these rifles. He passed away several years ago but that was the only rifle he ever hunted with as long as I had known him. He bought it in the early 60s I believe.

He was a WWII vet and loved the idea of not having to manually operate the action in between shots. He was no yay-hoo, Doc was a fine shot. His was a 742 in .30-06 and as far as I know he always shot the 180 grain Remington PSPCLs in it. His scope was one of the old Bausch and Lomb Balvar 2.5-8x variables which had the adjustments in the mounts. I have seen several of these scopes and even owned one personally. The one Doc had on his old .30-06 was the only one of these that I never had trouble with.

When Doc passed away his wife sold this rifle to a friend of mine. With it my friend Thom has killed several elk with both the 180 and 220 grain Remington Factory loads.

I made his some handloads once and while the 742 fired and functioned fine with them, the accuracy was not nearly as good as the Remingtons. For what these guns are, though, keep em clean and they seem to last forever.

 

[orchemo]

Great story.

Your point about the chambers is what I heard from the gunsmiths at Remington and a local Remington certified gunsmith. They said brush clean the chambers before and after shooting and one will not have any problems. That is what I have done on my 35 Whelen carbine and it has run fine.

Remington gunsmith for the 35 Whelen, recommended heavier loads and bullets. Not sure what pressure to run the 280 to as is was made for the 7mm Express. When I was loading some 140 gr partitions last night, I choose a middle powder charge from the Nosler manual.

 

[Darkhorse]

You should be good at that middle load, I would think so anyway. You might also want to get a Small Base sizer die for that 740, the SB dies really help an auto.
When I was loading for my 742 I was young and I loaded to the max with IMR 4350. No problems but I wouldn't do that now. I think I'd stick to the middle loads.

 

[chrispbrown27]

The guy that has permission to hunt the same land I do has one, though I am not sure if it is a 740 or one of the other Remington semi-autos of the era. Helped him load up a doe in the bed of his Jeep Cherokee on Thursday night. He used the rifle (unloaded thankfully....I checked) to prop the read gate on the Cherokee open while we loaded the deer. As we were loading it the deer's head hit the rifle and sent it crashing to the grounding banging the scope off of everything on its way to the ground. I picked the rifle up and said, "I hope it didn't knock the scope off." He picked it up, shouldered it, looked through the scope and said, "Well, I hope not.....but it should be fine." Friday morning he showed up at the house and tells me he needs help loading a nice 8 pointer up. When I get there he had hit the deer waaaaay back and high....hit the spine above the guts. I asked him where he aimed and where his stand was and he pointed to a ladder stand 25 yards away....he never checked the scope and he came awfully close to missing the deer (best case) or gut shooting the deer and never finding it. After I looking the deer over and looking at his stand he must have realized what I was thinking because he said, "Guess you were right...I should have checked my scope. Oh well....guess I don't have to now." I just shook my head and helped him load up. Got to thinking about it later and we are probably lucky that the gun was unloaded....the way it banged around it could have fired off.