I had a good friend pass away and his wife asked if I wanted this old rifle. It's in 30/06 and looks well taken care of. Not asking for anything except to pay transfer fees. Anyone know if these were good/reliable/well built/anything? I did see they replaced it in early 80's.

Remington made the Model 740 from 1955-59 in 740A-740ADL and 740 BDL. Some had plain stock and some checkered wood. Not sure of feeding issues as with the Model 742 that replaced it. Try some rounds and see if it feeds and ejects OK. I have a Model Four that replaced the 742 in 81 but action is different. Hope yours functions OK.

If it’s in good shape it should do fine with standard fare 30-06 ammo. They’re decent old rifles.

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Some Might Say.

They’re just fine. In some ways, they’re superior to today’s rifles.

You can shoot any commercially loaded ‘06 ammo and any handloaded ammo based on published ‘06 load data quite safely.

Don’t be surprised if it shoots better than more recently produced guns.

I shot my first deer with one. A fine rifle, jump on it.

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No baby we aint

Way more accurate than it should be...

OZ

I got a Remington 740 in 30 06 and a Marlin 336 in 30 30 that were my great uncles rifle's when he passed away.
I never had a problem with the 740 but did not shoot it a lot.

I also had a Remington 742 that I shot about 1000 round's through that I had to send back to Remington with a worn out receiver.
After that I went to bolt action's in Remington and Ruger .

Thanks for the input, guys. I get to see it tomorrow at the FFL, then gun jail for 10 days.

These semi-auto’s by Remington (740, 742...) are prone to galling of the guide rails inside the reliever.

If I was offered one free, I’d gladly take it. If yours seems fine, knock off any burrs inside the receiver and keep things well greased. You’ll know there’s a problem, if you cant pull the charging handle back and release it into battery on an empty chamber.

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"I also cook."

The later improved models (742 and 7400) have corrected some of the shortcomings of the 740, but a 740 in good condition will be OK. I have an early 740 in .308 and I have fired mine quite a bit without any issues. Very dependable, never jams. Only criticism is do not expect any one hole groups, 2" to 3" at 100 yards will be more like it, so it's not a long-range varmint gun. But the 740's grouping performance will be adequate for most larger game hunting use out to 200 yards. I also have a 7400 in .270 Win that groups like a good bolt action rifle (1"-1-1/2"). I have three different .270 rifles, including the 7400, and all of them group very well with most any load. It's difficult to beat a .270 rifle in any aspect of performance, one of a very small number of all-time excellent rifle cartridges even though a bit long in the tooth.


A further comment on the 740's grouping. There is (or was) a grouping improvement device called an "accuracy block" on the market from Williams Gunsight that was nothing more than a metal spacer (think of a very thick washer) that fitted into the front of the removable fore end. I made my own out of brass (not difficult to do), but I couldn't detect that it provided much of an improvement in group size. In fact, I once tried firing my 740 from a bench rest with the fore end completely removed, and even that didn't improve grouping performance significantly. I always believed that the cause of the 740's inaccuracy was that the barrel itself wasn't rigid enough, and it should have been heavier. In any event, the grouping performance of my 740 isn't terrible for a hunting gun, unless you are one of those who insists on having a "one MOA" rifle. To me, any rifle which will consistently put all of its shots into a basketball-sized circle (or less) at the maximum hunting target distance expected is plenty good enough for use by any typical deer (or larger game) hunter.