Originally Posted by
o2bafnp
Having wonderful accuracy with my grandfather's old M-19, I really grew to like the 30-06 caliber, but didn't care for the weight of the M-19. Now, several years later, and without review before purchase, a neighbor of mine in ill health is selling off his sixty year collection of rifles. The one that caught my eye was his 742 Rem. Woodsmaster. Needless to say, $300 later, I am excited about the purchase and eager to put a scope on it and see if it does as well for me hunting whitetail as my Marlin 30-30. However, I am a little concerned over the "jamming factor" as posted here. Other than keeping it clean and not too heavy on the oil, any suggestions? Or did I make a really bad purchase?
Another question, is will most 7400 scope mounts fit the 742?...most gun shops around here have teenagers who don't a clue!
Thanks.
Some years ago, my father had a 742 Woodsmaster in .308 semi-auto. It would jam up on him with almost every round, regardless of how well he cleaned it. He asked me to take a look at it and clean it up for him. Tore it apart on the kitchen table at the hunting camp, had it completely disassembled. Wiped each piece off, cleaned everything. If it seemed oily it was cleaned. All moving parts were the coated with a combination of dri-lube and or powdered graphite. This gun was so slick and smooth, you could cock it with your baby finger. We filled the mag and did some cycling, what we found was that as action was forced back the recoil was strong enough to dislodge the mag from the rifle, but only at the nose. Upon inspecting that I found that over there is a small little lip on the nose of the mag that is designed to sit in a certain position and hold the mag in place. Short story long, a big flat screwdrivewr and a bigger pair of pliers, the problem was solved, or so we hoped. My dad had lost faith in the gun and made me take it to the bush the next morning. I bagged 2 Spikes, and a big Doe, all together. Had to work a bit for the second Spike as the first 2 went down on the hillside. I put the gun across my back to climb the hill to go after the 3rd. With the gun on my back, almost to the top of the hill, their goes another deer across my intended trail. I stayed on the blood trail and found the 3rd one about 75yds from the top of the hill, VSA. So there was a 4th deer. Dad gifted me the gun that day, he was as happy as I was. That was 25 years ago, and the gun has never jammed on me once. Only addition is fibre optic sights, cause I like the close shots in the dirty spots.