I’ve seen over a hundred of these discussions over the last year or two and a hundred more in the last five years. Mostly young hunters and some older hunters who are wanting to use their grandfathers or in some cases great grandfathers 742s and 740s. The issues are almost always the same and the fixes in most cases are simple. The issue is usually failure to cycle properly which is normally either FTE or FTF. These rifles were built for one purpose, to hunt in densely wooded areas where quick follow-up shots are essential, Hence the model name WOODSMASTER. They are not military grade rifles designed for high volume shooting at a high rate of speed. If you inherit or buy a solid second hand Remmy autoloader you can realistically destroy it in one afternoon of mag dumping at the range, so please stop. Now for the two most common issues that I’ve encountered. FTE or Failure to eject is almost always caused by one thing, a dirty chamber. To clean it you need to wrap a 1/4” thick red 3M abrasive pad to a 17cal bore brush. Attach this to a cordless drill and work it in and out of the chamber for at least 30 to 40 seconds. After that attach a piece of #4 steel wool to the same bore brush and work it until the chamber is shiny clean. Even if it looks clean, if the brass is sticking in the chamber trust me, it’s dirty. Doing this will fix failure to eject 99.9% of the time. If the stuck brass has caused extractor damage, you can order a new one and the river to attach it from Numrich gun parts (in fact, you can order most anything you need for these rifles from Numrich) don’t be afraid to tear these rifles down, you can’t hurt them and they’re no more complicated than an 1100 or 11-87, in fact the trigger group is almost identical. Failure to feed is almost always an aftermarket magazine or a factory magazine with a worn follower. Replace your factory follower (also available from Numrich) and/or throw your aftermarket mag in the garbage. Other issues include what’s called chinking, which looks like serated wear marks on the inside top rail section of the receiver. This usually happens after prolonged high speed shooting. If bad enough it can mean the end of your rifle but I’ve found that I can usually Dremel it out and hone it smooth. If you do this and apply a thin layer of grease, not oil where all parts meet up steel to steel inside the receiver, you can get another 500 or so rounds out of your 742 or 740. Just a note, my 742 is almost almost 50 years old and probably hasn’t had 500 rounds total through it. These are really neat little rifles and will account for lots of conversation at the deer camp. I love my 742 in 30-06 and use it to take more deer that either of my bolt guns. The last two deer I shot during special doe and spike season here in Tx were taken with My 742.

that good grip ya got the Danagher, I always hate a flabby handshake myself!

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Point noted and I agree on the reliability issues. I was just putting it out there that there are some easy fixes for these rifles. I’ve done 4 and am working on a 5th as I write this. There are 1000s of these rifles out there from 1955 740s to 1980 742s and they are really cool guns with superb blueing and wood. They’ve got adequate hunting accuracy out to 150yds and don’t have a lot of recoil. I’ve got several hunting partners that say they wished they hadn’t peddled off their 742 every time they see mine lying across a deer in a hunting photo. From what I’ve been reading lately, there are quite a few people that would like to try and get their rifles working properly for less than a $150 before they go drop $750+ for a mid range cost bolt gun or $1000+ for a BAR. On top of loving the outdoors, I’m a car guy. To me the 742 is kinda like an AMC Javelin, more issues than they’d like to admit for the duration of production, but cool to the core nonetheless.

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