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xtriggerman · January 11, 2013, 11:58 PM

I shot my first buck with a 742 06 but iv learned alot about the 742 since then. The 742 is a self destruct rifle. Thats why Rem wont touch em. The main problem with the design is the bolt latch is extremely weak and constantly fails to keep the bolt head from wanting to go into a lock up position at full recoil in the back of the reciever bolt tracks. If your 742 was fired much. you can look into the reciever and see the typical "bite" marks in the bolt guide rail in the back of the reciever. I used to work for AO of Numrich Arms back in the 80's and one day this subject came up in conversation with Phil Hunter who was the manager of the gun parts store. He told me he has seen 742's come in as scrap with the recievers cracked from the bolts being locked up in the rails. I once parted out a 243 that was so bad it would lock open on nearly every shot. Rem thought they would do a quicky fix to the decades old design and use square locking lugs in the 7400 and that is a solution to the rail bite but it still has the same weak bolt lock as the 742. The 742 is just not a gun you can shoot all year long. Its a 4 shots a year gun if your young and want it to last. When I had a full service gunsmithing business, I would file out the raised bite marks, improve the bolt lock surfaces and put in a new lock spring if the old one looked short. Give the gas system n barrel a good cleaning and tell the owner to stick to lighter loaded shells where ever possible. The 742 is over ported to begin with so lighter loads normaly still cycle fine. Remington knew about this issue for 20 years befor they tryed to fix it with the 7400 series.... another reason Im not a Rem fan.

January 11, 2013, 11:58 PM	#10
xtriggerman Member Join Date: January 4, 2012 Posts: 44	I shot my first buck with a 742 06 but iv learned alot about the 742 since then. The 742 is a self destruct rifle. Thats why Rem wont touch em. The main problem with the design is the bolt latch is extremely weak and constantly fails to keep the bolt head from wanting to go into a lock up position at full recoil in the back of the reciever bolt tracks. If your 742 was fired much. you can look into the reciever and see the typical "bite" marks in the bolt guide rail in the back of the reciever. I used to work for AO of Numrich Arms back in the 80's and one day this subject came up in conversation with Phil Hunter who was the manager of the gun parts store. He told me he has seen 742's come in as scrap with the recievers cracked from the bolts being locked up in the rails. I once parted out a 243 that was so bad it would lock open on nearly every shot. Rem thought they would do a quicky fix to the decades old design and use square locking lugs in the 7400 and that is a solution to the rail bite but it still has the same weak bolt lock as the 742. The 742 is just not a gun you can shoot all year long. Its a 4 shots a year gun if your young and want it to last. When I had a full service gunsmithing business, I would file out the raised bite marks, improve the bolt lock surfaces and put in a new lock spring if the old one looked short. Give the gas system n barrel a good cleaning and tell the owner to stick to lighter loaded shells where ever possible. The 742 is over ported to begin with so lighter loads normaly still cycle fine. Remington knew about this issue for 20 years befor they tryed to fix it with the 7400 series.... another reason Im not a Rem fan.