Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Winchester Model 100 or Remington 7400

I've owned a 742 in 30-06 and 100 in 284. I never had problems with either jamming. I suspect that reasons for jamming is dirt. I own a M1 and a AR-15 and was issued a M14 in USMC, later was issued a M16. Of all these, none have jammed; but I kept them clean. I've had 1100, 11-87, and a Remington 11. The only one of these that jammed was the 11. I kept them all clean, I have no idea why I couldn't get the 11 to be reliable??? Of all these rifles and shotguns, I only have the M1 and the AR-15. I like to shoot M1 matches or I probably would not have that. The AR has a bull barrel and it is used for Prairie dogs. Oh yeh, I also owned an SKS (which was pretty worthless for anything sporting).
The main problem with all those rifles is the throwing of brass; I reload and don't like looking for brass! BUT I intensely hated the M16 as it was the second most inaccurate rifle I've ever shot in 50+ years of shooting! I couldn't catch 3 rounds in a pie plate at 50 yards with that POS. When shooting tracers, I could see the bullets tumbling.
I believe that Remington made serious improvements when they made the 7400. I base this upon how much better the 7600 I have owned (gave it to my son) was than the 760's I've shot and owned.

Which is better the 7400 or the 100? I'd pick the 7400. I'd take a 7400 to a rifle match before the 100 any day. The 7400 parts are available and at a much better price.

The Browning is a good rifle too. IMO

I've only had a chance to experience one 742 but it must have been one of the good one. I was stationed in Taiwan in the 1960's and worked with the Chinese army.

I spent a lot of my off time at the army range and had an unlimited amount of 308 military ball ammo available. We didn't have any 308 rifles that I could use so I bought a new 742 BDL Deluxe in 308 and fitted it with a receiver sight and a sling and went shooting. It shot well and never jammed and it had many rounds put through it.

When I got back to the states I mounted a Herter 2.5x scope with post reticle and gave it to my father. He hunted with it until the 1990's as he got older he thought the gun was getting to heavy to pack around so I bought him a Win 70 Featherweight and sold the 742 to the neighboring farmers son, I suspect it is still killing deer back home today.

I don't know anyone else that has had one most of the folks I know have 760's, myself included.

Sir, you do not have to believe my personal experience, that is up to you, but I can assure you that it did happen. And not once, but repeatedly-repeatedly-repeatedly, year after year. When I see alot of this, no matter the make, I am sure that it is partly the fault of the person that did not take proper care of the gun, but it doesn't change the fact that it is what it is.

Someone mentioned the factory ammo comment related to my first post. that is not what I was trying to communicate - let me try again. Remington used the bullet shapes in use at the time, and there are some longer shapes and other types out now in different materials that can make the gun function differently. Also, the pressure curves used in the overall design of the gun would have been pretty close to factory original pressure, within a range of course. They would have taken limited account into handloaders, and being that we are talking about a Remington gun, what ammo do you think they used for testing? Theirs, Winchester, or say, Norma?

I dont really get what you are saying here.
Roundnose and spitzer have been around forever and What I have seen is it doesn,t matter, the rifles functioned with all.
I haven,t had nor have I seen any problems,whether it was Remington,Winchester,Federal etc.
I have not used reloads in these rifles so dont know about that or Norma ammo,perhaps any problem with reloads might be due to how a person sizes their brass and whether or not they use small base dies.
I dont think that has any bearing on whether the rifles are decent rifles though.
EVEN if a particular rifle doesn,t like a particular brand of ammo that is not an big deal. Just use what it likes!

I'd rather have an AR10 than either of them if I wanted to hunt with a semi auto. Or an H&K variant.

Hey bcraig, I see what you are saaying, maybe I am a bit off base. i was thinking that some of the long for caliber bullets and the like could make it more of a challenge for the gun to fucntion is all. So yeah, I may have over-simplified it. My wife is always saying something about my communication, but I never seem to quite hear it

My thing is this - the gun itself was often a good gun, but I think the lace of studious maintenance by the one-box-a-year hunters may have been a contributing factor, and no, joke, in three years we never had less than 1 dozen of the 742's waiting on parts at any one time. Bear in mind that SC has a deer season that starts about October thru Jan 1, and alot of guys then & now drove an hour south to start hunting with rifles in late August/early September. At the time (late 70's) this particular shop was located almost perfectly between K-Mart and Roses stores (no Wal-marts back then, at least here), and the Sky City chain on the other end of town sold them too, so we had 'maximum exposure' to them. It was enough no joke that a Remmy sales rep drove up from Columbia two seasons to take out parts orders, so somebody besides us noticed.

I have an AR10-type (DPMS LR-308 actually) and like it. Even thought the HK 770 has that fluted chamber and an original scope mount will set you back, I would still love to have one

Great question!
Kinda like asking if you prefer a Ford Pinto or Chevy Vega!!

You forgot the AMC Pacer

Craig I have a Remington Model Four .270 which is reportedly an enhanced version of the Remington Model 7400 autoloading rifle.Kills deer dead here in WV. Guess I'll have to wait for it to break.(wink)

Denny

..... or a 7600.

years ago one of the local gun shop owners here claimed that the Jamming in the 740/742/4/7400 was caused by shooters not providing enough resistant to the recoil to allow the system to work. I think there may be a bit of truth to this . I bought beautiful model 4 from a friend he sold it to me with my full understanding that it constantly jammed.He called it the Remington jam-master. He probably weighed 165 lbs .I was a bit stouter, probably 60 lbs. stouter, and like to lean into the rifle. Anyhow I owned it about 5 yrs. In all the shooting I did it never jammed one time. I reloaded and used small base dies (30-06) I tried many loads , different bullet weights and powders . Not 1 jam . I got bored with it sold it to another guy he's had it probably 10 yrs. I ask him if it ever jammed on him , he said never.

I suppose if Remington had placed a, "minimum body weight requirement" for the purchasing of these rifles, maybe there would have been a lot less frustration and a lot more dead deer? And for anyone who has one currently and is suffering with jamming... don't be afraid to pack on some pounds.

many go through a phase where they think they can love a semi automatic hunting rifle. Here is the only type of semi auto deer gun that I have found to be dead nutz reliable and 1 MOA accurate. To top it off it probably weights the same as a .308 BAR shown with 20 rounds of ammunition in it which weights 1 pound. Sooner or latter you will wind up with one if you are interested in it working and being accurate.

Interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that had anything to do with it but then I have seen people jam pistols by limp wristing them so I guess it makes sense.