When, not if, the guide rails get damaged the Remington 740/742 series rifles will have cycling failures.
That's how they wear out. Does take a while so if the rifle was not used a lot and you use it just for hunting it may work fine for years. Take it out and shoot it and see what happens.
Extraction isn't the strongest so a gunked up chamber will cause problems. Besides the usual gunk my cousin's had a little surface rust in the chamber. Polished it with a finer grade of steel wool (00?) for him and back to working fine.
