Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 721 and 722's

Back in the late 1980s, I bought a bunch of 722s to use as donor actions. 722s in 222 and 300 were very common and could usually be bought for under $150, sometimes under $100.

I got a 722 in 300 savage as a donor..never have used it.. I did shoot it some and it actually shoots pretty good imagine that..

Yah. My 722 300 Savage did this and I figured it's ok for an oldie. That's what was nice about these. They're dammed accurate and not a CNC in sight. Persons whom bad mouth them are retards.

My grandpa hunted with a Model 721 in 30-06 from 1958-2008 when he handed it down to me. The rifle was manufactured in 1951. He said that he had other rifles, but always came back to his 721. Although he mainly hunted for whitetails in Michigan, he made it out west a number of times to hunt for mule deer.

When he decided to hang up his hat on hunting, he handed the gun down to me, eight years after I moved to Alaska. He said he always wanted to make it to AK to hunt for moose and brown bear, but never did. Figuring that if he wasn't going to make it, his gun might as well, lead to me being the proud new owner of a solid rifle and family heirloom.

The first year I had the rifle, I shot a moose, caribou, and a brown bear. Although none of the animals were particularly big, they were trophies to me given that I had taken them with my grandfather's rifle. I sent him an album with pictures of the hunts, and the stories to go along with them. Although I don't hunt with the rifle all of the time, I continue to send my grandfather pictures and stories of my hunting adventures in Alaska.

Here is a good read on the 721, if you haven't read it already:
http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2012/1/31/no-ordinary-rifle/

That is cool! Keep killing stuff up there with grandpaw's rifle.

Two great caliber combinations.

Here's my 722 in 300 Savage. I had it out just the other day and it still feels solid and shoots well.

I've had 2 721's, one a 30-06 and the other a 300 H&H. The 300 H&H was one of the most accurate rifles I've ever owned. I sold it when I got my left handed 300 H&H. A friend bought it and he is still using it and loving it 20 years later.

I bought a Remington 721BDL several years ago and had never seen one until that day. I called a gun shop and inquired about a 721BDL and the guy on the phone talked to me like I was an idiot and said Remington never offered a 721BDL.

So much for gun shop wisdom. Most of the younger guys are only interested in new stuff and get their "information" off the web and the dinky blurbs that pass for articles in most magazines these days. Books? No way. I fear we're in the "last days" of appreciation for the good old stuff. Even the economy models like the 721s and 722s were properly polished and blued.

Nice guns guys.

Anybody got one if the short-lived 725s?

Pappy,
Had a 725 come thru the shop about 2 years ago. It was in decent shape. Just had no interest in it. Like I needed yet another 30/06!

hikerbum;
Good morning to you sir, hopefully this last weekend before Christmas finds you well.

Thanks for the interesting thread and of course thanks for the good folks who've responded to make it so.

Other than the occasional vagaries caused by the rotating extractor, this 722 action on a custom I cobbled together for our youngest daughter has performed perfectly.

Hopefully I can be somewhat forgiven for taking apart a classic - I bought it with the RKS stainless match barrel in .250AI installed. I believe it was a .300 Savage originally.

Anyway since the photo I've also replaced the original trigger with one from a 700 which has a bit better safety and was a tad easier to set up I thought.



As mentioned by previous posters, the quality in these actions is pretty hard to beat for the current asking prices up here.

Thanks again for the thread sir and Merry Christmas to you all.

Dwayne

That's a 700 bolt but it still uses a similar extractor/ejector design. Note the anti-bind cut in the right lug.

Threads about the 721/722's are always interesting to me, partly because I've owned several, and still have my grandmother's 722, a very accurate .257 Roberts that several people in our family have hunted with.

But it may surprise some people that when the 721/722's appeared, many shooters regarded them much like some shooters now regard "cheap plastic-stocked rifles." In the 1958 issue of Gun Digest well-known writer Bob Wallack reviewed recent American factory rifles, and had this to say about the Remington 721 and 722: “The motto at Remington these days…is ‘all for production,’ so their rifles are designed for ease of manufacture and to sell at a certain price. Every part that can possibly be banged out on a punch press is banged out on a punch press, much to the sorrow of any real gun bug. Such methods do not affect the handling qualities or functioning of a rifle, certainly, but neither do they add up to a gun that a guy’d want to own with pride.”

Yet today many regard 721's and 722's as classics.

Very cool story.....

300jimmy hooked me up with this one - my first 722, and also my introduction to the .300 Savage. It's an absolute sweetheart.




It works like a dream with 130 TSX's:






This rifle/cartridge/scope combo just hits a sweet spot for me.

FC

John,

Your quote from the article reminds me of a saying of my best friend. "These are the good old days."

I think he barrowed it from Carly Simon.

Time moves ever on and what was yesterday's production gun is today's collectible.

How many more people would have bought pre-'64 Winchester 70s chambered for the low volume cartridges or in short-lived configurations and squirreled them away if they had had access to a crystal ball?

I have a few 722s and 2 725s, a 1-10" 244 and a 222.

I would love to have a 725, the 1917 safety is far and away better than the standard 700 safety in my eyes. Passed up a really nice 725 in 30/06 for $400 a few years ago, thought it was a little high and the guy wasn't dickering.

I got to work on one of less than 100 of the 725 Kodiaks they made. 26" barreled 458 with a factory Pendelton brake machined into the barrel. That was kinda cool just to get to see it.

Different times foresure. Can't imagine today's cheap ever being considered classic... To think, just how tacky would the modern have to be to lead to that?