Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Inheriting a Rem 742 Woodsmaster 30-06 ...

... and I don't know what to do with it. All I've heard is that it can be a decent 100 yd woods gun for deer hunting. I don't really need that, but I don't feel right about not keeping it and not doing something useful with it. Can it be rebarreled with a derivative cartridge that can make it more suitable for killing coyotes?

I'd shoot it before I gave up on it. I had one once that would shoot into an inch and a quarter at 100 yards more often than not. That definitely takes it out of the 100 yard deer rifle category. The 30/06 is probably my favorite cartridge and very versatile if the appropriate bullet is chosen for the game being hunted.

.243, barrel and magazine, bullets <70.

Jack

It is as good a deer rifle as anything else. I ring steel at three hundred with my dad’s all day long.

What a classic. In the early-to-mid 70's, I could recite the entire Remington catalog from memory. I would have given about anything for a 742 Woodsmaster in '06!

I do plan to shoot it to see what it will do, but I don't expect it to be as accurate as the bolt action rifles that I already own. I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised, but I would like a plan for if it isn't that utilizes it's semi-auto advantages.

Is it as easy as that to feed such short cartridges through a long action? I've never heard of doing that. I was thinking of a .25-06.

Getting it free is the only way I'd have another and unless it had a lot of sentimental value I'd still sell it. If it did have sentimental value it'd be a wall hanger. Some of those are OK at best, some are down right awful. I sure wouldn't throw money at it.

My brother had a 1980s wood master 3006. shot well.

Coming from someone who knows quite a bit about these particular rifles, your best advice is to clean it, oil it down, and hang it on the wall ..

I used my grandads 742 for several years.(ough6) With 165gr Speers it would stay inside an inch. Problem was the first round, cycled by hand, would shoot to a different point than those cycled by firing. To get around that the day before season, I'd load the magazine,cycle a round, fire one shot, reload the magazine, and not unload it 'til season was over.

I would tend to agree with Redneck. My limited experience with tw o 742s is that stellar accuracy is not there, although minute of deer is good. JB says that if you can hit a volleyball, at whatever distance, that is good enough to kill deer. They would do that well past 200 yards. On the other hand, the 760 pumps often shot really tight groups.

YMMV,

Jack

My dad bought one in 30-06 the 60s and shot big game all over the country his whole life with one. His would shoot MOA with pretty much any factory ammo. However, I have seen and shot other ones trying to sight them in for other people that were terrible. I had someone ask me to try and sight in a 7400 carbine one time and it shot 6" groups at 50 yards.It had the old weaver flop over rings so you could use the iron sights instead of the blurry 40 dollar scope mounted on it. The gun may have been fine.
The one you have may be one of the good ones. When I was a kid anybody that could afford one had either a Woodmaster or BAR to deer hunt with here.

I have never owned one, but they did have a problem with some parts wearing thin and letting them slam fire.

A friend had one and Rem replaced it with the new model for him.

They have killed a lot of game. Just be aware......

Just my 2 cents.
Tim

You're taking it easy. I thought it would be bury it in the same hole with any Winchester 100's you have.

This is why I was thinking of the rebarrel to a smaller caliber. Maybe the action won't cycle with anything less than the full .30-06 punch, but if a .22-06, .243 Catbird, or .25-06 will cycle it, then maybe the accuracy can be there. I'm only thinking of a 300 yd. max semi-auto coyote gun.

Inherited things do have intangibles, but looking in from the outside there's no way I'd invest resources in such a project.

The right thing to do with a newly-acquired 742 requires but a single purchase:

If he would have said he got one of those, I would have recommended the same...

Only thing the 100 has for it over the 742s is the magazine..

It does have a little sentimental value, but not enough that I wouldn't consider trying to make it function as a semi-auto something. I don't need a wall hanger, so if I don't make it into something it will just be reinherited by a nephew probably. I doubt it has fired more than 150 rounds. Years ago, I shot a speed goat at 160 yds with it. It was sighted in by a lefty and I shot righty so I hit about 6" to the side, but that was into the shoulder so it was DRT.