Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 375 H&H Remington 798??????

Tell me what you know and have heard factually about this model. I am looking at a 375 H&H that doesn't require a 2nd mortgage. These look nice outwardly and fulfill my desire for a wood stock, but I have heard the following:
rumblings of stiff bolts that feel like they are hanging up, I have heard of fit and finish issues as they are Serbian imports....I even heard a cat say the bolt works fine if you oil it lightly and cycle the action approx. 1000 times????????? I don't think I should have to cycle it that much to "break-in" a new action! What do you guys say?

Search - - there is another string of posts in this forum on this very subject.

I beleive them to be FN actions, correct? in which case al one needs to do is strip down the bolt and action, a simple process and use some fine grinding compound mixed with oil and gob up the bolt and work it about 200 times, boil it out and your probably good to go with a slick action that will get better. The other option is just shoot and use it and let it wear itself in over time. An FN couldn't be too bad..

Personally I don't think any production rifle is hunt worthy out of the box..they all need a lot of tweeking IMO...

I haven't owned one, but the ones I have seen and handled are rough when new, but really seem to smooth up with a little use. Just like the old Mark Xs and Whitworths, which used the same actions.

Thought they were the same as the Daly rifles ... were they FN??

Daley and Mark X are basically FNs by design..they should be a dandy rifle, but I have not seen one as yet. Price is right and cleaning one up and tweeking it isn't a big deal.

I have only played with one, and the biggest problems I could see were in the steel to wood fit. The action was bedded too low in the stock- the bolt couldn't be closed all the way without touching the stock. It was also noticeable that the barrel was off centre in the barrel channel- it was touching wood on one side with 1/16" clearance on the other side. Thats as far as I looked at it-told the salesman to put it back on the shelf @ that point. Have no idea if they are all that bad or if I was just lucky to find that one.- It looked nice from a distance

I have one in 375 ( the Safari model with the barrel swivel mount and 22 inch barrel). A little stiff, but looks neat, carries and shoots GREAT, and GREAT price. Can't go wrong.

Rick

I saw one a few months after I purchased a CZ 550 375. Had I seen it earlier it would have been given some serious consideration. I realize it is Serbian action, but the thing I like best was the anti bind rail on the bolt. I have worked a lot on slicking up the CZ, but feel that the Rem would smooth up much easier. We are now talking about a couple of years so I cannot remember all the other details, but the one I saw looked very nice good wood, wood and metal finish seemed ok, and a better price.

I looked hard at getting one of these rifles as I've always wanted a .375 H&H.
I ended up with a 700 .375 ULTRA MAG instead, but this thread gives me the idea maybe I should trade that one off with the 5 boxes of ammo I have and get my H&H after all...

Something I did when researching the Remington 798 was look into different stocks for it.
What I found was the HOGUE stock with either pillar or full-bedding block is available for this action. It can be trimmed to fit the safety and would work perfectly into my love of 'BLACK GUNS'.
I'd look at a Picatinny rail mount and lower-powered scope, preferring a Trijicon, I think.

In the end, I'd have all kinds of things I like rolled into one gun:
Remington ( with a CRF, no less...! )
HOGUE
Trijicon
...and the .375 H&H cartridge.

Oh, these Forums are a curse and a blessing, aren't they!

Bad bedding crops up in most all factory rifles from time to time and its fixable, either by hand bedding or by glass bedding..If one is 1/16 off in the barrel channal, in all probability it is binding back on the opposite side of the tang and can be releived in a few minutes and the barrel will move back to center..never start inletting a barrel channal until you have check this out..

a rough Mauser action can be stripped down, coated with fine grinding compound (not on locking lugs) and worked a hundred times then cleaned throughly and put back together, you may want to hone it with stones and wet or dry 600 to 800 gr. paper on a flat file, at this point to get a really slick action. Do not polish on a wheel of any kind.

Actually I use a mixture of Kroil and JB bore cleaning compound to polish out a bolt as opposed to fine valve grinding compound, takes a bit longer but its seems to work maybe a bit better..Also action magic from Brownells works very well also.

I would suggest this for any factory rifle...they all need tweeking.

My friend bought one and is very pleased. BUT he bought it with the expectation of having to do some work smoothing it up, I helped based on owning an Interarms Whitworth Express since 1985 with the same Zastava action. Had to cycle the action many times to smooth it up, adjust trigger (very easy) and break the razor edge on the chamber(scraped brass on entry)The action is basically an all steel milled Mauser 98 copy that needs a little finish work.

A year ago I looked at a 798 Safari rifle at Cabella in Reno. The salesman said that Remington imported barreled Mauser actions from Serbia and put them in a three piece laminated walnut stock.

FN stands for Fabrique Nationale, made in Belgium.
They are smooth as glass. Highly polished right out of the box.
The new ones from Serbia remind me of an AK-47.
I have an old Czech made Interarms 30-06 and gave it to my son.
Eventually it got smoother and it is accurate.
I would look for an old Browning Safari myself.
whelennut

If I wanted a 375 H&H bolt rifle I'd look for an Interarms Whitworth Express rifle.

The Rem. 798 actions are FN style and type, but the original FN actions were made in Belgium by the same company that makes the high grade Browning shotguns.

The 798, Whitworth, and some others are and were made in Serbia, as someone posted. From what I gather from reading this thread, the Serbia actions do not appear to have the same precision of fit and finish as the original FNs, but, with some polishing and lappping, as also described above, the could probably be made into a very slick action.

Just picked up a 798 in 7mm MAG.
A little rough but a good cleaning smoothed it up quite q bit.
I imagine some polishing/grinding compound would finish it off in a jiffy. It is still NIB now though.
Might be using this to make a 35-375 ruger. That would be great kick around boomstick for here in Kodiak. Really looking at those 280g A-frames.

This debate has been going on for generations. Before Remington, Daly, and Interarms, these were imported by Herter's!

They take a little slicking up, but they're a lot of gun for the money.

B & C makes stocks for them as well as Hogue.