Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB on pump action hunting rifles

Great article in the latest Rifle on the virtues of pump action hunting rifles.

JES in Oregon converted a old Rem 760 in 300 Savage to 358 Win for me. Taking it bear hunting next week. In hind sight, should of hade it converted to 35 Whelen...but at the ranges I'll be hunting, there's not much difference.

Appreciate hearing about others sharing my insanity for those old pumps.

Those Rem 760s were some of the most accurate factory rifles evey built, my problem with them is that they were noisy, they rattled like a ball bearing in a 5 gallon bucket if you shake them or stumble or lift one too fast, whatever!!..Has anyone addressed that problem with one, if so I would be interested in intelligent ideas only of how they can be fixed!

Ray, you've done it now. I mentioned getting rid of a 760 in a thread some time ago because it was noisy. You'd have thought I called someone's baby ugly. I've been corrected and they aren't noisy at all - just silence impaired.

I've read that criticism several times over the years but have never experienced it myself with two different 760s.

Landrum

I just dug out my 760 in 30-06. Built in 1977. Grasped the end of the barrel and the end of the butt stock and gave it a good shake. Sorry, no rattle. I once had an early one built in the 50's that the front end was a little different and there was a steel piece between the fore end tube and the barrel. I seem to remember that the fore end would rattle on it.

Doc

I have two 760s. Both are early 70s versions. One in 243 is VERY accurate and quiet. The other was given to me by an uncle before he passed on to the great hunting woods. It is in 30-06 and the forearm rattles a lot. It has downed a lot of big bucks over the years and some elk too. I guess the bottom line is that some are noisy, others not so much.

RH

I'm too dang deaf to hear it rattle, if it does.

I'm determined to use my 760 Gamemaster '06 to take a whitetail this year. As mentioned in Hunting Rifles forum put a K3 Weaver Post on it today. Group wasn't anything great but fine considering I was shooting at an 8-in. bull in 15 mph wind. And the average shot around here is less than 50 yards since it's so heavily wooded.

We don't get the new Rifles in our stores until about 2 weeks after y'all first mention them...

Of the 760's and 7600's I have experienced with, only one rattled and that was a very worn .30-06 760. The rest have been fine. The "problem" seems to have been completely eliminated in the 7600.

Even that worn .30-06, however, still shot very well. I owned it when Remington came out with their Accelerator loads, with the sabot shooting a 55-grain .224 bullet at around 4000 fps. I was just starting to do some gun writing then and they sent me a few boxes and the 760 shot them into 1-1/2" or less--with a K3 Weaver. This was evidently better than MOST rifles shot Accelerators. I shot most of that ammo up on running jackrabbits in the winter, and the pump gun worked great for that, of course.

I have had a couple of them in 30-06 and they shot less than 1-1/2 inch three shot groups rested with factory cor-lokts.I just never could warm up to them very much as I figured if I wanted something for the fastest second shot I wanted the semi-auto,and if speed of a repeat shot wasn,t of paramount importance then i wanted the better trigger and feel for me of a bolt rifle.
That being said I killed several deer with mine and the main rattle I found was the bolt release on the magazine when rifle was unloaded and shook. I decided not to hunt with an empty magazine and not to shake the rifle when in the woods !
I guess I got lucky as far as rattle goes as mine didnt have anything to speak of.
Best I figure is if you are going through the woods and your rifle is rattling then you are probably moving way to fast anyway.
I have had mature bucks walk right up to me as I was cutting beans on a combine and also while cutting firewood .I think that in an area where deer are used to hearing mettalic noises,truck noises etc that it probably isn,t that big of an issue whereas if they were in a REMOTE area where all they hear are woods noises a mettalic sound might make one turn inside out.
Heck if it rattles that bad just leave your rattling horns at home !
Bottom line "in my oppinion" is if you like the pump dont worry about it.

bcraig,

The virtue of the 760/7600 is that it combines the rapid fire of a semi-auto with the accuracy of a bolt action. Or at least the better factory bolt actions--which is the point I made in the article. Plus the triggers are MUCH better than most shooters commonly believe.

The most accurate semi-auto factory rifle I have shot is the Browning BAR. But they cost a lot more than a 7600 and while the BAR trigger is OK, it isn't any better than a 7600's, and isn't as easy to tune.

My buddy's 760 .30-06 shoots MOA at 200 yards with factory corlokts and light 110 bullet handloads. It doesn't rattle. I'm sticking with my bolts and levers, but I'm curious. Those rifles seem to violate most principles of accuracy, but (apparently) they shoot. How come that is?

Ella

Oh yeah I believe it for the people who either grew up shooting pump guns and are good with them or can learn to shoot them fast but I just never could get good with one.
As far as accuracy goes again I guess i have been luck there as well as I have had several of the Rem 742 rifles and they would all shoot less than 1-1/2 inch 3 shot groups rested with Rem ammunition as well. I know a lot of people call them Jamomatics but i haven,t had any problems personally.
Never had the BAR so cant share any experience with one.
If I could have ever gotten used to the pump action and could work one as fast as some friends of mine can I think it would be great ,its just for me PESONALLY I feel more comfortable with either a semi-auto or a bolt rifle.I do think the pumps are great rifles just not for me...Craig

If any of y'all happen to have a spare '06 magazine for a 760 (mine's a first year run), let me know. The 7600 mags work half-assed, and I'd rather have this one back running right.

BTW - it don't rattle. And, the action is slicker'n snot on a door knob.

The best off-hand rifle shot I've ever hunted with uses a 760 pump in .30-06 that he got for his high school graduation gift back in the late 1960's. He shoot it open sights, hunts in South Dakota, and I've seen him hit more deer at over 300 yds than all hunters I've hunted with combined, and that includes huntingg antelope with it as well. When I was a young kid and couldn't hunt yet, I walked and blocked with Lester and was his "magazine man." He kept three fully loaded magazines and I got to hand them to him in the midst of the hunt. When he ran out one time I discovered that when he pulls the trigger he says, "pow, pow, pow" every time he pulls the trigger. I asked him about it afterward and he wasn't conscious at all of doing it!

Rechambered 7600 to 284 Win. from 7/08 by Sid Goodling.

http://goodlingrifles.com
Tight little cloverleafs on some days and under an inch on others but that's OK with me.

120 B'Tips are the ticket on deer.C.O.L. 3.040 using 30/06 magazines.Will never sell it.

Misc factoids:

Best place to find old mags is on Ebay or on Gunbroker. The 7600's will not work well.

Trigger rough? You can buy an aftermarket trigger return spring that lightens the pull.

ALso...polishing the faces of the hammer and sear will smooth the trigger pull. Polish...don't stone unless you really know what you are doing.

A friend of mine has a Rem pump 30-06 (old one) that he said was a tack driver, but had lost accuracy. I brought it home and cleaned the copper out of it, which wasn't bad. Three Remington 150 gr factory loads went into a cloverleaf at 100 yards cold and clean. I was amazed. I told him to never get rid of it.

What's a good receiver sight combination to put on my 7600 35 Whelen?

I once had a Remington pump in 308 Winchester. It would consistently shoot 1.5" groups with many sub-1". I still wonder why I traded it.