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.

I've always liked the Lyman 57.

I also like the Williams Foolproof because it has no protrusions to catch on brush and truck seats.

Fred

These Remington pumps are really popular in Pennsylvania because PA does not allow hunting with semi-auto rifles. In PA, they are the first choice of many for quick second shots. They are referred to as "Pennsylvania machine guns" or "Amish machine guns".

Some rattled and some didn't. Read that eventually they were given a spacer to eliminate the rattle.

I prefer the old style forend with the grooves in the carbine version. However, the stock had a lot of drop and metal or plastic on the buttstock which didn't make them all that recoil friendly.

One who knows how to work one, can throw bullets out accurately faster than with a semi. If that is important and it's usually not.

The forward push of the pump, once you get comfortable with it allows you to naturally use hand/eye coordination to go to the target. The semi just rocks back and up.

Oh yea, some shot crazy good. Don't know the why of it, but they did.

JB, That is a great article. My next purchase. How come I didn't get my copy in the mail until yesterday? (10-5-10) You guys are leaving me in your smoke!

John was out of stamps.

Haven't gotten the new RIFLE yet so I'm not sure if the M14's were mentioned. Here's a nice one in .35 Rem I have and another in .30 Rem is waiting to be reassembled after a good cleaning. No provision for a scope but the tang sight is good enough for my eyes.

One of favorite oldies.

I used to give my dad a bad time about his 7600 pump 30-06 telling him he needed a bolt to have a real rifle. Then, when he died, before I passed the rifle on to my oldest boy, I had the goal of killing a blacktail buck with it. I jumped a nice forked horn hunting in thick cover in a wash in northern Ca, and I missed on my first shot, quickly slapped another round in and dropped the buck. I sat down and just started laughing, and talking to my ole man upstairs above me..........so that's what you were talking about, huh Pops.. ...

My oldest has it now, it's his favorite rifle, and he just used it to take a nice cow elk in Utah. He love's the rifle, and it is extremely accurate.

I think I need one of these!

I've got one but I need a tang sight like that. Anybody know where I can get one??

If you think a 760 rattles try a Mossberg shot gun and they kill game by the ton

VAnimrod, if your 760 doesn't feed well from the newer style magazine, work some cartridges through it slowly and watch what's going on. My 7600 didn't feed well from either style and I tweaked the feed lip angle on my mags and now have no problems. Mine would feed from one side of the mag and sometimes missed picking up a cartridge from the other side. I adjusted the feed lips so the cartridges would rise up a bit higher under the lip. If you mess with the feed lips go slow and do a little adjusting at a time.

I have a 7600 30-06 (Early 90s model) that throws the first shot about 2-3 inches high usually. This is with a very careful, consistent rest. Subsequent shots (2-4) are nearly always under or just at an inch. Just wondering if this problem may be common & has a known cure..

I've tried feeding from the magazine, single loading without the magazine. Resting in various fore and aft positions.

I did just change out the stock to a 20 gauge 870 style & it can now be used with the irons without mashing your cheek into the sharp feeling, poorly designed, raised ridge on the factory 7600 stock (Composite).

When I had a M760 in 30-06, always shot it from the bench with the receiver sitting on the front rest, not the fore end. It's the way to bench these critters.

Never had a problem putting three 150gr Speer Hot Cor loads (57grs of IMR 4350) into an inch or less from the bench, thataway.

It feeds fine (actually, it feeds faster and slicker than a fat boy at an ice cream stand); the magazine, however is SLIGHTLY oversized and a royal PITA to seat and remove.

That, and it just don't look right.

Does anyone know who made Recoil Robs peep sight. I like it much better than the Lyman that is on my 760.

oulufinn,

The 760's barrel is supposed to be free-floating, as is the barrel in later 760's. If yours isn't, that may be the problem.

In some rifles the barrel may not float enough, especially toward the front of the forend. That was the case with my .270 760 mentioned in the article. I took off the forend and rasped the barrel channel a little deeper. It turned into a 3/4" rifle.

In older 760's relieving some of the pressure from the brace on the tip of the forend can help.

I bench-test all my 760's and 7600's with the forend resting on the bag, just as I do with bolt rifles.

My son and I have found a 760/7600 shot using an Uncle Bud's bull bag will hit 1" higher and right (for us) than if using a standard front rest. Our zero for shooting offhand or from field positions is better if a standard front rest was used to zero our rifles.

I've tried both ways & still slings first cold shot. Weird. Probably only fired it 40-50 times. Maybe I just need to shoot the hell out of it, heat it up & break the SOB in good..

JB,

This is a 90s model 7600 synthetic. Lots of clearance. I haven't messed with it in a while, though. Maybe time to clean the heck out of it, send some more downrange with it & try various resting positions again. It may get better with a few more miles on it. More data can't hurt. Thanks for your input.

"Does anyone know who made Recoil Robs peep sight. I like it much better than the Lyman that is on my 760."

It appears to be a Lyman R14

It's a Lyman...

How reliable is the 7600? Should one rechamber to 9.3x62 and go hunt dangerous game in Africa? It seems the simple bolt is the choice for such hunts (or the double). Is it just unfamiliarity that keeps African hunters from using these?

I have an old 7400 semi-auto in 280 Rem and it's one of the best shooting rifles I've ever had. The plastic dust cover had been removed from it when I traded for it, and I have never had any feeding or firing issues with it. I have only shot between 450-500 rounds through it. It was practically new when I traded for it. It was thrown in on a swap to sweeten the deal for me, and i almost sold it without ever shooting it, as i didn't know much about the 7mm Express/280 Remington at the time, and I assumed that a semi-auto would not be accurate. I have had it for 25 years now. I wouldn't trade it or sell it at all. It don't rattle either. I really liked the old 760's. Had one in 06 that I wish I had kept, and it didn't rattle either. I have never shot a 7600 yet.

Finally got to read the article a BAM this weekend. Very nice.

My 760 was a pawnshop purchase for $125 out the door five years ago. It had no magazine, rear sight missing, toe of stock and chunk of metal buttplate gone.

Had a local trapgun shop trim LOP back to about 13 and put a 1-in. Kickeez pad from his junk pile on it. Still a bit of wood missing from toe under the pad...

Plenty of freckling, may do something about wood. Had thought about turning it into a Benoit Special, but don't feel like spending money right now.

Shot it again yesterday with Remington Managed Recoil. Put three in one hole at 50 yards on scope target. Shot it from a field position on 8-in Dirty Bird and it did about 2-inches (with no real aiming point on the center at 3X).

The MR is pleasant and 50 yards is about max in my thick patch of woods. I believe it will drop one come rifle season.

I really wish Remington would make the 7600 in .260 Remington.I don't know why Remington don't do more with this cartridge.

okay...you fellas are stirring up the ole feelings of a long gone friend...Had one in the 760 for many yrs. That aught six supplied lots of meat in my younger days along with taking many bears. Accuracies was considerably good and mags worked well..did not like the sights so put a Leupy 1.5x5 on it and what a champ of a rifle. Sold it to buy xmas presents for my children when they were young and when I was young. No regrets,,,but now am thinking a .35 Whelen 7600...just for grins.

If your 760 rattles it's because the O-ring inside the pump mechanism is worn or missing. I've replaced them before and you mostly end up taking the entire rifle apart to replace the rubber O-ring but it isn't all that bad really. It takes about an hour to do it and then the rattle is gone.

Anyone that would take a .300 Savage and convert it to something else - needs to have their head examined.
Don't you realize that they only ever made a couple of them in .300 Savage and that it was worth more money being a .300 Savage then being anything else?

The most desirable ones are in .222 Remington - very rare.

You couldn't convert a .300 Savage into a .35 Wheelen because the .35 Wheelen was a long action rifle and the .300 Savage is a shot action rifle. The clip to hold the shells wouldn't fit in the gun.

That's a very easy fix.
ON the older model 760 - the bolt cover was made of steel.
You simply went to a gun shop and had them replace the steel dust cover with a plastic dust cover and it would stop rattling. The forearm was attached to the action rods by way of a nut and the action rods rode in two groves in the receiver. Unless there was an insane amount of clearance - it should not rattle - much if at all. Like Moosemike said - there is a rubber wiper ring on the inside of the external tube that can go bad if it is really dirty - that can be replaced if it is worn out.

When you walk - your feet probably makes more noise then the gun does. One other thing that will make it make noise is if you have the sling attached to the tube for the action.
You just put a barrel band around the barrel and get rid of the pump mount and your noise should go away.

I have had over 20 Gamemasters - and the only other thing I will say is that comparing a 760 Gamemaster to a 7600 is like comparing a 1980's Chevrolet Chevette to a Corvette. The 760 was a much better gun.

For anyone that cannot understand the principals of the Gamemaster - it is a full free float barrel - probably the most accurate design - way ahead of it's time.
Probably the #1 selling and most carried gun in Pennsylvania for hunting deer at one time. If you go out west and you see someone carrying a Gamemaster - especially if it has a Redfield Widefield scope - you know they are from Pennsylvania. If it has a old Bushnell 3x9x40 scope - it was probably sold at Grice Gun Shop in Clearfield PA.

I think at one time, Grice Gun Shop did sell a couple of them in .260 Remington. I can't remember how long ago though because I threw my old sale flier papers away.
20 years worth of collecting their papers got to be too much.

A scope with more magnification and a good solid shooting bench and some sand bags and 150 gr Federal Fusion ammo should solve your accuracy problems.

Most people that I see that has problems, has their scope mounted too low. The stock does not have enough drop for my tastes and my body size to allow me to use the standard mount.

I replace most of my Weaver style mounts with Kwik Site See Thru mounts and have found the gun to be a better shooter and hunter then with the old reliable standard rail mounts.

You don't need to shoot them fast.
If you hear one bang in the wood, it usually means that they got it. If you hear multiple shots - it means that you missed and you are still slinging lead.
I can't say that I can hit a target dead center 5 times at 100 yards shooting rapid fire with any weapon off hand, but I can say that I can shoot my 760 Gamemaster quicker then you could shoot a 7600 or a 742.

That is called a fit problem.
The way to cure that problem is to make two wooden jaw protectors for a mechanic's vise and put the clip in the vise and slowly squeeze the clip on the sides a couple of thousandths at a time until it fits. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I done it many times.

I was told that the new 7600 clips with the plastic does or does not fit in the older style 760. Some packages says that it does, while Grice Gun shop told me the other day that it will not. Grice doesn't know everything though - so they were wrong.

Bob's Army & Navy in Clearfield PA has 760 Clips on stock.
I believe that they were $18.50 each...

At one time, they also sold 10 shot clips for about $40 each.

The Amish does not hunt with Remington Gamemaster rifles.

Back in the day, they used old obsolete guns, until the Game Commission made them buy hunting licenses. Now they mostly have expensive bolt action high power rifles.
That is the ones that lives around Brockway, Trade City, Smicksburgh, Munderf, Luthersburgh, Big Run, Rossiter, Marion Center...

That's not a 760 Gamemaster.

Its a model 141

Most Gamemasters would also shoot different for the first shot, then once the barrel was warmed up would shoot a consistent string until the barrel would get too hot to touch.

The one cure is to sight in the rifle before the season starts and then do not clean it again until after the season is over. The dirty barrel makes a difference in accuracy.

My first question would be what loads are you shooting out of it?

The pump action rifle does not like a lot of chamber pressure and some loads are too much for them and will cause the chamber to blow open after you pull the trigger.
We have found that the CCI Large Rifle primer, 58 GR IMR 4350 powder (CL) and a 150 gr bullet works best in most 760 Gamemaster 30-06 rifles..

The 7600 - I was told by a Remington Representative - a 3 inch group is acceptable at 100 yards and a 4 inch group is not uncommon. Needless to say, when a friend of mine bought one of those new plastic fantastic rifles and a good quality tactical scope and a couple of boxes of 180 gr ammo and couldn't hit the target consistently at 100 yards, we took the rifle back and demanded an exchange. Switched to a cheap 150 gr Hornady factory load and a lesser quality scope and the gun was better then the first. Must have been a quality issue with the barrel or the head spacing is my only answer.

So the only thing I can ask, is have you had the head spacing checked on your 7600 and does your empties show any signs of stress around the bottom half of the shell after it is fired?
Cracks, black spots on the shell, blown primers etc?

Man those 760/7600 just ooze old school cool. There is a nice 7600 in 06 at my local pawn shop i'd like to put on laway. I'd rank them right along with the savage 99s, the Marlin and Winchester levers for classic rifles that flat out hunt!

I'm no Remington expert, but weren't all those 760s and 7600 one action length (long)? And hey, if it floats his boat, why rag on him. A gun one likes and will actually use is worth way more than some price tag on a safe queen.

The amish around here hunt with 760/7600's. The few that don;t use 30-30's.

My Amish friends use model 7's, Marlin 30-30's, and quite a few 760's, in 270 and 06. They even call them "Amish Machine Guns."

An early 760 with a corncob front stock has been on my wish list for a while,' probably in 30--06, but any cartridge would make me happy.

My best friend of 37 years has a model 760 in .270. There's no telling how many deer and elk he has killed with that rifle. He just about wore it out when we were younger. When everyone else was grab-assin', playing football and in general hitting the social scene he was hunting. From age 16 (when he got his license) to age 25, if he wasn't, eating, f*****g or sleeping, he was hunting. He's a machinist by trade, and began putting together his own rifles when he was around 25. If he hadn't have started hunting with other rifles he built, I think he would have worn that 760 out. He still has it. He rarely rifle hunts anymore...no sport in it; he prefers archery hunting now.

The Amish and expensive bolt action rifles don't seem to go together.

It's not a M141, as I stated in my original post it's a M14.

I don't know about the Amish but the Mennonites sure use Gamemasters.

Presbyterians seem to prefer Model 700's, while the Episcopalians for some reason gravitate to Howas.

Catholics are strict Model 70 users, using anything else is a Deadly Sin.

Since Lutheran is kind of like Catholic-lite, do they use Ruger MKIIs?

The 760 is on my list- I'm a lefty and I like the fact they made a few of them with the left-handed stock- I've seen a few on Gunbroker. I'm thinking of converting a 30-06 to 9.3 for an elk and moose rifle- good idea?

I'm a Lutheran pastor and I use a good variety of rifle - M70, M77 MkII, T/C Encore, M788, FN PBR XP. Maybe I'm protesting something by using different makers...

I have one you can start your project with.

I'm a Non Denominational Pastor and I use every make I can get my hands on. Including Remington Pumps!

Don't remember exactly why but about three decades ago, cudda been four, I sent in a mail-order buck and became an ordained minister with an outfit called 'Universal Life Church'.

Since that time, I come to the conclusion that mixing guns and religion only leads to bad things.

Time to step away.

Duquensbeer you missed the point. YOU may be able to shoot a pump faster than I can shoot an auto BUT I can shoot a semi- auto faster than I can shoot a pump. That was the point I was trying to make.You either get it or you dont.
Actually I find I shoot plenty fast enough with a bolt action .

You guys must be a couple of those "liberal" pastors I heard about when I attended a Church Of God.

Liberal? I've never been so insulted.

Just kidding padre. I always thought baptists use 30-06, methodists 30-30, and we non-denominational Christians 270 (or 7x57).

444Matt, you are correct. The 760/7600 rifles are all the same length actions. The magazines are different for the shorter length cartridges like the .308 & .243.

Ray, I have hunted with a 760 7600 for a long time. If you hold a little forward tension on the forearm they will not make any noise!

Have been hunting with the pump rifle and shotgun for so long its just natural to me. For a leftie they just seem to work and can shoot it faster and more accurate than most bolt actions. KK