Remington Model 740 Woodsmaster

[tx81]

Here's a picture of another of my grandfather's favorite deer rifles.

This is another doe that I got this year. The rifle pictured is a Remington Model 740 Woodsmaster, this one in .244/6mm Remington.
Shooting a 100 grain, Remington Core-Lokt, took out the lungs with a single shot. She ran quite far for not having any lungs left to breathe with - about 50-60 yards. It's the one thing I really dislike about hunting late in the day. When they come out after dusk and just before dark, it makes finding them when they run a bit difficult. But find her I did, after about 10-15 minutes of searching.

I really like this little spitfire of a rifle. With a 4 rd drop box magazine, the 100 grain bullets are more than enough for the deer here in Central Texas. At just over 3100 fps for muzzle velocity, that's one "screaming" little round. I dropped a little 3x9 scope on it after finding that the original scope my grandfather put on had an interior lens break or pop a seal or something. One thing about the scope mount - it's hinged allowing you to pop it loose from the mount, roll over to the left, allowing the open sights to be used.

[DWalt]

The 740 has received a lot of negative comments, allegedly because of excessive wear on the receiver guides. I have one in .308, and have fired it at least 2000 rounds (using mostly 7.62 NATO military ammunition) with no functioning problems at all - ZERO. I have no idea how much it was shot by previous owners. Grouping is nothing to write home about, and 3" 5 shot groups at 100 yards is exceptional performance in mine, with 4" being more common. I've tried several things to tighten up the groups, including load development, a little spacer thingy I made up for the front of the handguard, and even shooting it without the handguard, with no significant improvement. Nonetheless, it is plenty good enough for deer within 150 yards. I have a 7400 in .270 which groups much better, as it will easily shoot 2" groups with about anything I shoot in it. Believe it or not, by far the best grouping in the 7400 is with 110 grain .277 bullet reloads, and I can do +/- 1" with them. I have two other .270s (bolt actions), and they both shoot very tight groups. I think the .270 is just inherently accurate no matter what rifle you shoot it in. I also think Jack O'Connor was right - there is no better caliber for North American use.

In summary, I personally can't criticize anything about my 740 except its mediocre grouping performance.

[tx81]

I've taken this Model 740 to the range several times and you're right, the groupings are nothing to brag about. I seem to be able to put three rounds fairly close together, but the 4th round always seems to go a couple inches high for some reason.

Even at 25 yards, trying to zero the scope takes about twice as much ammo as my Model 81. But once the scope is zeroed, I cannot complain about the performance I get with the rounds I use.

I don't know how many rounds my grandfather or uncle fired through this 740, but it's proven to be an exceptional auto-loader providing flawless operation every time that I've used it.

Thanks for the response!

[DWalt]

But my 740 still groups better than my M81 in .30 Rem, which is more like 5"-7" 5-shot groups at 100 yards, using open sights.