I had a 740 in 30-06, it worked fine until “The Rifleman’s Shop” in Calgary shortened the barrel, never worked again after that. I was too young and not as mechanically inclined as I am now, never fixed it, gave it away.
I currently have a 740 in 308, worked fine when I bought it, I shortened the barrel, still works fine. When I bought it the inside was filthy, I tore it completely down, barrel off and all. Cleaned everything up (pay particular attention to the chamber, watch for pitting), reassembled, boom boom boom ever since. Have fired Hirtenburger surplus, some cheap Remington ammo and some hand loads through it, zero failures.
Things to watch for:
-as mentioned in my rambling above, terrible gunsmiths, watch out for those. Haha.
-chamber pitting = bad
-the bolt “chews” into the receiver over time. Pull the magazine out and look up at the bottom of the receiver (it helps if the hammer is cocked), near the scope base screw holes. Look for marks being chewed into the slot that the bolt teeth slide in. Google for a better description of need be, it’s fairly common. Some believe it is fatal once it reaches a certain point (causes the action to be jammed open upon firing), I’ll fix mine once it’s bad enough.
-magazines, they can cause feeding issues with these bad boys.
-the forearm can cause some accuracy issues by placing tension on the receiver. Shooting it and see how it does, if it’s really bad look there.
-your friends making fun of it by saying, “nice shotgun” when you have it out at the range, jerks.
-internet know-it-alls with zero real world experience = bad
I hope I works for you, happy shooting
