Remington 742 cleaning and lubrication?

rci2950

rci2950

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I am the terror that faps in the night
I have a Remington 742 in 30-06 and I really like it. I was hoping to get some pointers on proper maintenance an care so that I can get the most out of this hunting rifle. I am curious about lubrication and cleaning. How should I be cleaning this rifle? Right now it is in excellent condition. It looks like it is fresh out of the box. Inside the receiver is perfect. I don't expect any problems. It came from an old man that bought it to go hunting and then hung it on the wall and left it there. It gathered a lot of dust and never got used. Looking inside it, I would be comfortable saying it didn't get much more then its initial sighting in. Anyway I would love all the information I can get.

Thanks in advance

Adam
 
Not much to it, pull the trigger group, spray the inside of the receiver with something like Rem oil, same for the trigger group, clean barrel and gas system when you want to, boresnakes are handy, and then I always, but always put them muzzle down and sprayed liberal amounts of oil into the receiver, swab dry before shooting it again. The chambers on these guns tend to get pitted from poor cleaning, or total lack of cleaning, and thats the best way to destroy them, but I am sure someone will chime in about chatter marks on the rails. You can do upgrades to the bolt head locking/over rotation bar if you plan on doing alot of shooting, otherwise light lubrication and you will be fine.
 
Less is more with Remington gas-operated rifles and shotguns. Break it down,completely,once a year,de-grease the trigger group and gas system,use very light gun oil very sparingly and if you'll be using it in very cold weather,use a fine graphite powder instead of oil applied by rubbing the powder on a finger tip and applying to metal parts. Wipe down lightly and you're good to go.
 
Over lubrication has always been the enemy of semi remmy's.As trimmer said, less is more. A light action oil is preferable. The chattering is just a result of poor design. The action rail is aluminum and I don't think they changed that til the 7400 replaced the 742. If the rail is good and you're just using it for hunting, it may last a lifetime with proper maintenance.
 
These rifles, despite appearances, are relatively easy to completely disassemble and clean.
This should be done occasionally. As has been mentioned, too much lube will cause grief.
Regards, Dave.
 
I appreciate all the replies. I will do as advised. This week sometime I am going to give the rifle a disassembly and cleaning. It has quite a bit of cigarette smoke soaked dust in it and I would Like to have that all out before firing it the first time.

Thanks again!
 
Eagleye said:
are relatively easy to completely disassemble and clean.
Click to expand...
Gonna add a caveat to that, it depends on the exact production, and what you call disassembly. Pulling the bolt from some 742s is a major PITA, and getting barrels off can he pure hell on some. To do a full clean on a heavily used gun by my standards, its a pain.

10 rounds a year, wouldnt worry much, keep the mag clean as well, and the contact points for the mag in the receiver.
 
Dosing said:
Gonna add a caveat to that, it depends on the exact production, and what you call disassembly. Pulling the bolt from some 742s is a major PITA, and getting barrels off can he pure hell on some. To do a full clean on a heavily used gun by my standards, its a pain.

10 rounds a year, wouldnt worry much, keep the mag clean as well, and the contact points for the mag in the receiver.
Click to expand...

I have to agree ..I pulled one completly apart trying to figure out a way of getting rid of the bolt chatter
If it hasn't being used as you say..Just leave it together
 
I’ve got a 750 carbine I’d like to swap out the bolt handle on. Is there much work getting to it? (I haven’t bothered researching yet as it’s pretty far down my to do list). I just want something easier to grab with thick gloves and a wide scope base.
 
Utube has some good videos. The bolt handle is held on by a small pin. If you download the manual from Remington, it will help you figure out the process.
 
Nothing wrong with the ol' 742 Woodsmaster. My advice, only strip completely if absolutely necessary. I would remove the trigger group however, no issues here. Use "crud-cutter" aerosol spray to clean the entire thing and then apply light oil (aerosol spray) like Rem Oil. After that you're good to go. I recently rebuilt a 7400. One thing to note, the extractor on the 742 is the riveted-type, whereas the 7400 is the more common C-clip/snap-ring type. Things I did to improve reliability were polish the recoil spring guide, feed ramp, and chamber. It worked like a dream and favored 180 grain (30'06) loads. Despite their cons over the years, they were a good design for their purpose. Reasons they didn't work were mostly due to operator neglect (IE: rusty chambers and damaged magazines), where many were coined "Jamo-matics" or "Jam-Masters". Mine was an accurate gun, shooting 1.25" groups with Fusion ammo. Many hunters I know now in their 70's still faithfully hunt with the older "Woodsmaster" and have never had a problem. Nice find!
 
Warden70 said:
Nothing wrong with the ol' 742 Woodsmaster. My advice, only strip completely if absolutely necessary. I would remove the trigger group however, no issues here. Use "crud-cutter" aerosol spray to clean the entire thing and then apply light oil (aerosol spray) like Rem Oil. After that you're good to go. I recently rebuilt a 7400. One thing to note, the extractor on the 742 is the riveted-type, whereas the 7400 is the more common C-clip/snap-ring type. Things I did to improve reliability were polish the recoil spring guide, feed ramp, and chamber. It worked like a dream and favored 180 grain (30'06) loads. Despite their cons over the years, they were a good design for their purpose. Reasons they didn't work were mostly due to operator neglect (IE: rusty chambers and damaged magazines), where many were coined "Jamo-matics" or "Jam-Masters". Mine was an accurate gun, shooting 1.25" groups with Fusion ammo. Many hunters I know now in their 70's still faithfully hunt with the older "Woodsmaster" and have never had a problem. Nice find!
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Yeah I love the Jam-O-Matic moniker. Keeps the EE prices low for those of us that know better.
 
When I hear someone call the 742 a jam-o-matic, I hear someone who has no idea about the gun. Granted, If abuse, neglect and inability to perform general maintenance is your MO, then don't buy one.
 
Eagleye said:
These rifles, despite appearances, are relatively easy to completely disassemble and clean.
This should be done occasionally. As has been mentioned, too much lube will cause grief.
Regards, Dave.
Click to expand...
To completely disassemble a 742 or 7400 you will need to remove the barrel with a barrel removal wrench or a home made tool that will get the barrel nut off. Brownells has one but won’t send it out of the US because of the manufacturer’s direction.

My local gunsmith has the tool and does a good job cleaning them up. He says the worst thing you can do to them is continuously bringing it in and out of the heated hunt camp and putting it in the rack barrel up so all the condensation can run into the action.
 
bush1 said:
To completely disassemble a 742 or 7400 you will need to remove the barrel with a barrel removal wrench or a home made tool that will get the barrel nut off. Brownells has one but won’t send it out of the US because of the manufacturer’s direction.

My local gunsmith has the tool and does a good job cleaning them up. He says the worst thing you can do to them is continuously bringing it in and out of the heated hunt camp and putting it in the rack barrel up so all the condensation can run into the action.
Click to expand...

I modified a few tools to make pulling barrels easier, but the barrel wrench is the way to go. I used to see about 10 of these for every BAR back east when I was doing smithing. 90% of the problems were poor or lack of maintenace. Chamber corrosion was common, with pitting being a regular enough issue chamber polishing was reasonably common with some gunsmiths.
 
kodiakjack said:
I’ve got a 750 carbine I’d like to swap out the bolt handle on. Is there much work getting to it? (I haven’t bothered researching yet as it’s pretty far down my to do list). I just want something easier to grab with thick gloves and a wide scope base.
Click to expand...

drill a small hole in the existing handle and put a key fob split ring on it to help with easier operation.
 
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