:-)
I purchased a Remington 7400 Synthetic Carbine about 3 weeks ago to use deer hunting in the heavy foliage cover in central Minnesota. My previous use of a semi-automatic rifle has been the Ruger Deerfield, which is chambered for the 44 mag cartridge. This year the little .44 mag slug failed to get through fairly light brush cover. For this reason, I purchased the Remington 7400 in .30-06, a cartridge which can be loaded with a 220 grain bullet of good sectional density. This should penetrate brush a little better than the low sectional density .44 mag slug (I was using a 270 grain bullet).
I settled on the Remington 7400 based on my previous ownership of a Model 7400 rifle in .308. The Rem 7400 handles well for me when scoped, and I also like the balance for offhand shooting, the type of shooting I employ in my still hunting technique. The Carbine version has proven to handle well also, at least on the range and in some limited field carry. Price was also a consideration.
Upon opening the box, I was pleasantly surprised at Remington’s attention to packaging. In addition, there were no flaws in the rifle’s fit or finish upon initial inspection. I installed a Weaver single piece No. 93 base and used Weaver Quick Detachable split rings to install a Burris 2 ½ power Widefield scope, one which has served me well for almost 20 years on various shotguns and rifles, most lately, the Deerfield. I had some low power 220 grain .30-06 loadings on hand, these loaded to about 2200 fps with the Hornady RN bullet. I also had some Remington factory loaded 220 grain .30-06 cartridges. These went to the range. The scope came off for the initial sighting in of the iron sights at 50 yards. The sights are quite usable with the Weaver base left on the rifle receiver. 5 shots had the Remington loads grouping in the 6 inch bullseye, The scope was re-installed. 6 shots later I had the target out at 100 yards and the rifle sighted in. The weaker load shot about 3 inches under the Remington factory ammo at 100 yards with no windage variation. The weaker load would not cycle the action dependably. There were no cycling problems with the Remington factory ammo. Benched, hastily, both loads gave about 1.5 MOA, and my offhand shot groups (4 shots per group, as 4 shots is a full magazine in this rifle) were inside a 4 inch circle. This is good enough for me. I returned today with the Hornady 220 grain RN bullet over 51 grains of IMR 4350. Same point of impact at 100 yards as the Remington ammo. Additionally, the firearm cycles with this load. Offhand I again got my 4 shots into a circle of about 4 inch diameter. The scope was removed, the irons tested at 50 with no need for adjustment using my 51 grs of IMR 4350 load, and the scope re-installed. The point of impact had not altered due to scope removal and re-installation. This is what I have found to be fairly true with the Weaver scope mount system.
So, in summary, the positives of this rifle/scope/mount combination are:
Good carrying, with my hand easily fitting around the receiver and scope at the carry balance point.
Good scoped offhand shootability, with the rifle coming to shoulder easily and on target, the balance of the firearm being such that offhand shooting is steadied.
The only negatives in the entire set-up are:
The poor trigger on the rifle. It definitely limits decent offhand shooting to about 150 yards or so. The trigger pull is long and creepy.
The iron sights are very low on the rifle, causing me to have to crawl on the stock for fine aim. This is not of terrible significance, as these iron sights represent emergency sighting only. Were I to want decent non scope sights, I would buy the peep sights that fit on the scope base rails.
After reflecting on the rifle/mount/scope combination and the sixty or so shots I’ve fire through it, I would recommend this set-up to the woodland still hunter who was going to limit his shots to about 150 yards or so.
