Dear Guys,
Ouch. My head hurts from reading all of these replies. Wow. I love it.
But, now that the head-butting is over, it appears to me that:
1. The original post from Blue Cow starts out by saying that he already cleaned the rifle to the best of his ability, and also had someone with more knowledge that he clean the rifle to the best of his ability.
2. Yes, the next logical step is to have the rilfle stripped down as far as possible, and thoroughly cleaned, polished, and buffed, in all the right places. But, ya know, I think Blue Cow already knew that. (Since he hasn't done it, he is obviously reluctant, since it will cost him even more money, and he is worred about throwing good money after bad.)
3. I think that what Blue Cow really wanted to know was whether there was something special or extra he ought to know about this rifle, before spending more money on it. (Like, some special part to replace, or some special piece to hone or lube,or some special trick, or anything else.)
4. The replies he got were good honest advice: No, there is no special trick to try, AND these rifles have a very bad track record for jamming, and the manufacturer and reputable gunsmiths won't (and can't) fix them. Conclusion: You probably don't want to put any more money into this rifle, because it is probably a lost cause.
5. I didn't hear anyone touting one brand of rifle over another. I've shot and hunted with many Remingtons in my 38 years of hunting. Most were very very good, but some were very very bad.
6. In all honesty, if you went to 100 reputable gunsmiths in America, and asked them to list the 5 worse rifles ever made by Remington, I'll bet you would find that the 742 autoloader is right at the top of that list. Sorry, but that's pretty obvious. I doubt that any officer or director of the Remington would disagree.
7. Of course, there is nothing wrong with owning a single shot hunting rifle, so long as you know that that is what you've got in your hands.
My final advice: If you can find someone at the gunclub who is familiar with these rifles, and will take it totally apart and thoroughly clean and polish it for $25 or so, then spend the money. If not, then don't sink any more money into it. So, then you will have two choices: keep it, and just consider it as a single shot and be happy with it (this will cost you NOTHING), or sell it, get what you can for it, and throw in another $100 or so and get a good reliable used hunting rifle. A bolt action would be a fine choice, but so would a Marlin lever action, a Savage 99C lever action, or the like.
Personally, I would sell it, throw in a few more bucks, and buy a new NEF Handi-Rifle in .30-06 or .308
Regards,
Mannyrock
