During my law enforcement career I always paid special attention to firearm reliability test conducted by gun writers and law enforcement organizations. Most of these test involved revolvers or autoloaders. The standard measurement included functioning, and accuracy for ten thousand rounds.
I have read a few test related to law enforcement shotguns but none of them involved the firing of ten thousand rounds. Both the handguns tested and the basic shotguns are available to the consumer.
From reading this forum and some of the post the Remington 740 life cycle is designed around low use. This might equal 20 rounds of ammunition over 40-years. That is only 800 rounds of expended ammunition. I have fired more then that out of a Sig 220 in a week.
Back to the Remington pumps. As best I can recall it was 1957 and my Dad gave me a new M760 in .270 Winchester. Of course a trip to the range was called for and we shot up a box of shells sighting the rifle. That season I collected two bucks with the rifle. That was another 3 or 4 rounds expended. The following year duplicated the first one, except a few jackrabbits bit the dust. But what is not in the count is the thousand or so rounds I dry fired, or the all the cycles that the action accumulated. At that time the only ammunition being reloaded in the house was shotgun shells I was producing with the Lee loader.
I was bussed to a High School, which was fed by kids living in the country. During lunch I would walk downtown and tour the gun shops. I started buying partial boxes of .270 ammunition of any bullet weight. Now days they would toss a kid in jail for the ammunition I hauled home on the bus. This increased my bang factor on jackrabbits and woodchucks.
This activity also gave me a supply of empty cases. One of the gun shops in town did custom reloading. It was far cheaper then factory ammo. So in the next five years I fire approximately 600 rounds from my M760. At the same time I was living where I could walk a few hundred yards from the house and target practice. The dry firing also continued. In 1969 the firing pin broke when I tried to collect a buck. Messed up hunt, and a few dollars for a firing pin. During the same period of time I bought a press and dies. The number of rounds fired begin to accumulate rapidly.
Things slowed down for the M760 when I purchased another .270. My attention was now divided. While the M760 still got a good share of my field time, it did not get all the dry firing, and range time.
So back to my original thoughts. Just how tough is the Remington pumps. How many rounds will one hold up for? I know mine has failed with the broken firing pin one time. I feel my dry firing my have brought that about. I was not using a snap cap.
A test should include a M7600 in 30-06 or .308 Winchester and a 7615P in .223 Remington. I am sure that such a test could get a little ugly after a while. How long will the barrels hold their accuracy? How long will the firing pins hold up. How long will the action continue to function. Will there be problems with the bolt heads. A regiment of cleaning and lubrication would be required every 20-40 rounds.
Are these hunting arms built to provide reliable long-term use? A friend bought a magnum rifle about ten years ago and has never fired it. When the season opens he is carrying a rifle he bought 30 years ago. A few years ago I looked at M760 in .300 Savage. It looked brand new. I should have bought it. Not because I need another rifle, but because I like the M760 and the .300 Savage. The bottom line is that rifle lacked field experience.
My old M760 has had a lot of field experience. The finish around the magazine is gone or thin from carrying. There are a couple of scars on the barrel and I have refinished the wood.
