Pump rifle

[MallardSX2]

Do you own one? I would genuinely like to see a 1” 10-round group from one of these guns, even a customized one. I dont think it exists. If yours does this it’ll be the first I’ll have seen, and Ive seen a bunch. In that case I will happily eat my words.

Or are you referring to a 3-round group? Sure, even that would be good for one of these but thats a MUCH lower hurdle and not really what many of the folks here mean when they say its a “1moa gun”.

Consider this a challenge if you’re game.

Who the F really cares dude. Lol

 

[Joe Biss]

If I am wrong, then I am wrong. Thanks for keeping me honest and accountable my friend. Have a great evening.

Yeah, those 7400 gamemasters earned the nickname “Jam-Masters”. Allegedly very unreliable, but I’ve never personally owned one to testify.

 

[KenLee]

Yeah, those 7400 gamemasters earned the nickname “Jam-Masters”. Allegedly very unreliable, but I’ve never personally owned one to testify.

Game masters were model 742. 7400s were somewhat improved. Both needed the crud scrubbed out of the chamber or chamber honed often if you shot it much. Never leave a round in the chamber for days, or you'd need to push the empty casing out with a cleaning rod after you shot it.

 

[Joe Biss]

Did some digging on the old battle axe recently and found out it was born in June of 1966. I’m thinking for her 60th birthday I’ll get it threaded and thrown an OG 30 can on. Probably chuck the leupy and put something drop safe on as well.

As much as I enjoy hunting with these guns, I wouldn’t say they’re sub MOA from the factory. Especially at 60 years old. I feel like I’ve seen Form himself say a sub MOA factory rifle isn’t as common as people make it out to be, but don’t quote me on that. To my limited knowledge, 760’s don’t have a free floating barrel. The whole forearm/forend, action tube and barrel relation obviously affects harmonics, but I would imagine it opens the “cone” as the barrel heats at a different rate as the surrounding components in a 10 round group.

I’m waiting on a few parts in the mail, but will be conducting some load development for this gun in the near future. Results will be posted regardless, in the name of science.

 

[Halligan]

@Joe Biss for the most part you are correct on the free float, I think the exception is the guns in the 70’s that were free floated but still had the 760 bolt head. Was kinda a transitional era IIRC

 

[CMP70306]

As someone pointed out earlier,, I might be conflating my experiences with the 7400/740 version with the pump version. It was years ago using a family members' rifle but if that damned thing went BANG! 2 out of 3 times it was having a great day and if you decided to, eh, un-alive yourself with it then you had to budget several rounds as the only thing I've ever seen with less accuracy was a Taurus Judge 410/45 revolver.
Of course, it also had the near-mandatory "peek-a-boo, I-missed-you" rings on it too...
*Heavy sigh*

Yeah the 740/7400 series were garbage from what I’ve heard but being in PA we couldn’t hunt with them so nobody I know owned one.

Do you own one? I would genuinely like to see a 1” 10-round group from one of these guns, even a customized one. I dont think it exists. If yours does this it’ll be the first I’ll have seen, and Ive seen a bunch. In that case I will happily eat my words.

Or are you referring to a 3-round group? Sure, even that would be good for one of these but thats a MUCH lower hurdle and not really what many of the folks here mean when they say its a “1moa gun”.

Consider this a challenge if you’re game.

My brothers just got a new barrel so when I go to get that sighted in I’ll see about a 10 round group though it might not be until closer to the fall.

Did some digging on the old battle axe recently and found out it was born in June of 1966. I’m thinking for her 60th birthday I’ll get it threaded and thrown an OG 30 can on. Probably chuck the leupy and put something drop safe on as well.

As much as I enjoy hunting with these guns, I wouldn’t say they’re sub MOA from the factory. Especially at 60 years old. I feel like I’ve seen Form himself say a sub MOA factory rifle isn’t as common as people make it out to be, but don’t quote me on that. To my limited knowledge, 760’s don’t have a free floating barrel. The whole forearm/forend, action tube and barrel relation obviously affects harmonics, but I would imagine it opens the “cone” as the barrel heats at a different rate as the surrounding components in a 10 round group.

I’m waiting on a few parts in the mail, but will be conducting some load development for this gun in the near future. Results will be posted regardless, in the name of science.

The original 50’s and 60’s era 760 used as many parts from the 870 as possible which included the pump assembly that touched the barrel. By the 70’s they dropped that in favor of a true free floated barrel but in many cases you had to watch as the forearm could hit the barrel if you twisted it too hard.

 

[Jim Dandy]

I handloaded ammo specifically for my 760 in .30-06. I loaded 200 grain Accubonds with Remington factory brass and 53 grains of IMR 4831. I am new to handloading and figured out this round with a very experienced friend of mine. The 1961 760 shot a sub-moa 5 shot group. I've never tried a 10 shot group. Being as this particular load was for a moose hunt, I would have been happy with a 2" group, but it turned out way better. The gun is my Dads and he would get about 2" groups with Remington factory express core-lokt ammo with a 150 grain bullet for most of his hunting life. I have a lot of those 200 grain loads, maybe I'll try a 10 shot just to see. Any rate, I would use this gun for any hunt with confidence, but it's obviously not a long distance gun.

 

[Halligan]

but it's obviously not a long distance gun.

Untilll you load up som 165's or ELDx and slap a turret scope on it

 

[Macintosh]

Its been hashed out here dozens and dozens of times, but just cuz its coming up again.

I consider my 7600 a point-blank range only rifle. Meaning only for ranges where no elevation correction is relevant. For me thats about 225 yards, although that would be an unfathomably long shot where I mostly use this gun. Not saying it couldnt be something else, but thats how I use it. Despite this I still use a 10-round group to zero. The reasons I do a 10-shot group for this specific gun:
1) i can converse in the same language, compare apples:apples with other rifle people, especially when “discussing” what it is and isnt capable of. If some other people “dgaf, lol” thats on them for making claims they cant back up—some folks clearly do care and are happy to back it up or approach with an open mind.
2) measuring the approx maximum dispersion, aka cone, of the gun is super useful for any future comparison of ammo, gun maintenance issue or suspected equipment problem such as a loose part, loose ring/base, scope losing zero, etc. It allows you to much more definitively and faster see that there is or isnt a problem so you can address it as efficiently as possible.
3) ESPECIALLY with a less-than-precise rifle, I get a +\- perfect zero, where if I only zero off 3 or 5 its easy to be a click or three off. So when Im dealing with a large cone Im not compounding the problem by having my zero off. A larger round-count zero minimizes the potential error caused by the large cone, especially when shooting from less than perfectly stable positions. (Lack of) precision and zero error are addative.

 

[Macintosh]

My brother loaded up some 124gr hammers for my 30-06 carbine 7600. And I tightened the magazine tube with one of those fancy tools linked earlier. The smack-talking was a good opportunity to adjust zero for this new ammo. The gun is wearing a 1-6x trijicon scope.

10 round group fired more or less at a steady pace. The new ballistic-x update sucks for this, apparently you cant overlay on a photo anymore, only this dumb pdf target… but its a 3moa group. After this group I adjusted 4 clicks right.

After adjusting I fired a 3-round group to verify. (Its pretty obvious why a 3 or 5 round group is a much lower hurdle than a 10 round group.). This group is a measured 1.4” (1.37moa). By my definition this is not “1.5moa all day”, this is a 3moa gun. (Which is fine for what I use it for)



And, just to confirm shooter and scope magnification isnt the culprit, this is a 10-round group from a sub-7lb tikka superlight .308win wearing a trijicon 1-6scope, shooting factory ammo, same size target dot (2”) literally shot 10 seconds after.

 

[Steve300xcw]

At the ranges those guns were meant to be used. I dont see a 3moa group being a problem.

 

[Macintosh]

At the ranges those guns were meant to be used. I dont see a 3moa group being a problem.

Totally—its not a problem. Im posting because some folks said their 7600 is a 1moa gun, and Ive never seen that from mine or anyone else’s. So far the 10-round group @Halligan posted is the best Ive ever seen from a 760/7600, ever, bar none. If folks think theirs is as-accurate or better, Id like to see it. I think most will really struggle to shoot 10rounds under 2”.