What's new
What's new

Remington Sportsman 74 Auto 30-06 is Jamming

Richard King

Diamond
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Location
Cottage Grove, MN 55016
Hi everyone,

My son bought a Remington Sportsman 74 Auto 30-06 at a gun show and after he got home he cleaned it. He took it to a range and it jammed on the 3 rd round. Then he cleaned it again and it jammed again....Then today after he said he took it apart again and cleaned it and oiled it it jammed at the range again on the 3 rd shop. He has new Federal Ammo too. I said better take it to a Gunsmith and as we were walking out of the inside range one of the clerks told him all the Gunsmiths won't work on them plus there are no parts available. Something about the inner slides are worn out. What say you experts? Was the clerk right? Rich
 
Yes rich if its a 7400 rem its a total pos.

Dad bought one new in 270 and it was the jammingest bastard gun i ever shot.

Fixed it with a browning bar safari with the boss brake in 7mm mag
 
Remington has a pretty good customer support line, I'd suggest you start there.
Contact Us | Remington

Just guessing here but I'd start with making sure all the sliding parts are freely sliding. A buddy brought over a Brazilian 1911 that was constantly getting stovepipe jams. I took it apart and used a jewelers file to clean up all the little burrs from every mating sliding surface. Put it back together and it works like a champ.

Parts can be had from Numrich and probably Remington.

Steve
 
Tell ya what, you come scrape my mill and I'll fix your gun.
I believe the sportsman 74 was a budget version of the 742. That series of Remington is often called the " jammaster " though every coonass around here had one in the 80's with those stupid see through sights .
What you were told about the inside rails is true, if you take out the trigger assembly and feel the rails where the bolt rides, it should feel smooth , if the edges feel rough the damage is done and it will only get worse . But there are a few things you can do to make it cycle again.
The biggest problem on these guns is lack of maintainence, mostly on the chamber and bolt. Brownells sells a special wrench to disassemble the barrel from the reciever. From there take a chamber brush and done kroil and scrub the hell out of the chamber. Follow up with some bore solvent and wipe clean. Next, clean the hell out of the bolt, pay attention to the area that cams the bolt, also there is a little bent piece of metal that transfers the op rod energy to the bolt, this wears and is why the bolt gets out of time and starts chewing the rails.
There is a company/ gunsmith that sells this part in an oversize dimension, that will get some guns working again even with trued rails . I installed it in one and it did work , still does today, I can't remember the company but they are on the net , if I find it I will let you know.
Last libricate that cam with a good quality grease.
Last re assemble the gun with a light coat of vactra 2. I find these work better with a heavier than normal gun oil, vactra was handy and seems to work.
The best ammo to use in these guns is the cheap Remington green box core lokt, 150-180 gr.
There are companies that convert these to pumps, it's often the cost of a good used rifle though.
 
It belongs to my 28 year old son Alex ...He is an IT professional in the cell phone tower industry. He also climbed cell towers for 2 years and now is in supervision plus IT work at the company he works for here in MN. A chip off the old block mechanically and a sportsman. He never liked helping in the shop plus I wanted him to have a steady paycheck. He can scrape, but like I said doesn't like it.

He and I went ice fishing yesterday and he guided. He has a fish finder that is pretty cool. My 6 year old Grandson went too...we caught a ton of perch and some crappies......then afterwards we went target shooting in a indoor range where we shot my handguns and he tested his rifle again. My new $130.00 High-point jammed once too...lol, but my new Century Canick 9 was nice...and my Rugar pocket 380 sucked..the long trigger pull sucks. But it's fun hanging around with him doing sportsman stuff :-)

I know he is pretty frustrated with the jamming issue. I wonder what a gun-smith would charge him to inspect it and do the repairs...I know a ball park.... I always say before a rebuild job and the customer wants a price...it's like looking into a crystal ball giving a price before hand....but just a rough estimate will do. Thanks everyone. Rich
 
You might try contacting Jim Kobe, he's a member here on PM and an accomplished gunsmith located somewhere in the Southern Minnesota area. Don't know if he works on these but he may be able to put you onto a local smith if he doesn't.
 
Most of those rifles have not been shot very much, so its probably not worn out. The most common cause of trouble is a dirty/rusty chamber. Give the chamber a good scrubbing with a brass brush and something like Kroil or a regular bore solvent.

If it seems hard to clean completely and you keep getting crud out, its probably rusted. Look on the web for instructions on how to take the barrel off the receiver. Its not hard. A good polish with some 280-320 paper on a split dowel chucked in a drill motor will polish it up. When you are done it will probably work again unless it is badly pitted. If so, its a parts gun.

As previously noted this is not a highly regarded rifle. Tell him to get something better if he can afford it. The Browning BAR idea sounds good if he wants an autoloader. Otherwise a nice bolt gun would be a great choice.
 
Ahlman's is in Morristown, MN, and they are a Remington Authorized Service Center. If anyone can get it to work, they can. Their telephone number is 507-685-4243.

Bill Jacobs
Bolt&Barrel Gunsmithing, LLC
 
They have been called 100 shot rifles because sooner or later they will pound themselves to death and quit working. Most gunsmiths will not work on them. I believe that Remington has or had a recall on them and offered a credit towards the purchase of another rifle.
 
There is a fairly large sporting goods place up the road in Maine that will not take them for trade or buy them outright. From what I have heard, Remington will not work on them either but will take it off your hands and give you a $150 towards a new Remington product. That is what I heard a few years ago. I sold mine years before that ;)
 
Hi everyone,

My son bought a Remington Sportsman 74 Auto 30-06 at a gun show and after he got home he cleaned it. He took it to a range and it jammed on the 3 rd round. Then he cleaned it again and it jammed again....Then today after he said he took it apart again and cleaned it and oiled it it jammed at the range again on the 3 rd shop. He has new Federal Ammo too. I said better take it to a Gunsmith and as we were walking out of the inside range one of the clerks told him all the Gunsmiths won't work on them plus there are no parts available. Something about the inner slides are worn out. What say you experts? Was the clerk right? Rich

I've worked on these a few times. If it consistently jamming on the 3rd rd then you may not have much of a problem. The spring in the magazine get worn out. To check to see if that is the problem. You can open the bottom and stretch the spring out a bit. Reinstall it and see if that helps your problem. Triple K still makes 10rd magazines for these rifles. They cost about half what a 4 rd Remington costs. Triple K has a website and the Remington mags can be found at Bass Pro Shops, Midway, Brownells etc. These is very good info here: Remington 740/742/7400  Semi-Aut. This explains the gun and problems better than I can and sources what parts there left for. From experience this article is correct on the sources if there are any part still available. Brownels has a small selection left. But not much. I've had fairly good luck with the 30-06 and 308s but man when I've got a 243 in they were a mess inside. Maybe they were shot a lot more. Idk. Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions. It looks like it only been a few days since you posted. There is some good info at that link.

Troy Gren
Thunder Investments
104 Parkway Drive
Clearfield, Utah 84015
801 825-6393 Voice & Fax
801 540-8489 Cell Text OK
[email protected]
 
P.S. If you stretch the spring out...before you take it apart try to see if you feel if it is weak to ward the front or the rear. When you stretch the spring try to correct and balance the problem as you reinsert the spring in the follower. Most likely if a weak spring is the problem. This will only be temporary fix. Hope you don't find these Hill Billy tactic to hard to follow. But if the gun stops jamming on the 3rd rd you will have found one of the problems. There are new magazines available. I bought a magazine from Triple K once that had a weak spring in it. They didn't hesitate to replace it. I have not found the source for the magazine springs separately. I did look at Wolff gun springs but didn't see any magazine springs listed. I'm not sure if triple k would sell just the spring. But they are 10rd mags. Good luck.
 








 
Back
Top