Hookeye: "... with the gas port deal, they can experience bbl warp like a Mini 14."
Hmmm. Looking at "The NRA Guide to Firearms Assembly"* both the Remington 740-742/Ruger Mini-14 have a gas block on the barrel with a gas tube/piston that fits into a cylinder recess in the action bar sleeve/slide. Part of the 740-early 742 problem was tensioning the bolt that held the forearm: a fix was applied to the later production of the 742.
Since the 740 semi-auto (1955) was a gas-operated version of the 760 pump (1952) they share a lot in common, and conversion of a problematic 740 series to pump-action with 760 parts is not unheard of.
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* I smile at the title: "The NRA Guide to Firearms Assembly". Face it, disassembly is usually the easy part. There are guns that are "reassemble in reverse order" but some require tricks. Which is why people show up at the gunsmith with bags of parts.
The problem is that with iron sights, the warp is not seen. The sighting system follows the bend.
Scoped..........set for cold bbl first...........can be pretty good.....mine was 1" high every cold shot (where I wanted it to hit). Barrel heats up quick, may bend.... and the next shot can be a ways off.........the sighting system doesn't follow it.
Sucked. My 742 C was minty and it put the first one 1" high at 100 yds. Next ones were in a group about an inch big............7 or 8" lower.
Have had some gun buds with old Mini 14's.........one had the wood top first gen Ranch and it did well. The other folks had middle run stuff in stainless and they sucked in scoped usage. The newer ones with stiffer bbls, or older ones with Accustruts...........or Accuracy System customization.........I have no info about.
Yeah there was a shop that converted 742's to pump. The problem is bolt overtravel, chewing up the rails. Pump guns I doubt people rack em that hard LOL.
BTW, just saw a 742 that was like new, Canadian Centennial. .308 win. If it didn't have the receiver stuff on one side..........I'd have chanced it.
I had another 742 regular that was carried a lot, had some bolt rail chew, and it shot sub 2" at 100 w factory ammo and never jammed. The guy that bought that one couldn't get it to function.....w same ammo. He was obese, was "soft shouldering" it.
He brought it to me, at the range and I burned a mag no prob.
He was flabberghasted. I had to politely inform him to pull it in tight til he dropped a few pounds.
Wonder how many big guys, with puffy coats.........had the jamming problem.
