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My first 7600

4K views 21 replies 10 participants last post by  preacher 
#1 ·
This is only the second pump centerfire I have ever owned! It's a Remington 7600, 22" barrel in .308 ( pics later) A local guy wanted to trade for a handgun. I had an "extra" ( I try to keep trade amterial, OR, I just trade/sell) anyhow, I traded him a Keltec PF9 and some cash for this pristine little rifle. It has an old Bushnell Scopechief BDC scope on it, but I am putting a Redfield 2x7 on it. It already has nice leupold one pc bases/rings. I going to put my Burris Timberline 2x7 on the 308MXLR, and the Bushnell 3200 3x9 back on my 30.06. Now, shooting and time will tell if this rifle replaces the MXLR. I have a wad of 308 ammo already, so if it shoots good, I'll keep it, maybe. ha. I am also tempted to send it off and have it rebored/rechambered, converted to 358. But whenever I think about that, there is a mad rattling coming from the gunsafe..it's my old friend the 35 Whelen Ackley Improved...it is the only 35 caliber I have been faithful to! ha.
 
#6 ·
Hal- it's a Scopechief VI 4x12 actually. Would you like to buy it for a song? Make me an offer!
BJM- yep, I had been looking at the 7600's and late model 760's in .308 over on Gunbroker. I didn't want to spring for what they were going for, so this was a nice surprise. I sold the Tanker Garand in .308 for gun money awhile back, and I have a bunch of commercial hardball, plus hunting ammo, so wanted another 308. I had always heard that 760's/7600's were accurate, the old 141 sure was!
I ended up putting the 2x7 Timberline on the 7600 as I had the extension rings for it. Made a nice package. Trigger is not too mushy either, very workable. Being tall, I like the longer length of the 22" bbl. I have only taken one head of game with a 308, years ago, but have owned several through the years. I have also used pump shotguns for years, just never used a pump centerfire before the 141, now this one.
 
#8 ·
I have two, well one is actually a model 760... The 760 is a 1952 or 53 in 300 Savage and the other is a 7600 in 30-06 both are accurate but the 30-06 is surprisingly accurate. It is one of my go to guns when the weather turns nasty or wet. The 7600 is a fully "free floated" barrel so they have a lot of accuracy potential and they pack well to boot. I think you will be happy with yours!
 
#9 ·
I do like how they carry! I always liked to read about Larry Benoit up in Vermont, he carried a carbine 760, but in 30.06, his son likes the 270. They used peeps, but I am compromising with this small scope. I can't shoot what i can't see,ha. I am not sure how I am going to get used to the natural "play" in the forearm/slide, that usually drives me baanas in a levergun. I can put up with most anything from an accurate rifle and it is the nature of the beast after all. I do like the way it shucks in dry firing, scope picture hardly moves, and I have made a few doubles on birds with a pump shotgun fairly easy, plenty fast reload.
 
#10 ·
Preacher, nice going on your trade for the 7600 .308 Win. Every Remington pump I own is a shooter! One thing I want to mention to you is to
try and fire your 7600 with a round in the chamber and a clip full of ammo seated. If upon trying to shoot the second round and it hangs up on
your feed ramp jamming the rifle, don't despair! It's a real easy fix and even a mechanically challenged person such as myself can fix. Empty
the clip and file the two front radius', both left side and right side very lightly with a fine toothed flat file. Don't take TOO much off to start and
go easy! You'll only have to remove a couple of thousandths of metal. Reseat the clip full of ammo and try it again. If it hangs up again, just
remove a little more metal from the front radius'. What removing a little metal from the two front radius' does is to seat the front part of the
clip just a wee bit deeper giving the latch pin more purchase on the front indent near the top of the clip. Worked every time I had an issue with
a 760/7600 jamming on the second shot. A lot of guys get rid of their 760/7600's not knowing what the fix is.

bjm, relatively little changed in the workings between the 760 and the 7600. The biggest change was the 760 has (I believe) 20 small locking
lugs on the front of the bolt where the 7600 went to a TW0 massive locking lug system on their bolts. No expert but I've been around Remington pumps all my life. They are known as the Pennslyvania semi-auto deer rifles since we can't legally hunt with a semi-auto. I used to
hunt groundhogs with a fellow whose preferred firearm of choice for that activity was a 760 in 270 Win. He could really reach out FAR and touch them with his 760 270 Win. The Rem pumps can really shoot too. One of my most accurate rifles I own is my 7600 in
.35 Remington. It shoots well under an inch at 100 yards and @ 50 yards it just chops a .60 caliber hole in the target. A little off topic but my
MOST accurate firearm I own is my 722 Remington in .300 Savage. First and only rifle I can shoot one hole groups with using my handloads and RL-12 powder. The 7600 .35 Remington also uses RL-12 in it's handloads. Sorry for the long winded post.
358 Win
 
#11 ·
Thanks Bob, I'll try it out when I get back to the range. Summertime may be the time when young men chase girls, but it's a great time for us older guys to chase down rifles/handloads,etc! (Especially us married older guys! Rifles/loads are much less complicated) ha
 
#12 ·
Preacher,
You're welcome! Always nice to be friendly and helpful to guys who have a direct link to the big GUY! lol Another tip I learned with the 760/
7600 is to not fully load the clip. I had trouble seating my clips when full (four rounds) so I went to one in the chamber and three in the clip. Much easier to seat the clip fully. Those clips can be finger manglers. The dreaded second shot hangup happened once, just once, when using my 760 carbine in .358 Win. Lucky for me the buck was DRT and didn't need a second shot. I used the fix as described above but have never
ever had to fire a second shot with my .358 Win 760. Only two deer out of fifteen ever moved after being hit. One was a big buck running and
the other was a big doe also running. Both dead on their feet but didn't know it, and both only travelled 30 yards or so before crashing. If more people would have tried the .358 Win it would be much more popular than it is today. You have to see it to believe it just how hard that
200gr RN bullet (either RP or HDY) thumps into a deer. It looks like every ligament in their body gets snapped at the same instant. They don't
go far, mostly 3ft straight down!!!LOL
Bob

PS: Rifle loads are much less complicated than women and they don't sass back either!!LOL
 
#13 ·
"I had only taken one head of game with the 308"....
Correction; I have indeed killed more than one head of game with the 308. At the time I wrote that I was thinking of a whitetail doe I shot with a Ruger Ultralight. I later on used a Winchester Featherweight Classic with a handloaded 165BT on my first Axis buck in Del Rio. It's a nice problem to have, trying to remember which caliber/rifle did what!!
I only saw one 760 pump in our area of Texas amongst friends, it was also in 308 and at the time, I felt it was heavy, bulky. The guy did have a big 3x9 scope on it, probably an all steel model. He loved it.
 
#14 ·
Hey Bob, how fast do you push those 200 RN out of that 358 load? I always wondered of they held up much past 2200-2300. Also, was your pump rebored or rebored/rechambered, and did it keep the original iron sights? I am still curious as to how one does it with a pump. I would venture a guess that the 358 pretty well cleans up the 308 chambering, but what about the throat, do they still have to run a reamer in to clean it up?
 
#15 ·
Preacher, I push the 200gr round nose bullets, either HDY or RP @2400fps + out of the carbine 760 with it's 18.5" barrel. Out of the bolt guns
with 22" barrels it's right at 2500fps. Only ever killed deer with the 760 carbine. To date either bullet has held up @ 2400fps. All bullets have
exited from whatever angle they entered. Not once have I found a fragment of jacket or lead in any deer I butchered and ate.

On my 358 760 it was originally a (1979 vintage) 35 Remington carbine. Remington tested the waters again with the 35 Remington in the 760
that year but it didn't make enough of splash to keep it in the line-up. All the gunsmiths in my area did was run a 358 Win reamer in it, then a
finish reamer. Don't know if they lengthed the throat or not but Remington has always been generous with ther 35 caliber throats like my 700
classic in .35 Whelen. Apparently Remington used .308 Win bolts for the .35 Remington 760 because no bolt face alterations were required
when rechambering to .358 Win, just the chamber reamering work. The original sites were kept during the rework to .358 Win. I have mine
off and stored in the gun safe. I'm thinking the most cost effective way for you to get yours into .358 Win would be to simply rebarrel. To rebore yours might get a little pricey!? I could be wrong though. The local gunsmiths who converted all those .35 Remington carbine 760's
would remove the barrel, rechamber it, clean it up with a finish reamer and slap everything back together. I love my .358 Win 760 so much that it will be the absolute last rifle I get rid of. Of course it's not a long range proposition, expecially at 2400fps but to date my longest shot
has been a lazered 126yds and that was with my Savage 110 30-06 and the .358 pump could have made that shot handily. No disrespect, but
guys who are not used to the thick stuff we hunt our deer in would get frustrated by only having 4 or 5 seconds to make a shot and make it
count. They will let you walk by at mere feet and then bust cover! I have actually smelled them before I've seen them. That is why I love the
extra thump of a 35 caliber round nose bullet @ 2400fps or higher. High power scopes don't fit the equation either. I have a 1.5 x 5 on my 358
pump and 99% of the time it is set at 1.5 or 2.5. I don't use the pumps for extra fire power because to date I have never fired more than one
shot for all the kills with my pumps. To me it just carries nice and feels right.
Bob
 
#16 ·
Thanks Bob. Near as I can figure, it will cost me between $350-$380 to have this rifle rebored/ neck & throat cleaned up. That is if the screw holes for the sights are not too deep, if they are then it's not feasible. I am just brain storming. I don't even know if I am going to like this rifle yet, and that is a biggy to me. Besides, a 308 is an awesome round by itself. I can also put a little more money with the above figure and buy a used Browning BLR in .358 pretty easy. I can spend about the same to have a new Ruger Hawkeye in Stainless/Synthetic also in 358.
The good news is I found out that Timney makes an adjustable trigger for the 870/7600/7400 for around $90, if this rifle really needs one. I am having a pad put on it now, I don't care for hard buttplates.
 
#17 ·
Preacher, you are correct, the .308 is one awesome cartridge in and of itself. My Win Mod 70 Compact Classic with it's 20" barrel scoots a 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tip out the muzzle @ 2865fps with IMR3031 and shoots little bug eye groups to boot. Next to the .358 I have, the .308 is in second place for the number of deer kills for me. I've hunted with the .308 Win since 1974. All my kills with the .358 Win and .308 Win have
been one shot kills, but it seems the .358 Win has more authority and puts them on the deck RIGHT now, where the .308 Win usually allows a
very short "death" run. Anyway, good luck with your project whatever direction you take. Compared with a lot of your rifles you've discussed,
the .308 Win must seem like a midget to you!!LOL
Bob
 
#18 ·
Thanks Bob, the 308 was very popular where I grew up. It was looked at "as a 30.06 w/o the kick",ha. My BIL still uses a 742 in 308, has killed just "some" deer and hogs with it, always with the 150 Speer handload ( he used to have a friend who loaded for him) or factory Corlokt. I like the 165's in a 308, but the Barnes 110 TTSX would be a hoot!
I have to admit, I will most likely make a "358 level" load with my old friend, my 700 classic 35 Whelen AI. With it's Brown Precision synthetic stock, it is a joy to hunt with, and between it and the little Kimber, the ones I hunt with the most. I still like playing with diffferent rifles though, I just won't accumulate anymore. When I get the itch, I sell or trade something for the doe-rey-me! ::)
I got the little '93 Mauser back, and I had some low rings/Weaver 1x3 put on it. I hope to shoot it next week. I still have to get out to the desert to sort out my Long Range 300 RUM and the Leupold bullet drop compensator. I shoot to 1000 and beyond out there, but my scope is marked only up to 900. I will most likely use it on the cow elk hunt next january, and end up shooting one around 75yds! ha. "Better to have and not need'....." :)
I always feel better with at least a 300yd, elk capable rifle out here, even for deer. I have a few that sre not of course, and just hang back in the timber edges when I hunt with them. But I prefer the extra "horses under the hood",ha. Growing up in the Big Thicket of SE Texas, I hunted for 20yrs before I got a shot over 90yds!
 
#19 ·
I would keep the 7600 over the blr I had a 760 30-06 got rid of it got a blr in 30-06 with the strait stock even a 30-06 beats your arm light strait stock never in my life have I felt a 06 kick so much and hurt sold it and have a 7600 with old 760 basket weave stocks on it and it shoots bought it used had to put 3 clicks on 3200 elite scope that came on it 3 shots dead x at 100 yards cleaned it stuck it in the case.
 
#20 ·
Well, I thought about that 358 recoil in the little BLR, I'm sure it is a kicker. I always heard that the Savage 99 was brutal also. My Whelen AI has a muzzlebrake ( I had to have one after my neck surgery, 2001, so I left it on, it works very well, especially when it is in its synthetic stock,whew!) I figure a medium powered 200 rn or even the 250RN would work as well as a 358. This little rifle is fast to bring into action, and I have shot a passle of animals with it and the Barnes 200X. I love a 35 caliber rifle, just never seemed to cotton to the 35 Remington, and I have had three very accurate 35 Rems too!
Last year I found a little 760 in 35 Remington, locally, had it on hold, and then released it when I bought a nice Rem 141 pump. It was accurate also, but I knew I'd never hunt with it, sold it for more gun money!! ha. I think I'll leave the 308 alone, and just enjoy it as is. Now...I did see a couple of 336ER's in 356 Winchester on Gunbroker..... :-*
 
#22 ·
I never even had the chance to shoot this pump! Last week, when I was selling some stuff to get $$ for a 350RM, a fellow offered me a price I couldn't refuse,ha. I really had intentions of having it rebored/rechambered to .358 win, but it didn't work out. Nice rifles anyhow, although it still felt "wierd" to me to have the forend move a little when I held it...did I mention I am a little "wierd" myself when it comes to rifles,ha?
 
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