Remington Semi-Auto Hunting Rifle

[PegLeg45]

My wife has her father's old 742 Woodsmaster in .243 Win. I'm not a huge fan of semi-auto hunting rifles (they have a place, yes) but I do like this rifle. She likes it because of the low recoil, which doesn't aggravate an old shoulder injury.

In the twelve years she's had it she has felled a pile of whitetails and plenty of range time with nary an issue.
(I've told the story on here after the occurrence: she's even killed two with one shot with it, nothing to do with the gun itself...just blind luck.... but interesting none the less).

[alfsauve]

It tends to be a little more towards the tactical "look", but I like and bought the FN FNAR.  It's based on the BAR hunting rifle (not the battle rifle).   Nice smooth operating .308.

[Big Frank]

My dad had an old wood stocked 740 in 30.06. Zero issues with that one also. Nothing wrong with them.

My dad also had a .30-06 Model 740 and had no issues with it that I know of. He took a lot of deer with it over the years. It had a very strong family resemblance to his Model 58 20 gauge. He gave the 740 to my older brother who also hasn't had any issues with it that I'm aware of, but we haven't discussed it in a long time. I think they were all made with .30-06 length actions so I would look for a .280 Remington, .270 Winchester, or .30-06 for best performance . I would only get a .308 for more easily available ammo. They weren't made to shoot tens of thousands of rounds like military rifles but no one uses them that way. They were made to hunt with and they do their job well. In blued steel and real walnut they look better than most any military rifle. If you want higher capacity mags for it, 10 round aftermarket mags have been available for decades.

[Rastus]

I was thinking .243 for the wife.  Thanks for all of the feedback guys.

[Big Frank]

I was thinking .243 for the wife.  Thanks for all of the feedback guys.

That's a good choice too since it will still kill deer and do it with less recoil. But the '06 kills 'em deader.   

I personally don't have anything I would really consider a "deer rifle" but my .44 Magnum Trapper would do for the short ranges typical to many eastern states. I always thought the .280 Remington was a great caliber. You get a .30-06 sized cartridge that uses 7mm bullets, dozens of which are available to hand-loaders. But the .007" smaller diameter .270 Winchester was around decades earlier and had nearly identical ballistics. It was all about timing.

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

I'm a big proponent for the 270 and hunting anything up to elk with it.  Elk are iffy making shot placement more important...but partition bullets will do the job on them.

[tombogan03884]

If .256 is enough for Elephant, and several hunters have used it, then .270should do for the US.

[Rastus]

Maybe we should use that for an intermediate caliber?  Jumping threads, of course.

[tombogan03884]

We already do. .270 is the 6.5 - 6.8 range.

[Rastus]

Kind of long on that modified 30-06 case.

Not that I've been keeping up...but what else is out there in .270 that keeps up with the .270 Winchester performance wise.  Most of what I've seen is less in velocity.

A short case that has some oomph to it without using 3 pounds of powder (OK, over exaggeration there) to best the 270 Winchester by 300-500 FPS in a 130 grain bullet would be nice.