Planning to downsize the number of rifles I have, so looking at the ones that receive little if any range / shooting time. My son bought a used Remington 740 30-06 several years ago. Only used it a few times one year then went back to his old rifle. Said the recoil was a little more than he liked. Has been in my gun vault since. Candidate for “rehoming”. Decided to take it out to the next range today. Despite being an auto I didn’t feel the recoil was too bad. But did have problems. The rifle sometimes would not filled eject the empty resulting in a jam which negated the automatic feature. I cleaned it very well then tried again. Pretty much the same results. I did not remember him having that problem. He said he did not when I asked. Anyone else had or heard of this problem? What was your “fix”?

It is fairly common with the old woodsmasters. The guns are not the easiest or simplest to field strip, so often they never will be. Chamber may be pitted or the gas port may be partially blocked by gilding metal shaved from hackets of bullets, and etc. Gun probably needs to be torn down and cleaned thoroughly, with special attention to chamber and gas port, and I would bet the chamber might be pitted a little and in need of some polishing.