My wife has decided that she wants me to take her deer hunting this year for her first time. Since I have always used a shotgun for deer and she will be hunting in a rifle area I want to know if anyone has used this particular type of rifle and what the pro's and con's are. It is my fathers gun and he hasn't shot it in 40 years so I'm just wondering what to expect from it. (accuracy, user friendly for a first time rifle user)

make sure it is cleaned properly or it will turn into a hard to load single shot

My dad has the same it is old but good. Typically works pretty darn good.

Like the rest give a good cleaning, make sure the action slides nice and easy but don't over oil. Take her and the .308 to a range and make sure it's sighted it and haver her shoot it so she's comfortable with the feel and recoil and how it shoots. The .308 is a great caliber with light recoil for her, should be just fine. Just make sure you or her shoot it before your hunt so you can fix any issues before your hunt, you wouldn't want to find out it jams after the first shot and then ruin your wife hunting experiences as she needed that second shot on Mr. Big Buck and he say's bye, bye and runs off.

I have a 15 years old Rem Model 7400 in .308 its almost same as a 740. I love it and recoils are in comfortable zone. You should clean it up before you take it to the range. Its accurate and I've shot many deer with it.

I have a 18 yr old 7400 30-06 (same 740 action) and usually put a box of shells through it every fall. I shoot 3" groups at 100 yds. on sand bags! OUCH! It's never done better but has done worse if the screw is loose on the forearm stock! In fact you should probably take the forearm stock off to see if there is a lot of carbon buildup on the gas port.

I keep it lubed at the range but shoot it dry while deer hunting. Never had a problem since you should only need 1 shot per kill :-)

Good luck,

Ferny