This iconic, century-old pump action rifle is still going strong.

by Wendell Dwight Deaner

The Remington 760 pump action rifle is almost iconic, at least in my neck of the woods. I don’t remember ever going deer hunting and not running into at least one other hunter toting one. As might be expected, I live in the east, however, the 760 has shown up in areas of the west as well as up north in Maine and Canada, too.

Images of a fleeing whitetail and a hunter spraying shots as fast as the action could be pumped are a mostly a iinon sequitur, although such has happened. I’ve sat on public land as dawn broke in the east and have been amazed at the incredible number of shots fired in that first half hour. Everybody is shooting a deer except me! Yeah, right.

To make my case: About noon one opening day I chanced upon a group of “hunters” and asked them if they had heard all those shots. “Yeah that was us,” one exclaimed. “We were rolling a tire down the hill and trying to hit it.” At seven o’clock in the morning! One shot, one kill, right? What’s that old Indian saying? One shot, meat; two shots, maybe; three shots, damn fool. Pouring lead at a deer is not good practice. Pennsylvania bans semi-autos from the deer woods which are basically the same as the pumps. I don’t have a say in the matter, since I live in Maryland and don’t hunt that state anymore, so I won’t comment.

The Remington 760 is the result of the genesis from the Model 14, Model 14-1/2 and the model 141 Remington pumps. It is definitely not the same, but the idea for a pump action big game rifle is certainly not new to the company, since the model 14 was introduced in 1912. The 760 now in my shop has a serial number that indicates it was manufactured sometime during 1978-1981. It is in very good condition with only a scratch or two to provide provenance of its hunting heritage.

Read more in our April 2014 issue. Back issues are available.

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