I also live in the interior AK and use a BAR and 742/760.



When reloading I use RCBS Small Base Dies, this gets the brass down to factory specs better than Full Length Dies. A must in my autos.



Then I use a Mid Buring Powders like RELOADER 15 and VARGET, w RL 15 my favorite.



IMR 4895 and IMR 4064 is also good powders for the 30-06 Auto.



I like Fed Prem Nickle Brass and Norma with 180 Grain Noslers.



Primers with RL 15 I use Fed 210GM and with VARGET I use CCI BR-2.



I crimp all my loads with a Lee Factory Crimp Die.



This has solved all my problems with chambering and extractions in the 742 plus cleaning the chamber area before is a must in the remington and gas ports at least once a year. I only shoot now just confirm my zero before moose season. My BAR is a tad more accurate than my 742 and the 760 will out shoot both of them. The man that told you to use 150's instead of 180 in AK just needs to sell ammo....poor advice. The least I would use up here is 180's no question about it. I wish he would have told me that story! I prefer the 742 to the 7400 better gun. The lock up is different 9 bolts instead of 4. Hope this helps.

Good news on the 7400. It came back from remmington in less than 2 weeks. One of the problems was that the gas port diameter had to be opened to the factory spec for the carbine version. Although I had the barrel cut off to the carbine length, I didn't know enough to ask the smith to change the port diameter. That was only one of the problems and I don't know what got done by the local warranty outlet but polishing the chamber was one thing that was done. (The gas port diameter certainly didn't have anything to do with the fact that it wouldn't fully chamber the first round.) In any case, I sighted it in today. It worked flawlessly and the final group was 3/4 inch with factory 180 gr ammo. This is better than my old eyes shoot so luck was a factor but I'm not complaining. Remmington picked up the whole tab for the service so I am very pleased with the way things worked out.

I don't expect to have any problem with the rifle now and when I do handload for the autoloaders, I use small base dies. For extreme cold weather, I clean the action with brake cleaner or white gas and use dry graphite lube. Works with the old 742 and my BAR 338 so I'm confident this one will do fine.

I appreciated the suggestions and advice. Although autoloaders do fail on occasion, they certainly work as reliably on the first shot as bolt actions do and the failure rate of the human operated bolt action on subsequent shots under scarey conditions like brown bear charges is certainly much higher than the failure rate of a well maintained and tested autoloader. What changed my attitude on all of this was looking at 3 brown bears at 10 or 15 yards that hadn't stopped when I yelled "whoa" repeatedly. I was carrying a winchester model 70 at that time. They finally stopped when the safety went "kerthunk". The sow and I stared at each other for a very long time and she eventually decided to leave. (when they had approached (stalked?) me, they were so quiet on the crusty snow that I thought the sounds in the alders were those of a wolf. When they left, it sounded like someone dragging an outhouse behind a pickup.) A friend carrying a bolt action 270 was killed later on kodiak(there was bear hair in the electrical tape on the muzzle and he had gotten off one shot) and I decided that lots of firepower was a good thing. Hence the 338 BAR for me and the 7400 for my wife.

FWIW--I did some reloading for a friend with one in a 30-06. For some reason it bends rims on factory loads. Usually we have to throw away 1/2 his once fired brass. We actually started reloading with medium powders like 4350 and got great results and no bent rims. Can't tell you why but that's what worked.

NOW FOR ACCURACY--damn thing is amazing. 3/4" groups are a piece of cake for his gun. HE IS VERY HAPPY WITH IT!!