Remington engineers developed a massively complex and expensive mold to inexpensively stamp out monolithic polymer .22 rifles in the mid 1950s. They knew this design would cause concern to a large part of their market because of its non-traditional construction, and so they put the new rifles through hundreds of thousands of rounds of grueling testing. It passed these trials with flying colors, and was released in January 1959 to pretty rave reviews. By the time it was finally taken out of production in 1987, more than 1,050,000 of them had been produced - a fantastic success on a pretty big gamble.
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I owned one of these years and years ago and wasn't impressed with it. Sure, it shot fine and there were no issues with it mechanically, but it just felt off with that plastic stock instead of a wooden one. Besides, everyone knew back then that 'plastic guns' were just a gimmick and had no future, right?
yeah, know that feeling. got a chance to use one back in the 1970's at a range/farmyard
ReplyDeleteit shot okay. I sure I hit what I was aiming at. but it just felt weird holding it.
seem more like a toy gun than anything else. guess, I am just set in my ways. I like the feel of wood and blued steel better. although I do own a Walther P-22. it is a great little 22 pistol. very accurate. light weight and great for teaching new shooters with.
my other 22 pistols are a old Walther PPK/S from West Germany and a old Ruger mark II
in stainless. just not a fan of plastic weapons myself. dave in pa
Jerry Miculek's first rifle!
ReplyDeleteAt the time I considered getting one they were more expensive than a 10-22. To be clear, I wanted the version with a magazine instead of the tube. Minnesota required guns to be empty and cased. I can get one out of the case and shove in a mag much faster than dropping a dozen into the Stockwell
ReplyDeleteGot mine brand new for $80 in the 70's and put an El Paso Weaver K3 on it at some point. Still use it all the time. I've always liked it and carried it on a lot of adventures and misadventures over the years. Collecters are now getting grabby about the rifle and the scope. The fact that some folks didn't like gave it a contrarian appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteStill have the one my dad bought for my brother and I over 50 years ago. Still shoots as good as the day it came out of the box, and it was put through more sh*t than many WWII rifles on the front. Great little plinker.
ReplyDeleteMy dad bought me one in 1976 still shoots like it is brand new
ReplyDeleteback in the day I could out shoot any other 22 at a 100 yards
Love this gun
I always liked them, kind of space-age. Like the XP-100’s in .221 Fireball. Nylon pistols. Still have an XP-100 in 7mm BR, but it’s been heavily modified. Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteI think Ruger with the 10/22 smoked everybody.
ReplyDeleteDon’t take it apart. It is a adventure. I still don’t know how I got it together.
ReplyDeletePaul J
Oh, you ain't kidding. I was given a "bag o' parts" years ago and asked to fix it. There are a couple bits that require you to hold your mouth just right while praying to the right gods to assemble. Lots of exploded drawings and YouTube to get her running.
DeleteMy cousin got one of those for his birthday one year. The plastic stock was guaranteed for life. I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to get one replaced under warranty now.
ReplyDeleteRemington probably still honors the warranty but the parts are out of stock and obsolete. Probably return the gun to the factory and they will send you a coupon for a discount on your next Remington purchase
DeleteDaryl
They are nice rifles, for what they are. They work well and are reasonably accurate. I've owned 2 at different times and had no complaints. Better guns out there, and a lot of worse ones too.
ReplyDeleteAround here the used ones go for stupid money at gunshows. Everyone wants one, nor matter how worn or scratched it is.
I have had both the original Remington, and a 80's Brazilian copy to replace when somebody decided it didn't need to live in the rifle rack in my pick up any more. The Brazilian was brought, but still shot fairly straight the Remington was a hard to reload through the stock tubular magazine, but was pretty good, even though it was older than me. My father got it for me as a used/ new to me trade and I miss it.
ReplyDeleteWhen my cousin turned 16 he got a Nylon Remington. A year later when I turned 16 I got a magazine fed Ted Williams bolt action that was made by Winchester and it was 30 dollars cheaper. That was almost 50 years ago. Guess which one still works and is still stupid accurate? The Ted Williams. It has had over 100k rounds through it and has been thourghly cleaned 3 or 4 times over the years.
ReplyDeleteI had the version with the box magazine many years ago, and thought that it was a great utility rifle for a car trunk or truck box. Compact, light, accurate, and mechanically simple. With the removable box mag, you could carry it unloaded and in a cloth sock (the law at the time, probably still is) and still grab it quickly if needed.
ReplyDeleteGot mine essentially for free. Sold it at a gun show for $75 at a time the money was worth more than the gun to me. That arthritis in my knee? That's from kicking myself every time I think about selling it.
My first real rifle. Had a ball with it. Wasn't quite a tack driver, but plenty good for plinking, squirrels, and rabbits!
ReplyDeleteI have never held a Nylon 66. I would not turn one down, though. The Ruger 10/22 is just so easy to... do anything with. Modify, clean... aftermarket support is spectacular.
ReplyDeletewhen I was a kid one of my uncles had a Remington Nylon 66 another uncle had a Belgian Browning .22 the Remington never made it through a magazine without some kind of failure to feed , stovepipe or some other sort of a jam . That Browning never missed a beat ,it was , and still is a good looking and accurate little rifle . I ought to check in with my cousin and see if he has his old mans Remington .22 , maybe get him to bring it out so we can practice clearing jams again . Ahh the good old days. I couldn't afford a Browning , and the Nylon jamming up all the time turned me off Remington stuff , so I ended up with a 10-22 from Ruger She's not as pretty as that Belgian lady but still sweet and never lets me down.
ReplyDeleteI have one purchased in the 1980's for $100 even. Standard 14 shot tube magazine in butt, Mohawk brown. Pretty non-descript. Extremely lightweight (4 - 4.5 lbs. ?) it was reputedly very popular with Alaskan homesteaders - pilots because the nylon action did not require lubricants which would often freeze in the wintertime. Chris McCandless, the kid that died of starvation and was found in an abandoned bus had one in his possession.
ReplyDeleteI still have that old Mohawk - haven't shot it for years. Ugly but it shot straight and functioned fine - no complaints here.
I can confirm that mine ran 100% the year I was in Fairbanks, including at 20 below zero. I can also confirm kicking my own ass ever since after selling that gun. I can further confirm having a Model 77, the magazine fed version that was a Jam-o-Matic despite trying several different magazines and ammo in it and will end this little story by confirming that the Model 66 I bought a few years ago to replace the one my dumb ass sold off cost a lot more than what my first one cost in 1969. But it runs 100% although in fairness, I haven't tried it at 20 below, nor will I.
DeleteI've shot one several times, never owned one. On a lark, looked at buying one for my collection (what's left after the canoe accident). OMG the prices are thru the roof. Dammit, waited too long.
ReplyDeleteI don't have experience with the Nylon 66 but I do have a 1990-built Marlin 60. Lots of folks don't like the tube feed, too slow to load, etc., but damn, my '60 can shoot the ass hairs off a gnat at 50 yards with the right ammo. Any HV copper plated fodder runs great, but damn it if CCI mini mags aren't the bees' knees for my rifle.
ReplyDeleteMy '60 had a crap plastic trigger guard which (1) broke, twice and (2) I'm replacing with an aluminum job from DiProductsInc. I also replaced the blade sights with a set of peeps from Tech Products.
My dad purchased one of these Remington rifles back in the mid-sixties and it is the rifle I graduated to after beginning on an old Red Ryder. Still have that nylon rifle, don't know how many rabbits bit the dust in gardens overs the years since then. This one is a bolt action .22 tube fed model, Mohawk Brown and it has a steel receiver.
ReplyDeleteIn the sixties I knew a man that won a plastic .22 rifle in a raffle at a bar. You could take the darn thing nearly completely apart. He was a trapper and he hauled it in his pack basket. He loved it. I shot it a few times and it sure was accurate. I tried to buy it a couple times and he would smile and say, it aint for sale.
ReplyDeleteI have a 55 year old tube mag one with a 1 to 4X scope that it came with. I don't remember exactly what I paid for it. Under $100.00. It's stupid accurate. When I shoot it and take my time, I can put three rounds on target about half the size of a dime at 50 feet. One of my sons can put two rounds in the same hole at 25 feet with it. It's just as accurate as my Winchester model 67, which is also stupid accurate.
ReplyDeleteNemo
First gun I ever bought. Second hand store in Stockton Cal. I was 16. Store owner sold it to me for $5.00...said it didn't work. He was trying to shoot shorts out of it. Cleaned the chamber and never looked back. Still own three or four of them.
ReplyDeleteSaw a black one with stainless steel barrel go for $800 from original owner with box and papers....and that was almost 5 years ago...hate to think what one would go for today...
ReplyDeleteWe had one of those as well, they called that Apache black, it got stolen when my dad lived in Tacoma, WA. Wish I had been a stronger young man when he asked for that one and a couple of other guns that I was in possesion of at the time (he wasn't supposed to have firearms), but I was young and stupid, plus it was the old man.
DeleteI still have the other one in Mohawk brown, shoots great and a lot of fun. Many times some of those 22s seems to be paprticular of the type of ammo used.
I always wanted to comeup with some tube speed loaders to make it easier and quicker to reload.
Interesting fact, the last one they made was made for KMart in green called the Apache 77 (another green was was made much earlier and called Seneca Green).