Driftwood Johnson
Member
Howdy
So I walked into a local gunshop on Friday to pick up a revolver that I had put on layaway. As we concluded the transaction I noticed an interesting looking 22 rifle on the rack. I had been thinking about buying a modestly priced 22 bolt action rifle and putting an inexpensive scope on it just for fooling around at the range and kicking around tin cans on the berm. Nothing fancy, maybe one of the new 22s that Savage is making.
Anyhoo, I asked to see the little 22. I think I kind of fell in love with it as I handled it. Model 341P, Sportmaster. Gotta love that name. I was not familiar at all with this rifle, but I could see it certainly was not new.
I have a bunch of 22 rifles, the usual; a 10/22, a Browning semi-auto, a Marlin 39A, an old Savage Sporter, and 3 or 4 antique gallery rifles. But what I really liked about this old Remington was the peep sight. I could not find a Serial Number anywhere on the gun. Yeah, I know about GCA 1968, and I have an old Stevens Model 311 that has no SN, but I was surprised that Remington would have been making rifles and not serializing them.
So I ran a snap cap through the action a bunch of times to make sure it fed OK, and dickered about the price a little bit, and walked out of the shop with the revolver and the Remington 22.
When I got home I looked up this model on the net. It turns out this model was only made from 1936 to 1940. The Model 341 came with a regular dovetailed rear sight, the 341P came with the peep sight. I looked up the date code and mine was made in April of 1936. A little earlier than I expected, but I like old guns. It is in real nice shape, the metal is all great, no wear to the blue at all, the markings look like they were all stamped yesterday, with no hint of polishing or refinishing. The stock has some dings and scratches on it, but not too bad considering the age of the gun. Although it looks like at some point somebody was spray painting something nearby as there are a whole bunch of little, tiny dots of pink paint on one side of the stock. Really tiny dots, they don't rub off with a fingernail and I am not going to worry about it. As I drove home with the rifle it occurred to me that like a dope I had forgotten to inspect the bore, but I hoped for the best. When I got home I checked out the bore and it is spotless.
The other interesting thing about the rifle is the lifter mechanism that raises a round up from the tubular magazine to feed into the chamber. I had never seen anything quite like it. Apparently it was designed to feed a round straight into the chamber, without the bullet scraping against the chamber as it slides in. This mechanism was supposed to help with accuracy. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the lifter mechanism.
So I took the rifle to the range yesterday (Saturday) to see what it would do. I set out a few targets at 25 yards, about as far as I can see, and went to work at the bench sighting it in. Nothing fancy for ammo, just standard Federal Value Pack hollow points. What fun! Fire a five shot group, then tweak the windage and elevation adjustments a bit and fire five more rounds. This model featured interchangeable inserts for the hooded front sight, but it only came with a post. The post was a little bit difficult for my old eyes to line up correctly for elevation, but I did the best I could do. The trigger was pretty stiff, but there was no creep.
The target in this photo is the best I did at 25 yards off the bench. Certainly not anything a competitive 22 shooter would turn in, but I was pleased. Not bad for an 80 year old rifle and old eyes.
I had to be real careful loosening the peep to adjust it for windage or it would lose its position. There are index marks for windage and elevation, but I was having trouble seeing them. Old eyes. It was easier to ease out the screw for elevation without losing its place.
I had forgotten to bring any tin cans, but I came up with a couple of water bottles and a Styrofoam coffee cup out of the trash and set them on the 25 yard berm. There was no challenge to hitting them off the bench, so I stood up to see how I could do offhand. Not bad, I was kicking the targets around on the berm, hitting them most of the time. The peep sight sure made it easy! I was shooting five shot groups, but I did drop 15 rounds down the magazine to see how many it could hold. Fifteen was right up to the loading slot. The rifle performed flawlessly, feeding every round without any jams or problems. Those guys at Remington sure knew how to design a nice rifle.
I think I'll snoop around and see if I can find a cross hair type of insert for the front sight.
So I walked into a local gunshop on Friday to pick up a revolver that I had put on layaway. As we concluded the transaction I noticed an interesting looking 22 rifle on the rack. I had been thinking about buying a modestly priced 22 bolt action rifle and putting an inexpensive scope on it just for fooling around at the range and kicking around tin cans on the berm. Nothing fancy, maybe one of the new 22s that Savage is making.
Anyhoo, I asked to see the little 22. I think I kind of fell in love with it as I handled it. Model 341P, Sportmaster. Gotta love that name. I was not familiar at all with this rifle, but I could see it certainly was not new.
I have a bunch of 22 rifles, the usual; a 10/22, a Browning semi-auto, a Marlin 39A, an old Savage Sporter, and 3 or 4 antique gallery rifles. But what I really liked about this old Remington was the peep sight. I could not find a Serial Number anywhere on the gun. Yeah, I know about GCA 1968, and I have an old Stevens Model 311 that has no SN, but I was surprised that Remington would have been making rifles and not serializing them.
So I ran a snap cap through the action a bunch of times to make sure it fed OK, and dickered about the price a little bit, and walked out of the shop with the revolver and the Remington 22.
When I got home I looked up this model on the net. It turns out this model was only made from 1936 to 1940. The Model 341 came with a regular dovetailed rear sight, the 341P came with the peep sight. I looked up the date code and mine was made in April of 1936. A little earlier than I expected, but I like old guns. It is in real nice shape, the metal is all great, no wear to the blue at all, the markings look like they were all stamped yesterday, with no hint of polishing or refinishing. The stock has some dings and scratches on it, but not too bad considering the age of the gun. Although it looks like at some point somebody was spray painting something nearby as there are a whole bunch of little, tiny dots of pink paint on one side of the stock. Really tiny dots, they don't rub off with a fingernail and I am not going to worry about it. As I drove home with the rifle it occurred to me that like a dope I had forgotten to inspect the bore, but I hoped for the best. When I got home I checked out the bore and it is spotless.
The other interesting thing about the rifle is the lifter mechanism that raises a round up from the tubular magazine to feed into the chamber. I had never seen anything quite like it. Apparently it was designed to feed a round straight into the chamber, without the bullet scraping against the chamber as it slides in. This mechanism was supposed to help with accuracy. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the lifter mechanism.
So I took the rifle to the range yesterday (Saturday) to see what it would do. I set out a few targets at 25 yards, about as far as I can see, and went to work at the bench sighting it in. Nothing fancy for ammo, just standard Federal Value Pack hollow points. What fun! Fire a five shot group, then tweak the windage and elevation adjustments a bit and fire five more rounds. This model featured interchangeable inserts for the hooded front sight, but it only came with a post. The post was a little bit difficult for my old eyes to line up correctly for elevation, but I did the best I could do. The trigger was pretty stiff, but there was no creep.
The target in this photo is the best I did at 25 yards off the bench. Certainly not anything a competitive 22 shooter would turn in, but I was pleased. Not bad for an 80 year old rifle and old eyes.
I had to be real careful loosening the peep to adjust it for windage or it would lose its position. There are index marks for windage and elevation, but I was having trouble seeing them. Old eyes. It was easier to ease out the screw for elevation without losing its place.
I had forgotten to bring any tin cans, but I came up with a couple of water bottles and a Styrofoam coffee cup out of the trash and set them on the 25 yard berm. There was no challenge to hitting them off the bench, so I stood up to see how I could do offhand. Not bad, I was kicking the targets around on the berm, hitting them most of the time. The peep sight sure made it easy! I was shooting five shot groups, but I did drop 15 rounds down the magazine to see how many it could hold. Fifteen was right up to the loading slot. The rifle performed flawlessly, feeding every round without any jams or problems. Those guys at Remington sure knew how to design a nice rifle.
I think I'll snoop around and see if I can find a cross hair type of insert for the front sight.
