Nylon Rifle Failure to Feed 10 C
When I first saw Remington's Nylon 66 .22 rifle, I responded to it the way Remington hoped shooters would not respond. I thought it was a toy. Then, one of my classmates got one, and we went shooting together. I learned it was a nifty little gun. I was somewhere around 14 years old and wasn't into guns back then like I am now.
I had a couple of single-shot .22s and a shotgun, but my main interests were cars, guitars, and girls — well maybe more like girls, cars, and guitars. The Nylon 66 did not grab my attention until many years later. In those intervening years, I'd qualified with an M16 in the Army and discovered the joys of polymer handguns as a civilian.
History of the Nylon 66
Back in the 1950s, Remington was owned by DuPont, and Remington needed a mid-priced .22 rifle. Thinking the parent company could provide some type of plastic stock for a rifle, Remington management put the challenge before DuPont for what it initially thought would be a plastic stock. DuPont engineers went well beyond the imagination of Remington management and came up with a gun that had a metal barrel, but all the other parts, including the action, were formed from a new nylon material DuPont had developed.
This material had several names along the way, but the one that was settled upon was 66. Thus, the Nylon 66 .22 rifle was born. The rifle was tested thoroughly. In fact, the engineers put it through a 75,000-round test before allowing Remington to begin marketing the rifle.
Remington Nylon 66 Features
Having morphed into something of a firearms collector in my later life, it occurred to me I should have a Nylon 66 for my grandkids and their friends to shoot. I checked the online auctions from time to time, and it seemed they were going for premium prices. I don't do premium, so I just waited, and one day my local gun store had one in on consignment that was affordable, and I bought it. I couldn't be happier.
My rifle is a standard model with a brown stock called Mohawk Brown. The rifle is lightweight (4 pounds), 38.5 inches long with a 19.5-inch barrel. Its handling is superb. Throw it to your shoulder, line up the large, easy-to-see sights, and pop off a round. You can keep shooting without reloading for 14 rounds.
The gun loads through a tubular magazine that feeds through the stock. It's designed for .22 long rifle cartridges and will hold 14 of them. Back when I first shot the Nylon 66, we didn't use hearing protection. Shooting the rifle now with hearing protection was almost like having a silencer attached.
Whatever my negative reaction was to a plastic gun all those years ago, it's long gone now. This gun has proven itself with over a million sold. Nylon 66 owners appear to love them, and I'm happy to join that group. It's just plain fun to shoot and as accurate as any .22 rifle with iron sights in my arsenal. It's not ammo-picky and operates trouble-free.
In spite of the warnings not to take the gun apart — and Remington's own pronouncement that it didn't need lubrication — I wanted to at least clean the barrel after an extended shooting session. It turns out that removing the barrel for cleaning is a very easy process, one that reveals something else I'd not picked up on about the gun.
After watching a YouTube video on disassembly, I was happy when the guy doing it went just so far and said, "This is as far as you need to go for cleaning." Following those instructions, I removed the two screws that held on the receiver cover and lifted it off. That brought about the discovery that at least 50,000 of you reading this already know.
The receiver is plastic, just like the stock. In fact, it's all one piece of plastic. The metal part that covers the receiver was put there because Remington's marketing people felt it would be hard for the buying public to accept a gun in which the action was made of plastic. It's just a cover over the receiver. Interesting.
The next step was to remove the big screw on the bottom that held the barrel bracket in place. The barrel then slid forward and off the gun for cleaning. The ejector fell off when I removed the receiver cover. It was easily put back in place as I reassembled the gun. I watched the entire YouTube video on taking the gun apart and putting it back together and decided that was not for me.
You can look up the date of manufacture, not by serial number but by a date code that's stamped on the barrel. My gun was made in 1975. A previous owner painted a white dot on the front sight, which helped with the visibility. Both the front and rear sights are large and easy to acquire as you raise the rifle.
The rear sight is adjustable for windage and elevation. It's easy to do, but for some reason, the designers made it where it takes two different sizes of screwdrivers, a tiny one for windage and a somewhat larger one for elevation. Who knows, maybe these screwdrivers were supplied with the rifle initially.
I looked online for an original owner's manual. All of the links I found to pdf versions of it were broken. I did find an aftermarket disassembly manual, but no owner's manual, not even on the new Remington Firearms' site www.remarms.com.
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The forearm of the stock was checkered as was the pistol grip. A decorative white diamond adorned the forearm and the end cap to the pistol grip had the words "Remington Nylon 66" on it in a nice pattern. The stock, although shiny plastic, was simulated wood grain. White accents set apart the black forearm cap, pistol grip cap, and buttstock cap. It's just a darn pretty rifle. Although mine is 46 years old, it bears few scars.
At the Range
With a trigger pull of just over 4 pounds with almost no take-up, bold easy-to-see sights and with the gun weighing only 4 pounds, the Nylon 66 is a delight to shoot. Since it has no recoil, you can literally shoot it all day.
I busted some mini root beer and Dr. Pepper cans and shot holes in a variety of paper targets. I had a bucket of Remington Golden Bullets, a couple of bricks of S-K Rifle ammo, and a Federal bulk pack to play with. I shared the shooting with the youngsters in my mentoring group, and the little rifle just kept on pleasing us.
My initial spurning of the Nylon 66, because it reminded me of a toy, deprived me of years of enjoyment. Don't let that happen to you. If you find one at a decent price, get it. You won't regret it.
The Nylon 66 broke the mold and in some ways paved the way for the polymer guns that would follow a decade or so later. Did you, or do you, own a Nylon 66? Have you ever cleaned it? Share your Nylon 66 story in the comment section.
Source: https://blog.cheaperthandirt.com/remington-nylon-66-synthetic-before-synthetic-was-cool/
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