Tag Archives: remington

Why hello there, Mr. Whippit

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Last year Remington debuted their new Tac-14 NFA-compliant non-shotgun “firearm” complete with a 14-inch barrel and bird’s head Shockwave pistol grip. I was the first outdoor writer to get to see it and have one of the first couple made. Overall, I found it pretty neat.

Now, fast forward about 18 months and Remmy has a new take on the same concept. Chopping down their V3 semi-auto shotgun line (which replaced the venerable 11-48/1100/1187 autoloader series), they now have the Tac-13, which was quietly released this week.

Standard with a Shockwave grip and a 13-inch light contour cylinder bore barrel while keeping an overall length of just 26.5-inches, Remington bills the new gun as a compact personal protection piece and has a 5+1 capacity.

MSRP is $915, which will probably translate to an over-the-counter-price at your local retailer of about $699.

More on the V3 Tac-13 in my column at Guns.com

For comparison, Black Aces Tactical in Florida has been selling 4+1 capacity vintage 1100s chopped down to use a 12-inch barrel for $499, so there is that.

The story of how Remington helped win the air war

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On the skeet range at N.A.S. Saint Louis, Missouri, 29 April 1944. Gunner is Lieutenant Junior Grade Rothschild, instructed by Martin. Shotgun is a Remington Model 11, 12 gauge semiautomatic, on a shotgun mount assembly Mk. 1 Mod. 0 consisting of gun mount adapter Mk. 12 mod.2 and .30 caliber stand Mk.23 Mod.0. Note boxes of Peters “Victor” brand skeet cartridges. Description: Catalog #: 80-G-237387

Rapid sight alignment when leading a flying target was a skill quickly taught to aerial gunners in World War II with the help of more than 70,000 training shotguns.

The Model 11 was the first auto loading shotgun made in the USA. Patterned after the old Browning square back shotguns, this shotgun is reliable and effective. There were approximately 850,000 of these shotguns made from 1905 until 1947, and they are still considered classics.

It’s a simple concept, with a shotgun being easier and cheaper to cut a trainee’s teeth on “wing shooting” than a full-sized machine gun. Accordingly, the Army and Navy bought 59,961 Remington Model 11 semi-auto (the company’s version of the Browning A5) and 8,992 Model 31 pump-action shotguns as well as 204 million clay targets and got to work.

U.S. gunner with a training weapon, a or Remington Model 11 set up to emulate flexible-mount .50 caliber M2 Browning. The most common version was the Remington 11-A Standard Version with a 29-inch Barrel and a built in Cutts compensator.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Another 14,000 of these Remington Sportsman guns were delivered with the smaller 20-inch barrel and different stock from the Remington 11-R version (Riot special-made for the Police market) for issue to military police, penal units and base guard forces, but that’s another story.

Inside Remington’s super factory in Huntsville

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I had the opportunity to look behind the curtain at Big Green’s plant in Alabama and see how everything from .22s to black rifles are born.

In 2014, Remington announced after an eight-month courtship it would invest $110 million into a 500,000-square-foot facility formerly used by Chrysler just outside of Huntsville with an aim to consolidate production.

Though Remington owns nearly a score of subsidiaries, just eight were selected to move to the plant in Alabama. Those included suppressor maker Advanced Armament Corp. from Lawrence, Georgia; Montana Rifleman from Kalispell, Montana; Tapco from Kennesaw, Georgia; LAR Manufacturing from West Jordan, Utah; Para-Ordnance from Pineville, North Carolina; DPMS from St. Cloud, Minnesota; the Bushmaster and Remington 1911 production lines in Ilion, New York; and a research and development facility in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

In 2016, the Remington elected to close their Mayfield, Kentucky, plant and move the operations conducted there to Huntsville as well.

Currently, the Remington family of companies operates from 12 locations across nine states employing over 3,500 people and distributes its products throughout the U.S. and in over 55 foreign countries. Besides its original plant located in Ilion, NY, Huntsville — which employs almost 500 — is among the largest of their facilities.

And they let me go for a look inside.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

Springfield Armory still has 2/3rds of the first M1917 rifles

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The 30.06 caliber Model 1917 Enfield was developed from the .303 British Pattern 1914 (P.14) rifle. Currently on the Springfield Armory museum collection, there are two Model 1917 Enfields with Serial #1.

In the above photo, the top rifle was made by Winchester in New Haven, Connecticut, while the bottom rifle was made by Eddystone Arsenal in Chester, Pennsylvania. Approximately 2.2 Million Model 1917 Enfields would be produced between 1917 and 1918, and remain in service through WWII and with overseas American allies to this day (The Danish Sirius Patrol still uses it as the M17/M53 rifle).

The rifles were cranked out extremely fast, with the assembly record being 280 rifles a day for an individual craftsman while the assemblers in the various plants averaged 250 rifles per day per man.

The cost of the Model 1914 Enfield to the British Government was $42.00 each. These modified Enfields cost the United States Government, due to standardization methods, approximately $26.00 each.

Eddystone made 1,181,910 rifles with #1 being SPAR 3191 in the Museum’s collection

Winchester made 465,980 rifles with #1 being SPAR 3192 . It was presented to President Woodrow Wilson on 23 January 1918.

Winchester M1917 SN#1 on the rack at Springfield. Note how blonde the stock is on "Woodrow's" gun

Winchester M1917 SN#1 on the rack at Springfield. Note how blonde the stock is on “Woodrow’s” gun

Unfortunately, Springfield does not have Remington’s M1917 SN#1.

As the company was the first to start production, they likely shipped it right out. The earliest Remington M1917 rifle I can find is serial number of 137, which was likely made the first day of production. This gun is in the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Va.

sn-137-remington-m1917-first-day-of-production

 

5 Classic Remington Rifles of Yesteryear

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When you have a firearms company on the cusp of beginning its third century in continuous operation, it is expected to have a host of guns that were home runs with sportsmen everywhere. If that company is Remington, there were a number of rifles that not only made it around the bases, but knocked the ball out of the park. These guns found a niche not only with the market place, but also brought something new and fresh to the table, earning them an enduring legacy in firearms history.

sporterised M1917
Read the rest in my column at Remington 1816

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