Help please for origin of a Remington rolling block rifle

[rudybolla]

Before Sweden began building the M67 in country Remington shipped rifles with US built receivers. The early date on your rifle and the tang address identify yours as one of the early ones. Got pics?

[rudybolla]

Have not received pics.

[JV Puleo]

Given the short Swedish bayonet lug and American-style forend cap, this is almost certainly a Remington-made Swedish rifle. It is probably the rarest version of the Swedish rifle - so much so that we did not have pictures of one for George Layman's recent book on the subject. Only 10,000 were made, along with 20,000 actions that were assembled into rifles in Sweden while approximately 120,000 were made by Carl Gustafs and a further 80,000 by Husqvarna.

The very first Swedish rifles were imported through New Zealand and several other rare early versions are known to have come from that source.

[rudybolla]

That steel nosecap also makes it a standout rarity if it is indeed a Swedish M67.

[JV Puleo]

No...the very earliest Remington-made rifles also had this feature as did all the sample rifles Sam Norris, John Norris and Sam Remington had with them in Europe . The reason Sweden used it is because it was the action the specialized tooling they bought from Remington was designed to make. When Remington adopted the "button" the Sweeds didn't follow the change - at least not until 1874 when a small number were made at CG using the button.

The Remington-made sample rifle retained by the company also has the separate locking screws.

[JV Puleo]

You really need to get George Layman's newest book. It IS NOT a rehash of his earlier work but completely new and has a great deal more material that has only come to light recently. In the case of the Swedish rifles, we have a letter from the director of the CG works to Col. Watson Squire of Remington discussing the early production in which he mentions paying for the specialized tooling used to manufacture the rifles as well as installing the new American machine tools needed to produce them. In the interest of full disclosure, I confess that I edited the book and did quite a bit of the research associated with it so I have almost as much knowledge of the new documents as George does.

There are post 1874 CG-made actions that still have the locking screws - we have one here, a carbine, dated 1877. As yet we do not know why this is the case. The original Japanese contract rifles have the locking screws (at least the Remington museum sample does) as did the Austrian-made Paget rifles.

[ehull]

You definitely have a Remington Swedish Model rifle, and an unusually nice one at that. The unique features of the 10,000 made at the Remington plant are the frame with original Remington tang markings, and the forestock having both band retainer springs and a metal nose cap. My own example has six groove rifling as well. Your rifle, as with most of this model, was later converted to centerfire from the original .50 rimfire. Documentation on the sale of the 10,000 rifles and 20,000 breech systems comes from the Remington company archives, among other sources. I have an original tintype photograph showing a Swedish soldier holding this exact model rifle.

[ehull]

Yes, my rifle has the TN inspector's mark. I have no doubt that your rifle (as mine) has the original Remington made barrel. Thus, it is an American product supplied to Sweden in advance of that country getting production going.

[ehull]

The company would make whatever the customer wanted, if they didn't want the "standard" product. That's why there are so many different variations of the Remington Military rifle: caliber, barrel length, etc. Only the frame stayed "standard" though it evolved over time to incorporate different extractors and safety features.