My Three Remingtons

My latest antique rifle acquisition is a No. 4 Remington Rolling Block in .22 LR. It joins my much-altered Swedish RB in 8x58Rd and a single shot 580 .22 bolt action rifles.

Note: audio is a bit out of sync for some reason. It is also apparent that my new haircut really makes my accessory chin more prominent -- gotta take the dieting more seriously!

The No.4 is generally considered a 'boy's rifle', but it is of superior construction than most others of this class. While it's design is extremely simple, it features a walnut stock and fully machined-steel construction. It lead a very full life before entering my possession, with stock dings and a heavily eroded bore. The target group is pretty good considering, but I'm seriously considering having the barrel relined in the near future. I'm using CCI .22 CB Long cartridges here, which have very little muzzle noise compared to most other rimfire ammo. Extraction is a little cumbersome, but lifting the muzzle usually causes the spent brass to fall out of the chamber.

The next rifle is my single shot 580, a bolt action .22 featured in an earlier video. I've mounted new sights and this shooting session was mainly for the purpose of zeroing them at 20 yards. The front sight adjuster shown here makes windage adjustments quite easy and precise.

Finally there is my Swedish military Rolling Block 'carbine'. This rifle was originally purchased from Remington by the Swedish government circa 1870, and chambered for a rimfire black powder cartridge. It was later converted to the smokeless 8x58Rd cartridge and served for another a decade or two as a second-line military rifle. After being surplused, it was altered to a sporting configuration by having the sights replaced and the forestock shortened. I own two of these sporterized Rolling Block rifles in addition to one that is still in military configuration (that one is also featured in an earlier video).

This particular example was further altered by me recently to a 'carbine' length: I shortened the barrel by 9", cut back the forend to match and mounted a new banded front sight.

I'm shooting this carbine using a .32 H&R chamber adapter, which allows a considerable amount of gas to escape from the breech -- you can see a small cloud emerge each time I fire the rifle. Some of my .32 handloads had bulging bases that wouldn't easily chamber in the adapters -- that's the reason you'll see me fumbling below the frame. Still, the combination produces surprisingly tight groups for a .309" hollow-based bullet traveling down a .323" bore!