The Remington Arms Company History
Remington Arms Company, LLC rightfully owns the title of America's oldest gun maker. The company was founded over 200 years ago in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York. To this day Remington is one of the largest manufacturers of shotguns and rifles in the United States and is known for developing more cartridges than any other manufacturer in history throughout the world.
During the run-up to World War I, Remington manufactured arms for the US and a number of allies including Berthier rifles for France, Enfields for the United Kingdom, and Mosin Nagants for Russia. For the US, they produced M1917 Enfield rifles and later models of the 1903 Springfield rifle.
After World War II, the company shifted more of its focus toward civilian and hunting arms; viewing that market as a more stable business model. Today, Remington is known best for its traditional bolt-action rifles like the venerable Model 700, modern sporting rifles following the AR-15 pattern, and the classic Model 870 pump action shotgun.
Photo Source: Remington.com – The Remington Model 10 Shotgun
Popular Remington Shotguns and Rifles
As the largest US manufacturer of shotguns and rifles, Remington is a well-known brand across many gun owners. Some of Remington’s most popular firearms in the rifle and shotgun family include the Model 700 and Model 870, among a few others. Here we’ll explore their top selling models and some of the features each model offers.
Remington Model 700
Remington's most popular rifle since 1962 is the Model 700. The consummate hunting rifle, its inherent precision lends it to service among police and military snipers throughout the world and is the base rifle for the USMC's M40 and the US Army's M24 sniper rifles.
These rifles are chambered in calibers running the gamut from 17 Remington to 338 Lapua Magnum. Their accuracy and reliability lend them to be the choice of precision shooters and custom gunsmiths for chamberings in non-factory calibers as well as limitless customization to make them more accurate, lighter, or a combination of the two.
Remington Model 870
The Remington Model 870 is a bottom-loading, side-ejecting, pump-action shotgun with a tubular magazine located beneath the barrel. Since 1951, Remington Arms has dominated the pump-action shotgun market with this particular model to the tune of over 15 million Model 870 shotguns produced.
Like the Model 700, the Model 870 has proven itself across multiple platforms from hunting to competitive shooting and serves as a duty weapon for police agencies and military units throughout the world, not to mention the million or so used by civilians for home defense.
Remington Model 1100
Since 1963, Remington’s Model 1100 has changed the way shooters look at the semi-automatic shotgun. Sharing the lines of the Remington Model 870, it was the first semi-automatic shotgun manufactured with a receiver that was not square-backed or hump-backed like their initial offering of a semi-automatic shotgun in the form of the Model 11.
For years the Model 1100 dominated the skeet ranges, proving faster than a pump-action shotgun. It loads beneath the receiver like the Remington 870 and can empty its magazine as fast as you can squeeze the trigger as opposed to running the slide-action every time.
Remington Model 783
Originally released as a budget conscious alternative to the venerable Model 700, the Remington Model 783 is a bolt-action rifle that has steadily come into its own. While it may outwardly resemble the Remington Model 700, it is a completely different rifle having its roots in Remington’s Model 788. Its most attractive feature to consumers is its low price, retailing for less than $500.
The Model 783 makes use of an adjustable Crossfire trigger. While it is factory preset to 3.5 pounds, the shooter can tailor it to their specific needs running it as low as 2.5 pounds or as high as 5 pounds. The carbon steel barrel is button rifled and a detachable box magazine is standard. Most rifles ship from the factory with a rigid black synthetic stock, but in 2017 Remington released a version in walnut.
Remington Model 597
The Remington Model 597 is a semi-automatic rifle chambered in 22 Long Rifle, 22 Magnum and 17 HMR. It uses either a 10-shot magazine for 22 Long Rifle or an 8-shot magazine for the other two calibers. The standard stock is synthetic and some versions ship from the factory with a scope.
Accurate, lightweight, and reliable, the Remington 597 is becoming one of the more popular semi-automatic rimfire rifles in America. The key to its success has a lot to do with Remington's proprietary bolt-guidance system. The Model 597 has a unique set of twin guide rails made of tool steel which guide the bolt to and from the chamber. This improves the rifle's stability, feed reliability and promotes amazing "out of the box" accuracy.
Boyds Gunstocks for Remington Firearms
Whether your factory stock has proved to be a less than perfect fit or is simply showing its age, Boyds
gunstocks has the right replacement for you.
The completely
adjustable Boyds At-One stock is available for the Remington Model 700, Remington Model 597, Remington Model 783 and now the
Remington 870.
Available in all our
classic laminated stock colors, the At-One is completely adjustable for length of pull and comb height. The adjustable length of pull makes a huge difference when you change shooting positions or even wear a heavier coat in the winter and a lighter one in the spring and the adjustable comb helps you get on target easier if you are shooting with an optic.
Our traditional stocks are available for all these firearms in standard and thumb hole configurations in laminated wood or traditional walnut.