Built To Last
Designed in the 50s and made out of this revolutionary stuff called Zytel, Remington’s Nylon 66 was a plastic rifle decades before plastic guns were cool. This one was a compact, super light little semi-automatic .22 that had a 14 shot magazine in the stock. What made it really cool was that most of the gun was made from plastic. The stocks, the receiver, the trigger, the trigger guard, most of the internal parts - all made from this rock hard stuff called Zytel, which was a Bakelite kind of plastic first cousin to nylon. The parts never wore, never gummed up, never froze together, and almost never even needed oiling. Only the barrel, the bolt, the receiver cover and a few springs were made from steel, while the magazine tube was made from brass. And the one pictured here, an Apache Black model, had chromed steel instead of blued carbon steel, for even more weatherproofing. It really was a last-forever little rifle. The design intended to save money made Remington a small fortune.
In the early 1950s, Remington Arms Co. did not have a mid-priced .22-cal. semi-automatic rifle. Management knew that there were three high-cost components of any sporting arm – the barrel, receiver and stock. Engineers analyzed each to see if any significant cost savings could be obtained. They soon concluded that barrels did not offer much opportunity for savings, so they focused on the receivers and stocks.
[ early 60s Remington ad copy ] “Nylon makes the action virtually jamproof (Key parts glide on ‘greaseless bearings’ of long-wearing nylon.) There’s actually no need for lubrication.
“The remarkable DuPont ‘Zytel’ nylon stock is not affected by freezing cold, soaking rain or rotting humidity. In fact, if the stock ever warps, cracks, chips, fades or peels, we’ll replace it for free.
“This is the 22 rifle trappers depend on from Hudson Bay to the Everglades. The only 22 that Alaskan fishermen find able to withstand the attacks of corrosive sea spray to protect their nets from marauding sea lions.”
Advertising hyperbole? Not really. It’s largely a statement of fact. Introduced in 1959 at a price of $49.95, the Model 66 was management’s solution to controlling the cost of the receiver and stock components of a mid-priced .22.
Remington at the time was owned by DuPont. Working with the DuPont Petrochemicals Department, Remington engineers under the supervision of Wayne Leek seized upon structural Zytel Nylon 101, part of the Nylon 66 family of plastics, as the solution to manufacturing a synthetic stock and receiver. Among its many qualities, Zytel Nylon was capable of being formed into any shape, was impervious to solvents, oils, mild acids, alkalis, fungus, rodents and insects, and was self-lubricating and dimensionally stable.
Remington made more than a million of them, from the 1959 until the mid 80s, and in all probability most of those are still shooting today. Well, I’d bet most are lost in the back of dad’s closet, got left behind at the summer cottage, or are sleeping away the decades up in the attic under some old clothes from the 60s. But they’d only need a little cleaning, and they’d be go to go again. They came in several colors, all of which had pre-PC names, like Mohawk Brown, Apache Black, and Seneca Green. Once Remington stopped making them they sold production rights to a Brazilian gun company, who made them until the late 80s, who then sold the rights to Magtech, who made their version until the mid 90s. So the rifle had what amounts to a 40 year production run.
The Nylon 66’s unusual construction material makes the rifle both sturdier and more resistant to weather than the typical .22 caliber rifle. Moreover, given the natural lubricity of nylon 66, there’s very little need to use oil on the gun’s working parts.
The great enemy of most semiautomatic .22 rimfire rifles is the gummy residue that accumulates after a few hundred rounds and eventually prevents the mechanism from moving. This gunk consists of messy and dirty-burning ammunition combining with gun oil. Because the Nylon 66 requires next to no oil (just a little on the receiver cover to forestall rust), the rifle stays clean longer.
Variation being the source of fresh sales, Remington also produced several similar rifles that used many of the same basic parts. There were two bolt action versions; a single shot and a repeater. There was a Nylon 77 version that took a detachable box magazine. And for a very short while there was even a lever action version, which owns the distinction of being the only lever action repeater that Remington ever built.
To allay market concerns that a plastic gun just wouldn’t hold up, or just wasn’t accurate, Remington hired exhibition shooter Tom Frye to make their case:
No greater tribute could be bestowed on any rifle than what it accomplished in the hands of Tom Frye, trick shooter and field representative for Remington. In 1959, to break Ad Topperwein’s world record of hitting 72,500, 2-1/2” wooden blocks thrown into the air, Frye used three Model 66’s to hit 100,004 wooden blocks out of 100,010 thrown. To do it, Frye shot 1,000 shots an hour, eight hours a day, for 13 consecutive days without one malfunction or misfire. That’s rimfire reliability!
What made this feat even more impressive was that the 3 rifles were only cleaned 5 times during the entire marathon. That’s about once every 135 boxes of ammo, which is probably nearly as many rounds as a normal .22 will ever be fired in it’s lifetime.
Nearly a decade later, I remember Remington still had ads in Boy’s Life (the Boy Scout magazine. Yes, gun ads in a magazine for children!!!) where you could write in and they’d send you one of the blocks, with a genuine bullet hole - and bullet!! - still in it. Oh, I wanted one so bad. But my mother realized it would become just another bit of clutter and result in even more junk mail, and she refused to waste a 5¢ stamp on it. I wonder how many of those blocks are still around today? I wonder how many of those rifles are still around today? I saw one in a picture posted at Vilmar’s, and I know my wife’s cousin has one in his gun safe, and I quickly found out today that there is a group that collects them, and they have at least one online forum.
The Nylon 66 was a great little rifle, decades ahead of its time. Wish I had one.
sources
http://www.americanrifleman.org/ArticlePage.aspx?cid=1&id=1795
http://www.chuckhawks.com/rem_nylon_rifles.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_8_45/ai_55605722/?tag=mantle_skin;content
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_2_54/ai_n21175828/
http://www.nylonrifles.com/wp/
on 05/11/2011 at 11:29 AM
That, in Mohawk Brown, was my first firearm. Dad got me one in 1966. I have absolutely no idea how many hundreds of thousands of rounds went through it. I want another one. The one I had was stolen during a break in of my house in the late 70’s, and I just never could find another that someone wanted to turn loose.
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