Remington Model 16

[twomoons]

Last week I had a Remington Model 16 walk into the shop. Well not really really soebody carried it in, but anyway... The model 16 is the rarest of the Remington 22's with only 17.000 some made between 1915 and 1928. This was the first Remington autoloading 22 and was a baby Remington Model 8. The one I have is worn and and pitted on the outside but the inside and the bore are almost prefect. Makes you want to go right out and grab a box of shells and... oh well. The Remington Model 16 was chambered for a special 22 round a 22 Remington Automatic, as they didn't want folks to fire regular 22's in there because 22's were still black powder in 1915 and that would gum up the semi auto action. The bad news is that they havent made Rem 22 Auto rounds since about 1939 because about the time the Model 16 hit the shelves so did smokless 22's and both the Winchester 03 and the 16 were obsolete before they could sell. Right now Rem 22 Auto's are running up to $5 a round and those are old ones from the 30's.

Now we get to the crux of the matter, this is a nice old 22 and I'll bet I could reliine the bore to 22 LR and adjust the action... BUT only 17,000 made and this one is still a shooter.

Oh my ducats, oh my daughter, what to do, ruin a colectable gun or make a shooter? I am hanging on a fence here.

Attachments:

[deputydon]

Interesting

[Jack]

My opinion: leave it alone. Seems to me it would be a collector piece.
If you just gotta fire a 22 semi auto, they ain't hard to find.
There, my opinion, and worth everything you paid for it.

[jmarriott]

I will trade a marlin model 60 with the depressed tree rat on the stock on it in about the same shape straight up. No relining the barrel and it is fairly accurate for a model 60.

Sarcasum does not show up well on the internet.

[twomoons]

Well all the EXPERTS are full of bullchips! I heard how the 16 wouldn't work as a 22 LR and that it wouldn't feed and woudn't function. Relined and chambered it feeds perfect and shoots very well. The action is just stiff enough that standard velocity 22's won't cock the hammer but the gun ejects and as soon as my replacment springs get here this pup will be back to a working 22! It CAN be done!

[twomoons]

I received replacment springs and by cutting a half coil at a time and taking the gun apart and reassemblling it I got it to function fine with round nose ammo. The only problem is feeding the last round as the differnt dimension of the 22 auto make the last round hang up on the lifter. I think a slight modification to the magazine tube will take care of that.

If this gun had been in better condition I would have left it a display piece but a customer bought it and financed the conversion so I don't feel too bad and it is now a working gun.

[Jack]

Best of both worlds there, Twomoons. A customer paid for the gun, and the conversion, and you got to do a project you wanted to try. Nice!