A Plastic Classic - Brief Article

Guns Magazine, August, 1999 by Gene Gangarosa, Jr.

THE REMINGTON NYLON 66 WAS PLASTIC BEFORE PLASTIC WAS COOL.

Remington Arms Company introduced its .22 LR caliber Nylon 66 rifle in 1959. Until Remington discontinued its manufacture in 1987, the Nylon 66 remained the epitome of high-tech rimfire rifles.

Even today it has a host of admirers. The Nylon 66 remains an excellent firearm both for shooting and collecting. It's fun to shoot and quite accurate, and exists in several distinct variations -- all of which are still quite reasonably priced.

Remington's design goal in creating the Nylon 66 was to build a traditionally styled rifle out of new and cost saving space-age materials. The design and engineering team led by Remington chief designer Wayne E. Leek succeeded beyond all expectations, creating a rifle that for almost three decades defined "high tech" in the firearms field.

The term nylon 66 refers to the DuPont synthetic material, also called Zytel, out of which almost the entire gun is made. The rifle's forend, receiver and stock are made entirely of two pieces of nylon, first cemented together and then bonded under high heat and pressure to form one piece. Many of the gun's smaller parts - such as the trigger and triggerguard, operating handle for the bolt and the manual safety - are also made from nylon.

Nylon was an excellent material to make gun parts out of. It's strong, light, highly resistant to temperature extremes and, perhaps most important of all, self-lubricating. All these properties of nylon 66 made this rifle one of the most reliable .22 rimfire models under extended use.

A few parts were steel: the barrel, the bolt, the thin cover over the receiver, the sights, the sear and firing pin, and various springs. The outer magazine tube (concealed in the buttstock for improved appearance and greater protection) was made of brass, because this part required less strength than steel owing to its enclosed location but might be susceptible to rusting. All in all, the Nylon 66 remains a brilliant design -- a classic.

31 Flavors

While Remington made very few changes to the Nylon 66's design during its 28-year production run, they did offer a number of variant stylings. The standard model, and by far the most common today, was the "Mohawk Brown" model, so-called because of its dark brown stock material and blued steel parts.

This was first into production and Remington continued to offer it throughout the manufacturing run. Its dark brown color scheme looked quite traditional, which appealed to many shooters who liked the idea of a low-maintenance, high-tech rifle without an outlandish appearance.

A "Seneca Green" Nylon 66 also appeared in 1959. Like the Mohawk Brown model this variant also used blued steel parts, but the balance of the gun was bright green. Most shooters of the late 1950s simply weren't ready for something that unusual and Remington had trouble selling this model.

The company discontinued the Seneca Green Nylon 66 in 1962, making it today the rarest Nylon 66. As a result, Nylon 66 collectors favor the Seneca Green model above all others, to the tune of a collector's premium of about double the value of a Mohawk Brown model.

The other major Nylon 66 variant was the "Apache Black" version. Introduced in 1962, this replaced the Seneca Green and remained in production until 1984, though not in the numbers of the Mohawk Brown model.

The Apache Black Nylon 66 featured glossy black-nylon parts and a bright, polished chrome-plated receiver cover and barrel. This is a very attractive rifle and one in excellent shape can command a collector's premium of about 30 percent more than a Nylon 66 in the standard Mohawk Brown color scheme.

These three were the major Nylon 66 variants. Remington introduced several minor variants as well. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Remington Company's founding in 1816, the company made a 150th Anniversary Nylon 66 in 1966 with a special logo on the receiver. Today this model is worth slightly more to Nylon 66 collectors than the Apache Black model.

Ten years later Remington introduced a Nylon 66 Bicentennial model, a Mohawk Brown version with an inscription on the receiver cover. The "Black Diamond" Nylon 66 used a black decorative diamond on the forend instead of the usual white diamond. A Nylon 66-GS, short for "Gallery Special," fired .22 Short only, while the standard Nylon 66 fired only .22 LR ammunition.

Invest In Plastics Young Man

Remington also created several rifles based on the Nylon 66's construction but with mechanical changes. These included the Nylon 76, a lever-action variant made from 1962 to 1964 in a choice of brown or black.

The Nylon 77, made in 1970, fed its ammunition from a five-round detachable box magazine made of black plastic, instead of the standard Nylon 66 rifle's tubular magazine. Switching to a different magazine system involved quite a number of changes in the design, most notably to the stock, the bolt and even the rear sight.

Because of the loss of nine rounds of magazine capacity the Nylon 77 sold poorly, so in 1971 Remington replaced its five-shot magazine with a 10-shot detachable box magazine, renamed the gun "Nylon 10-C," and in this guise it did well enough to sell from 1971 to 1978. This gun had a final resurgence in 1987, which was the Nylon 66's last year, too.