Many folks have to scratch their heads to try to remember the first firearm they ever shot. Not me. Here it is.
This is my Dad's Remington Model 241 SpeedMaster.
Sometime in the late 1940s, my Mom and my Aunt went to Youngblood's Sporting Goods in Port Arthur, Texas and each put one of these rifles on lay-away for my Dad and my Uncle.
I believe they gave them the rifles for Christmas. It was shortly before I was born.
As a young kid, my Dad taught me to shoot with this rifle.
(Would you believe that I actually got a lump in my throat when I typed that? What I wouldn't give to shoot with Dad once again.)
The rifle holds 10 rounds of .22 LR in a tube in the buttstock of the rifle.
There is a removable magazine tube with a spring that feeds the cartridges into the action.
The rifle has a bead front sight.
How long has it been since they had to specify "Smokeless - Greased", on a .22 rifle?
And it has a typical buckhorn rear sight.
I learned to shoot with this type of sight system, and when I saw my first patridge sights with the squared-off front sight and the squared-off rear sight, I didn't like them at all.
In fact, I hated them. I was used to putting this bead in the buckhorn and placing that on a squirrel's head and making head shots.
The patridge sights just didn't seem to work as well to me.
Of course, now that I do most of my shooting with patridge sights, I like them better. But you kind of learn to like what you use, it seems.
You just pull the magazine rod out of the stock...
and you can then feed the cartridges into an opening in the side of the stock.
It works really well.
This is a "take-down" rifle and is easy to take apart.
There is a button on the left side of the action.
You just pull it slightly to the rear and you twist the barrel assembly 1/8th of a turn clockwise, and it comes right off.
This makes carrying the rifle in a small case easy and also makes cleaning much easier, as you can clean the barrel from the rear.
There is a small screw on the rear of the barrel assembly that you can turn to adjust the "tightness" of the barrel to the action.
Here is how the rifle looks when taken apart.
It will fit into a backpack easily.
Both the front and rear sights are on the barrel, so disassembling and reassembling the rifle will not have any effect on point of impact or accuracy.
The rifle is loaded and cocked by pulling back on the charging lever located under the rifle.
The spent rounds eject downward.
The safety is a button located just in front of the trigger.
I would love to know how many rounds Dad and I put through this rifle.
At least tens of thousands.
Dad would by them by the brick (500 rounds) and we would burn them up pretty fast.
Here I am shooting the rifle.
It is a very accurate rifle. Here's a 5 shot group at 50 yards.
That's about as good as I can do without a scope.
Plenty good enough for squirrels, rabbits, and tin can
I probably made the most impressive shot of my life with this rifle. I had spent a couple of weeks at my Grandparents house in Egan, Louisiana, when I was about 10 years old, and had been putting hundreds of rounds through the rifle. My Dad, Pappaw, and Uncle and I went onto an irrigation levee and I was shooting down into the empty canal at some sticks in some very wet mud.
Pappaw pointed out a stick that was standing up in the mud and said, "Let's see you shoot that stick down." I took aim and shot and it fell. He laughed and said, "Anybody can do that. Let's see you shoot it back up, Chaa." They all laughed.
But I had been shooting at things in the soft mud for a couple of weeks and knew a trick. The .22 would blow a big crater in the soft mud, so I took careful aim at the front of the stick lying towards me, and shot. It blew a big crater in the mud, and blew the stick back up.
Pappaw, Dad, and my Uncle laughed and hooted about that for a long time. And Pappaw would tell all of his friends about it for the next several weeks.
Of course, this is not a "target" rifle. It is a plinker and a hunting rifle.
It is a blast to shoot. And, they didn't name it the SpeedMaster for nothing.
It will shoot as fast as you can pull the trigger.
Several different models of this rifle were made. One was known as the Gallery Rifle and was used at State Fairs in shooting booths.
It was chambered for the .22 Short.
Just imagine how many rounds went through those old rifles.
This rifle will be owned by my Grandson Jace, someday.
Conclusions:
I hope he and I can shoot a lot of rounds through it and that he can have great memories about shooting with me.
This is my Dad's Remington Model 241 SpeedMaster.
Sometime in the late 1940s, my Mom and my Aunt went to Youngblood's Sporting Goods in Port Arthur, Texas and each put one of these rifles on lay-away for my Dad and my Uncle.
I believe they gave them the rifles for Christmas. It was shortly before I was born.
As a young kid, my Dad taught me to shoot with this rifle.
(Would you believe that I actually got a lump in my throat when I typed that? What I wouldn't give to shoot with Dad once again.)
The rifle holds 10 rounds of .22 LR in a tube in the buttstock of the rifle.
There is a removable magazine tube with a spring that feeds the cartridges into the action.
The rifle has a bead front sight.
How long has it been since they had to specify "Smokeless - Greased", on a .22 rifle?
And it has a typical buckhorn rear sight.
I learned to shoot with this type of sight system, and when I saw my first patridge sights with the squared-off front sight and the squared-off rear sight, I didn't like them at all.
In fact, I hated them. I was used to putting this bead in the buckhorn and placing that on a squirrel's head and making head shots.
The patridge sights just didn't seem to work as well to me.
Of course, now that I do most of my shooting with patridge sights, I like them better. But you kind of learn to like what you use, it seems.
You just pull the magazine rod out of the stock...
and you can then feed the cartridges into an opening in the side of the stock.
It works really well.
This is a "take-down" rifle and is easy to take apart.
There is a button on the left side of the action.
You just pull it slightly to the rear and you twist the barrel assembly 1/8th of a turn clockwise, and it comes right off.
This makes carrying the rifle in a small case easy and also makes cleaning much easier, as you can clean the barrel from the rear.
There is a small screw on the rear of the barrel assembly that you can turn to adjust the "tightness" of the barrel to the action.
Here is how the rifle looks when taken apart.
It will fit into a backpack easily.
Both the front and rear sights are on the barrel, so disassembling and reassembling the rifle will not have any effect on point of impact or accuracy.
The rifle is loaded and cocked by pulling back on the charging lever located under the rifle.
The spent rounds eject downward.
The safety is a button located just in front of the trigger.
I would love to know how many rounds Dad and I put through this rifle.
At least tens of thousands.
Dad would by them by the brick (500 rounds) and we would burn them up pretty fast.
Here I am shooting the rifle.
It is a very accurate rifle. Here's a 5 shot group at 50 yards.
That's about as good as I can do without a scope.
Plenty good enough for squirrels, rabbits, and tin can
I probably made the most impressive shot of my life with this rifle. I had spent a couple of weeks at my Grandparents house in Egan, Louisiana, when I was about 10 years old, and had been putting hundreds of rounds through the rifle. My Dad, Pappaw, and Uncle and I went onto an irrigation levee and I was shooting down into the empty canal at some sticks in some very wet mud.
Pappaw pointed out a stick that was standing up in the mud and said, "Let's see you shoot that stick down." I took aim and shot and it fell. He laughed and said, "Anybody can do that. Let's see you shoot it back up, Chaa." They all laughed.
But I had been shooting at things in the soft mud for a couple of weeks and knew a trick. The .22 would blow a big crater in the soft mud, so I took careful aim at the front of the stick lying towards me, and shot. It blew a big crater in the mud, and blew the stick back up.
Pappaw, Dad, and my Uncle laughed and hooted about that for a long time. And Pappaw would tell all of his friends about it for the next several weeks.
Of course, this is not a "target" rifle. It is a plinker and a hunting rifle.
It is a blast to shoot. And, they didn't name it the SpeedMaster for nothing.
It will shoot as fast as you can pull the trigger.
Several different models of this rifle were made. One was known as the Gallery Rifle and was used at State Fairs in shooting booths.
It was chambered for the .22 Short.
Just imagine how many rounds went through those old rifles.
This rifle will be owned by my Grandson Jace, someday.
Conclusions:
I hope he and I can shoot a lot of rounds through it and that he can have great memories about shooting with me.
