1899 Remington Lee

[jon_norstog]

.....If anyone has an 1899 with a good bore and won't mind sharing a range report, it would be most welcome! Mine has the typical rotten bore which is due to a primary diet of blank cartridges. A friend has a Cuban carbine that looks better, rifling-wise, except for the last inch or so, which is completely "wallered out". So shooting results are apt to be dismal at best, and "ill advised" for the most part. ALMOST bought one to rebarrel, but it just wouldn't be the same, so opportunity lost...

J,

Thank you for the excellent series of posts.

I've been shooting a Rremington-Lee in 30/40 for about 15 years. It was "sporterized" and had a boogered chamber when I bought it from Ron Peterson's shop in Albuquerque. Ron was **not** happy about the warranty work to repair the drilled-out chamber, but he paid for it. Work done by Bedeaux et Fils.

The rifle's good parts are light weight, quick handling, the detachable magazine, and a very strong action. Not-so good points include the half-cock safety which is both unsafe and too slow for hunting use.

This rifle, I never really found the formula for it. It would shoot 3 inch groups at 100 yards but I never got it to shoot as well as my Krag, inspite of its sharp rifling. The barrel is quite light and may be whipping. What the rifle will do is easily shoot the "Ruger only" loads in the Hodgdon manual, or recommended loads for the .308 in other manuals. I think the bolt head on mine was nickel steel, since it stayed bright.

This particular rifle, I'm thinking, was from a cancelled sale, and was in a lot picked up dirt-cheap, perhaps by Bannerman's. The bore is like new.

If there is interest, I'll take it out and run a box of 180gr reloads through it.

jn