Remington, #6

This little jem was a recent addition to the collection. Back in the mid 70's, we moved from the farm to grandma's old house. As we started cleaning up the place, mom took me through and gave me a list of stuff to be thrown out and hauled away. Grandpa had been a tinkerer of sorts, and there was a lot of accumulated stuff in the basement. One of thsoe items was a rolled up rug stuck up into the joists. When I removed it, it was heavy and rigid, so I unrolled it. Inside were a Remington rolling block rifle, and a Remington double barrel shotgun. When I showed them to the folks, mom exclaimed "Why thats Sis' rifle, and brother's shotgun!" much to my dismay. A few months later they were both duely handed over to their rightful owners. Both guns had long stories, but the rifle is the story today. No, the one in the picture is not aunties rifle. Saddly, she parted with it only a short time after we returned it to her. She had found it in the attic of the first house she purchased after she got married. It was stuck up there and apparently no one remember it existed.

One day while brousing an online web site, I came accross this one. At first glance it was almost identical to my aunts rifle. Both were rolling block outside hammer remington singles, but this one lacked the tang peep site, and also had a take down lever on the side. When I inspected the rifle, the bore was reasonable clean, no pitting, and everything worked smoothly. But when I fired it, it was an entirely diffrent story. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with the thing let alone a tin can at twenty paces. I researched the rifle and discovered that although it appeared to be a rifled bore, it was in fact a smooth bore intended for the 22 dust rounds that people like for shooting rats and mice.