A guest share by our pal SunshineShooter from his progunmillennial website.

Welcome to the newest installment of Quick Shots. This week we take a look at one of the oldest guns in my collection, if not the oldest in my collection. A scoped Remington Model 141, chambered in .35 Remington.

This gun holds a special place in my heart, and my safe. I do not consider this gun to be my gun, not really. I’m merely holding onto it for my brother-in-law. When my wife’s parents moved out of the country to do permanent missionary work, they had to give their guns to someone for safe keeping. Seeing as I’m the resident ‘gun guy’ on that side of the family, I was the natural choice.

This gun was not my in-laws’ gun originally. My mother-in-law inherited it from her grandfather, who was a Border Patrol agent down in El Paso, TX. Apparently he was a crack shot, because along with the gun I was given some medals he won in BP shooting competitions. I think he’s even in the Border Patrol Museum for his shooting prowess. I don’t know if he won any of those competitions with the gun featured here, but I like to think so.

The gun itself also fascinates me. Firstly, because it’s a pump action rifle. If I’ve ever seen a pump action rifle in person before, i don’t remember it. The Model 141 replaced the Model 14, which was designed by John Pederson, of Pederson Device fame, and also modeled Remington’s Model 51 pistol (the original, not 2014’s R51 abomination). It was replaced by Remington’s Model 760, another pump action rifle, but redesigned to utilize a box magazine so that pointed spitzer bullets could be used instead of the round-nosed type the 141’s tube mag requires.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CAXCCIRYWRg?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparentThe tilting-bolt’s travel is shown. The bolt release is on the bolt itself.

The bullets that tube mag was filled with aren’t slouches, though. This sucker is chambered in .35 Remington, an absolute unit of a round! This sucker launches a 200 grain bullet at or above 2,000 feet per second. It may not have much long range potential, but inside of 200 yards it’s completely devastating compared to today’s intermediate rounds, which are so common. Then again, if you used some of those flex-tip bullets from Hornady and get your BC up, you could have something fairly interesting…

The next thing that I find interesting about this rifle is that it’s a take-down. The stock comes off the back of the action, making the gun a little more handy and fit into a pack or bag a little more easily. This is a feature that has been lost from today’s rifle market, yet is trying to make a resurgence.

The specific model I’m in possession of is also scoped. A previous owner (my in-law’s grandfather, I assume) mounted a Weaver fixed-3x scope to it. The reticle is a simple affair, as was common at the time. The scope came to me zeroed and hasn’t drifted that I’ve noticed. I have no doubt that it will continue to perform well into the future.

What’s interesting about this gun having a scope on it is that this is not a factory option. This was custom work done by a gunsmith. There are references online about holes drilled & tapped for a side-mount, but this example has weaver mounts (the predecessor to today’s Picatinny rail) drilled and tapped on the top of the receiver and the barrel. I’m not sure that I’d drill into the barrel at what I’d imagine is the most critical point, but apparently it wasn’t an issue.

Long story short, this gun is just interesting. It’s got some quirks, some questionable choices, and a lot of character. It’s a total Fudd gun, but I love it. The things shoots very accurately, more than I am and possibly pushing the limits of the cartridge. I hope to wring out the mysteries of this little piece some day, but there’s no telling. It would be very cool to hand my daughters their great-great-grandfather’s rifle, still working and accurate as the last time he held it. I hope my in-laws never ask for it back, lol.