Introduction to the Remington Nylon Rifle
Production of the Nylon 66 started in 1959 and ran until 1989.
There were about 1,050,000 Nylon 66s made. The standard model had a brown stock (called Mohawk Brown) with blue metal. It was a tube fed through the stock semi auto. Variations included a green stocked version (Seneca Green), a black stock and chrome receiver version called “Apache black” and a black stock/blued metal rifle called the “Black Diamond”.
The “Black Diamond” model started production in 1978 and ran until all Nylon 66 models were stopped in 1987. The “Apache Black” version is sometimes called the presentation model and was made until 1983. In addition, there was a “150th Anniversary” model produced in 1966 and a “Bicentennial” model in 1976. Both had brown stocks and gold etched, blued receivers. There was also a version that shot 22 shorts called the “Gallery Special”. This version had a shell deflector on the cover and often a metal swivel on the bottom of the receiver to chain it to a shooting gallery bench. A very few Gallery Specials were believed to have been made in black and chrome.
All Nylon 66s have Nylon 66 on the grip cap. The Black Diamond, Mohawk Brown, Seneca Green, Gallery Special and Apache Black variations are factory terms and are not found on the rifles though they were indicated on the box.
Remington also made 3 bolt-action nylon rifles from 1960-1962.
These included a single shot, a mag fed, and a tube fed version, Nylon 10, 11 & 12 respectively. A smooth bore single shot Nylon 10 was also made in limited numbers. It is known as the Nylon 10 SB. It is stamped “Smooth Bore” on the barrel.
A lever action nylon rifle was made for a short time (Nylon 76 Trail Rider). The Nylon 76 is the only lever action rifle Remington ever made. The Nylon 76 also came in a limited black and chrome version. It is believed to have been made in black stock blued version as well, perhaps called the standard though there is no factory documentation to support that version.
Most of bolts and the lever were brown and blue. A few allegedly came out in black and chrome but there is no documentation to support that. I’ve seen one bolt action in brown and chrome but it is undocumented by factory record. The bolts and the lever action are marked “Nylon” and the model number on the grip cap (see the photo section). The bolts on the bolt-action rifles had spoon shaped handles and were chromed on all versions.
Barrel lengths on all the nylon rifles were typically 19.5″. A few of the bolt actions were known to have been made with 24″ barrels. In fact, Gun Digest and other catalogs often carried diagrams of the bolt actions in the longer barrel.
A magazine/clip fed semi-auto called the Nylon 77 was made from 1970-1972. It had a 5 shot mag though a 10 shot clip was available in later production. It was re-named the “Mohawk 10C” in 1972. Apparently Remington thought it better to rename the rifle than try to re-market it with the 10 shot clip. The 10C represented the 10 shot “clip” which was brought out to compete with rifles like the Ruger 10/22. Both the 77 and 10C were made with brown stocks and blued metal. About 15,000 Nylon 77s were made in its 3 years of production while 128,000 10Cs were made from 1972-1978. The 10C is marked “Mohawk 10C” on the grip cap. The 77 is marked “Nylon 77″ on its grip cap.
Remington made a version of the nylon rifles for K-Mart in 1987-89. These rifles were the same as the Nylon 77 and 10C but had a green stock and black matte receiver and barrel. It was called the Apache 77 and is marked as such on the grip cap. The Apache 77 is truly a low-key rifle in that it is sans the white diamond and white fore/butt/pistol grip cap spacers found on other nylon rifles. It came with a cheap 19mm scope. The magazines for the original 77, 10C and Apache 77 are inner changeable. It is believed that around 54,000 of these rifles were produced though serial numbers vary by more than 100,000 number.
In 1987, when the Nylon 66 stopped production due to worn out dies, Firearms Import and Export of Miami Florida (FIE) imported a copy of the 66 called the GR8 Black Beauty which was made by a company called CBC in Brazil. CBC was part owned by Dupont who also owned a part of Remington, and who developed the plastic used in the rifles. Other importers, Magtech, Kassnar and Century Arms also are believed to have imported the CBC rifles at different times. All CBC rifles that were imported had a black stock and blued metal. It did have the white diamond on the fore stock and white spacers around the grip cap, fore cap and butt stock. It is blank on the grip cap.
Dating the rifles:
Remington puts a 2-letter code on the barrels of all of its rifles. This code indicates the month and year of production. Additional information and letter codes are found in the article Manufacturer Date Codes on this site.
Serial Numbers:
Prior to the Gun Control Act of 1968 rifles were not required to have serial numbers on them. Remington started numbering Nylon rifles in 1967 starting with #40000-419011. In 1968 the numbers ranged from 419012-473710. The serial numbers were located on the bottom of the barrel, below and just back a bit from the front sight. In December of 1968 serial numbers were moved to the receiver cover and re-started at 2100000 and went to 2599999 in January of 1977. In February 1977 an “A” was added and the range was restarted at A2100000. These serial number series pertain to all Nylon rifles, not just Nylon 66s.
Quick serial number guide:
No serial number, pre 1967 rifles
Serial number range 400-419K 1967 rifle
Serial number range 419-473K 1968 rifle
Serial number range 2.1 million-2.59 million December 1968- January 1977 rifle
Serial number range with an “A” prefix-post Feb 1977 rifle.
Numbers of Rifles Made:
Nylon 66 (all variations)
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