Did the Remington 722 in .244 'grow' from 24" to 26" in 56?

[pgtr]

I have a Remington 722A in .244 with the earlier 1:12 twist. Its barrel stampings decode to October 1955. It has a 26" barrel. With scope it's about 8.8 lbs.

In looking at Rem's 1955 catalog page 8, it shows the .244 as being a 24" barrel. However it also notes the .244 as being about 1 lb. heavier than other 721A chambering being about 8 lbs. A 'Varmint' rifle is also on the same page as specifically having a 26" barrel but only in .222.

Jump forward to the 1956 catalog page 6, and a longer barreled ''Varmint' rifle is not called out on the bolt action page. But the .244 and .222 are noted as having longer overall lengths of 45.25" and again 8 lbs ea. That suggests that the .244 indeed had a 26" barrel in this catalog.

Question: Did Remington always offer the early .244s in 26" and the '55 catalog was not clear on this? Or did they lengthen it for '56? Or am I not reading the catalog correctly?

Thanks,

[pgtr]

...I did a little digging and some math and came up with this possibility for .244 barrel length from '55 to '60. Basically the catalogs descriptions of the 722 simply say something like 'same as 721 except for...' weight and overall length. They don't mention differences in barrel lengths at all. So I add (or subtract) the difference between the 721 and the 722s overall length plus 1 inch for the different chamber length to the 722s barrel. I came up with the following possibility - but this highly speculative and could be completely wrong. (fractional inches rounded off)

1955 24"
1956 26"
1957 26"
1958 24"
1959 24"
1960 22"

I'm assuming my '55 722 was made to 1956 spec as noted in the 1956 catalog as a late year 1955 production.

Also would anyone know why the .244s and a few others are a pound heavier compared to most other 722s?

[Wulfman]

I can't answer your questions, but I have a 722 .244 Rem built in July of '55 that has a 26" barrel. It's also considerably heavier than my 24" barreled .257 Roberts 722s......and it's fairly evident when observing the size of the 26" barrel on the .244. I've never weighed them so I can't comment on their respective weights. Since the .244 was primarily designed as a varmint cartridge, I always suspected this heavier barrel was some sort of precursor to the heavier "varmint" barrels which came later.

I had an email exchange with Remington years ago because they didn't list a 26" barrel in their history of the 722 in .244 Remington.......which proved fruitless. Heck, I can't even find the "history" section on their site anymore.


Den

.

[pgtr]

Thanks

It seems those old catalogs may have played a little loose with the detailed specs on these models.

They commonly listed the .244 as 8 lbs vs 7 lbs for most other cartridge sizes. My .244, with scope mounted, shows about 8.8 lbs on the bathroom scale.