remington 721 question
http://www.snipercentral.com/rifles.htm#USA
Looks like the official sniper rifles were modified Springfields, M1's, and M14's until Remington 700's were used.
Looks like the official sniper rifles were modified Springfields, M1's, and M14's until Remington 700's were used.
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jjh,
There were two versions of the 721.
1 was the deluxe model that was more expensive then the other one.
Most people bought the Remington because of the name or because of the price.
You could buy 3 Remington 721's for the price of 2 Winchester Model 70's
Winchesters were never made in any significant numbers so there was always a back order of guns.
Even though most people covet the pre 64' model 70, Winchester made 3 times as many post model 70's - because of improvements in production technic's.
So usually when you bought a gun, it was because of name or price.
If Remington would have put a fancy stock on the Model 721 as a standard option, there is no doubt in my mind that it still would be in production today.
Because of that, the military did not buy large numbers of Remingtons until after the model number change to 700.
The 700 is basically identical to a 721 with minor modifications to the safety and bolt action.. Jeweled bolts and fancy stocks.
Korea did not require sniper rifles of that design because the military still used the Springfield rifles along with the Garand which were both excellent military rifles.
In Vietnam, they had already moved on to smaller caliber rifles which were not good in my opinion for long range shooting and had to look for alternative solutions. One soldiers story was that they didn't have snipers and had to train people in the field to do the job.
So they went down to the PX and bought Remington model 700's and Redfield Widefield scopes and made their own.
It wasn't until later in the war that they bought custom sniper rifles.
The one that Chuck Mawhinney shot was just a plain old Model 700 that was still being used as a training rifle 20 years later when they decided to make a museum to house special memoribilia and went looking for his rifle. National Museum of the Marine Corps.
They took it back out of service and sent it back to Remington and had it restored back to origional.
Rumor also was that Remington did the work free of charge.
http://www.snipersparadise.com/history/ ... hinney.htm
You can also look for a link to see a picture of his rifle on Wikopedia.
There were two versions of the 721.
1 was the deluxe model that was more expensive then the other one.
Most people bought the Remington because of the name or because of the price.
You could buy 3 Remington 721's for the price of 2 Winchester Model 70's
Winchesters were never made in any significant numbers so there was always a back order of guns.
Even though most people covet the pre 64' model 70, Winchester made 3 times as many post model 70's - because of improvements in production technic's.
So usually when you bought a gun, it was because of name or price.
If Remington would have put a fancy stock on the Model 721 as a standard option, there is no doubt in my mind that it still would be in production today.
Because of that, the military did not buy large numbers of Remingtons until after the model number change to 700.
The 700 is basically identical to a 721 with minor modifications to the safety and bolt action.. Jeweled bolts and fancy stocks.
Korea did not require sniper rifles of that design because the military still used the Springfield rifles along with the Garand which were both excellent military rifles.
In Vietnam, they had already moved on to smaller caliber rifles which were not good in my opinion for long range shooting and had to look for alternative solutions. One soldiers story was that they didn't have snipers and had to train people in the field to do the job.
So they went down to the PX and bought Remington model 700's and Redfield Widefield scopes and made their own.
It wasn't until later in the war that they bought custom sniper rifles.
The one that Chuck Mawhinney shot was just a plain old Model 700 that was still being used as a training rifle 20 years later when they decided to make a museum to house special memoribilia and went looking for his rifle. National Museum of the Marine Corps.
They took it back out of service and sent it back to Remington and had it restored back to origional.
Rumor also was that Remington did the work free of charge.
http://www.snipersparadise.com/history/ ... hinney.htm
You can also look for a link to see a picture of his rifle on Wikopedia.
Ask Carlos Hathcock about the Win Mod 70, USMC Sniper, cant ask him, cause he is gone, read his book, 93 confirmed Kills, when they ran out of Win Rifles, they ask Win to make a run of pre 64 Rifles, they refused, because they would have to retool, for those that think the pre 64 Rifles were no good, try to buy one now, i have several, i like Remington, but i like my pre 64 Rifles to, George.