Remington Model 141 .35 Rem Caliber

[lesb]

While I have owned Remington Shotguns for a long time, I had never had a Remington rifle before. But last Saturday I had a chance to pick up a Remington 141 rifle. I don't know what attracted me to it, but I have been mostly interested in older Smith and Wesson and Colt revolvers, (I belong to both brands forums), and there was something about this rifle that appealed to me, the great American black walnut stock, the fine machining of the parts, the beautiful bluing, still in great shape after all these years, and what I thought seemed to be a great price.

Anyway, I bought it, knowing virtually nothing about the mechanical complexity of the beast. Unfortunately, it had been drilled and tapped for a scope, and is still wearing a modern Tasco, and someone had removed the rear sight without even putting a slot blank in place. I don't know whether it is factory, but it has also been drilled and tapped for a receiver sight, and there are plug screws in these holes.

Anyway, it is now mine, and I stopped at a gun store on the way home and picked up a couple of boxes of cartridges, and as I usually do with a new caliber, a set of dies and a shell holder, and some 200 grain round nose bullets.

I have also spent a couple of hours on this forum reading some of the posts of Jim Peterson, who seems to be one of the gurus on the subject.

Here's a photo of the rifle before I bought it:



I'll stop back in awhile with some more of my adventures in trying to get to know a little about this really cool rifle.

Thanks for listening to a real beginner raving about a new find!!

[nambujim]

Les!

These are really neat rifles and the last solid frame rifle Remington produced so they are extremely strong. Good move on purchasing the 200gr RN ammunition, most certainly will kill anything in North America.

There should be two plugged holes on the top of the lower receiver, these were for any number of tang sights made for the rifle, and any other holes were not factory. At least when they mounted the scope they didn't drill both the barrel and receiver so that's a good thing.

My opinion is that the earlier the serial, the better the machining was, and to be more on point.........after 55,000 things started to get a bit rough and I have had to work on several rifles in the 65,000 to 75,000 range where you had to separate the upper and lower receiver with a dead blow hammer. The machining on the inside was rough compared to the pre war rifles but then Remington was getting ready to discontinue the 141 and perhaps economics was playing into the formula. The exterior of the late guns was always lovely but the upper/lower receiver fit was the real problem.

I can't really tell but from your picture the rifle is either missing the brush guard OR its turned back the wrong way. This would be the piece on the front of the magazine plug.

Never use anything but Round Nose bullets, use a factory crimp if you reload, after 30-40 rounds remove the butt plate, and snug up the stock bolt using a very long screwdriver. The stock bolt will shoot loose, then the bolt will flex against the stock causing it to crack.

Have fun & behave!

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, NC

[lesb]

Thanks, Jim!!

I have been playing around with this new gun since I got it home on Saturday. At first I ran a brush and patch through the barrel, and saw that it was bright and clean. Then I wanted to fire a round or two to see that it worked. That’s where I first ran into trouble. I got a round caught in the carrier, and that’s when I started doing some research, and found this forum and saw some of your posts helping other new guys like me out. So I figured out how to get the bolt out, and was amazed at the machining on the internal parts. Also was pleased at the finish on of most of the gun. Much of it looks like it was made yesterday. Here’s a closeup of the receiver. I think that the barrel code indicates October of 1940. And you can see the serial number, 30060. By the way, feel free to add this serial to whatever database you guys are keeping.



So after checking it out some more, I went outside and ran a couple of rounds through the action, and then fired two rounds. Everything worked OK, but the action wanted to stick open. Got inside with a flashlight, and as clean as the gun looked, there was a good bit of gunk in some of the hard to get to areas which seemed to be causing the sticking. Don’t know about detail stripping yet, so I hosed it out with CLP, and blew that out with some computer air. Relubed, and am going to let it sit overnight, and then check it out tomorrow.

By the way, the fit of the trigger assembly to the receiver is perfect. No play at all, but slides out without any use of force...just amazing!!

But I have learned a few tricks from you already, I couldn’t figure how to get the bolt back in until I read your tip to cock the action, and then it slips right in!! So I’m starting to learn.

Here’s the bolt assembly (I don’t know the proper terms yet), and it looks like it was made yesterday!!



Here’s another view of the bolt assembly, and by the way, another thing I learned from one of your tips was that I put the ejector and it’s little sliding thingy back together correctly!! So chalk one more up to you:



Well, it’s all back together, and I’m going to try cleaning it up a little more tomorrow.

Thanks again for everything!!

[nambujim]

Les!
Those are aftermarket holes for a receiver sight but the good news is that it is a pre-war rifle and they don't get any better as far as 141's go.

Be very careful if you strip the entire rifle down, the first part to be lost would be the cartridge stop located in the frame (left side front) retained by the flange on the action bar cover (the most frequently broken part on these rifles). I would think that after 77 years, the channel for the carrier needs cleaning as well as the carrier itself BUT if you get that far (removing the action bar & magazine tube) you need to be alert when taking out the carrier. The carrier pin should come out easily but might need a little help with a pin punch just to get through the crud. Its when you remove the carrier, You should hold your hand over it in case the friction plunger pops out along with the little spring. Having the carrier moving freely is the key to good cartridge feed.

Also you should check the carrier dog spring in the trigger guard assembly, the carrier dog (little flippy thingy) in front of the trigger assembly should flip back/forth with some vigor. If it doesn't this will affect the feed or make it inconsistent, if its sluggish the spring needs to be replaced which I do for a modest fee............although you might not think its modest!

............and if you think you got a lot of crud out of the frame and bolt assembly (yes, that is what you call it) you will be amazed how much crap is in the action bar and magazine tube. Keep in mind that the ammo used back then was far less clean than what we use today.

We added your serial to our data base, no names are put with it just the serial, barrel code, caliber, and any other unusual modifications.

Nice rifle, too bad about all the extra holes but if you are going to use it to hunt..........who cares!

Jim Peterson
Sunny and 65 degrees in Charlotte, NC

[lesb]

Jim:

I had some time this afternoon to actually get outside, and the weather was great, in the 60s even up here. I reversed the part that I think you mean when you say “brush gaurd”, and now this is how it looks:



I just have a short 25 yard course here at the cabin where I have been staying for awhile, so I wanted to ensure that things were actually working the way they should. I checked the carrier dog and applied the test that you recommended in one of your other posts, of letting it flip against your thumbnail. It seems to have enough zip to sting a little.

Next I loaded 5 rounds of ammo, three rounds of Hornady’s “Leverevolution” 200 gr FTX, followed by two rounds of Winchester Super X 200 gr “Power Point” round nose ammunition. I wanted to make sure that it would feed both types of ammo (that’s all I could find) and eject and of course fire.

Here’s how it looks, all cleaned up, (at least on the outside), and ready to try out:



I was a little apprehensive...worrying that it would not feed and fire properly, but it did just fine.

Well, this sure doesn’t look like a very professional target, but I was mainly ensuring that the gun actually worked, and fed ammo properly, and overall I’m very pleased:



In the meantime, I continue to sop up any remaining cleaner that I hosed it out with. I’m not quite brave enough to fully disassemble the rifle yet, and have gotten a bunch of crud out with the spray-in CLP + compressed air....

What disassembly I did do was on the bed with an old sheet, so that I would be able to see any springs or plungers or whatnot that might pop out unbeknownst to me. So far I can say that if something is missing, it must have come out before I got the gun. I still have trouble believing that it is so pristine.

[nambujim]

Nice job on the brush guard!

Stay away from the leverevolution ammo...........the tips have been known to break off in the feed system of these rifles (I've had two this past year in my shop), they will at some point in time give you the jam from hell. Round Nose only will keep you and the rifle happy!

Jim

[lesb]

Jim:

I'm thinking maybe I can shoot the leverevolution ammo up by feeding them individually into the rifle so as to gain the brass. Now that I have a supply of 200 gr round nose soft point bullets, and dies (I am going to try to find a "factory crimp" die online tomorrow). I want to work up a load that I can play around with. I already have quite a number of powders, and I took a quick look in several of my manuals, and they all have loads listed using the 200 gr bullets.

I wasn't able to find any Remington brand .35 Rem, but will keep my eye open. Cabela's (I'm not too far away) seem to have plenty of the Winchester Super X.

I was totally ignorant regarding this nice rifle just a few days ago, and now feel that I am at least starting to get a feel for it. I'm happy that I succumbed to the impulse to buy it.

Thanks for all the help. I enjoy sharing my gun experiences online.... I have been active on the S&W forum for awhile, and have found that I have learned much more from my forum friends there than I could ever have found out on my own. So I try to share both my mistakes and successes, maybe someone else can learn from them.

[nambujim]

Roger that!

I actually pulled the Leverevolution bullets (sold them on GB) and replaced them (using the same power) with 200gr Hornady RN. My son said they shot just fine and grouped beautifully.

Lever systems are totally alien to the feed system on these rifles.

Jim

[lesb]

Jim:

Well...the guy that I bought the 141 from has a Marlin 336 lever action rifle in .35 Rem, so I stopped by his place today and gave him the rest of the Hornady Leverevolution ammo....it should work just fine in his rifle.

Once more, thanks for sharing your expertise, and I am grateful for your guidance!!