Yesterday I decided to brace the crowd and drove up to Cabela’s, where I saw on the used gun rack a Remington Nylon Apache 77 for $249 + tax. The exterior showed minimal handling marks and the bore looked good. The price was right and I’ve long thought the Nylon-series rifles were neat, so I bought it.
(Crummy low light iPhone pic. It’s not really clear, but the gun is mostly green.)
Remington came out with the tube fed Nylon 66 in 1959 and made it for 30 years. During that time they developed a reputation for being extremely reliable and durable. With the reciprocating parts riding on nylon, they don’t require lubrication, which is a nice feature if they rifle is going to be used in a very cold or dusty environment.
The box mag fed Nylon rifles were made in much fewer numbers than the 66. My father had a Nylon 11 bolt action in the early 1970s, but they are very uncommon nowadays. The box mag fed semiautos were not nearly as popular as the tube fed 66, which is a shame, in my opinion. Personally, I find a box mag to be more user friendly and facilitates loading and unloading much more quickly. Also, most .22 rifles with tube mags have them located under the barrel, where they can be dented. The 66’s internal tube mag is better protected.
The Nylon 66 and 77 have a tang safety, which helps make the rifle ambidextrous. Since I’m a lefty, this is a big bonus point.
I found a nice writeup of the Apache 77 and the other box mag fed Nylons over on Nylonrifles.com, here.
The Apache 77 was only made from 1987 through 1989, and sold exclusively through K-Mart. It’s a semiautomatic rifle chambered for .22 LR, feeding from a detachable 5 or 10 round box magazine. The more common Nylon 66 feeds from a 14 round tube mag concealed in the butt.
Having read horror stories by owners who detail stripped Nylon 66s, and couldn’t reassemble them, I limited my action cleaning to removing the steel receiver cover and using a solvent-soaked toothbrush to cleaning the easily accessible dirty part. The rifle came with a single 10 round plastic mag, which was showing some oxidation, so I wiped it down with an Armor-All wipe. Finally, I ran a few solvent-soaked patches through the bore, then followed up with a few dry patches.
Today I took it over to a friend’s house. He has some acreage with a good backstop, so I was able to put 50 – 60 rounds through it. Most were Federal bulk pack high speed 36 grain hollow points, but I also put 9 or 10 CCI CB Longs through it.
The Federals functioned well, although I did have a couple malfunctions, including one failure to fully eject. As expected, the CB Longs did not cycle the action, but they fed fine from the magazine when I worked the action as a straight pull bolt action. Noise-wise, they are very quiet from the Remington’s 19” barrel, about as loud as a Sheridan Blue Streak air rifle with 8 pumps. If they shoot accurately in your gun, the CB Longs would be good for small game hunting or pest control in an area where noise is a concern.
The gun has a pretty good trigger pull, I’d guess about 4 to 5 pounds with minimal slack or creep. It’s certainly better than the trigger my Ruger 10/22 originally came with, which was atrociously heavy and creepy.
We didn’t’ shoot at any paper targets, just at a bunch of tin cans but the sights appear to be pretty close to zeroed for me.
Even though the Nylon Apache 77 hasn’t been made since 1989, Remington still lists magazines for it, so I ordered a few last night. (All the box mag fed Nylon rifles use the same mag, which they also share with the Remington 541 and 581 bolt actions.)
Compared with the robust Ruger 10/22 magazines, or the metal magazines for my Savage rimfire rifles, the Nylon 77’s mags are flimsy. That said, I used to own a Remington 581 and the mag never gave me any trouble, so I’m hoping the ones I get for the 77 are OK.
The 77’s steel receiver cover is grooved for regular rimfire scope mounts. I have a Nikon 4x32mm Prostaff rimfire scope that’s currently not mounted on anything, so I give it a try on the Remington after I verify the iron sight zero.
The 77 was a boatload of fun to shoot and I look forward to shooting it a lot more.
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7 comments:
Thanks for writing this up Dave. I have had an Apache 77 for years. It is a great shooting gun. I lost my original clip for it years ago, so the gun has been sitting for ever. I just started looking for a clip for it so I can teach my kids to shoot, and was a little confused until I read this. Thanks again.
Watchouttrout
good price cabelas is selling one
similar for 649.99
I've shot the Nylon 77 a few times since this original post and continue to like it. I did pick up 4 spare magazines from Remington but had to fit them to the rifle. Remington did a really crummy job making them. I have a follow up post in the works on this topic.
Dave, I had the same trouble with new magazines, what did you do to make them fit correctly
I had to mod them in a few placed.
1. I had to file the bottom of the locking piece so that they would seat and lock in the gun.
2. I had to spread apart the metal spring clip at the top rear of the mag.
3. While holding down the follower, I used a narrow stone in a Dremel to remove material from the underside of the feed lips. I could've used a 3rd hand for that.
Modifying the mags was a major PITA and I cussed Remington constantly while I worked on them.
I bought one of these at a yard sale a few ago for %50.00. The clip was broken so I git a new one. Great shooter. Best $50.00 I've ever spent. Deals are still out there. My wife thought I was nuts. What do women know???? They blow 50 bones on a manicure all the time.
Hello,
I am looking for a Remington nylon with a cracked or broken stock. I will repair it and shoot a video of the repair process. I will send a shipping label for sending the rifle and will return it after the repair.
Don Meyers
Tech-Bond Solutions
www.tbbonding.com
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