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Remington Nylon 66

• advanced
• Shop tier 3
• low confidence
• Rimfire Rifle
• rimfire
• blowback
• buttstock tube magazine
• historic
• difficult reassembly

field strip ~10 min · reassembly ~15 min · detail strip ~45 min

Specifications

Model-specific safety

• A .22 LR round can be fired by a blow to the case rim, not just the centre. Keep ammunition out of the work area.
• A .22 LR case in a chamber is small and dull-coloured and is genuinely easy to miss. Use a light and a finger, every time.
• The magazine tube is in the BUTTSTOCK, not under the barrel. Loading and unloading happen at the back of the rifle through a port in the buttplate. If you are used to a conventional tube gun you will look in the wrong place.
• The receiver and stock are a single moulded nylon structure. It is durable, but it is not a steel receiver and it does not tolerate the kind of prying or clamping a steel action would.
• This rifle is famously difficult to reassemble. There are small springs and a specific order, and getting it wrong is easy. Unless you have a reason and a parts diagram, clean it without disassembling it.
• Do not dry fire.

Under spring tension

• Magazine tube spring
• Recoil spring
• Hammer and sear springs

Easily lost parts

Inner magazine tube · Cartridge feed components · Small action springs

Tools

No tools required for the field strip.

Shop difficulty

Shop tier 3 Tier 3 — hardest among rimfire rifles, for the full job: strip to the parts that get coated and put it back together working. About 59 key numbers (79 rows), but the action lives inside a moulded nylon stock-receiver with small loose parts under a stamped cover; gunsmiths report it is the rifle most often brought in disassembled 'in a coffee can' that owners cannot reassemble, parts are scarce, and screws strip easily into nylon. Widely reported miserable to reassemble.

Parts: 59 numbered parts (Remington Nylon 66 parts list (RF 22), standard model; 59 key numbers, 79 rows incl. Apache/Black Diamond variant rows and accessories; Gallery Special sub-list left out), from Remington Model Nylon 66 22 Caliber Autoloading Rifle Parts List (RF 22) — Remington Arms Company, Inc., p. RF 22 (PDF p. 6) archive.org [2].

Bench time: about 60 min to strip, 110 min to rebuild (estimate). Strip of receiver cover, bolt and recoil spring, trigger and safety group, cartridge stop, magazine tube and sights inside the nylon stock; rebuild far longer because small loose parts and springs must be placed in the moulded receiver in order.

Small parts: 14 pins, 8 springs, 5 detents or plungers (counted from the manufacturer's parts list (one per key number unless a quantity is given))

What comes off for coating

• Receiver cover: cover screws and receiver cover (carries rear sight), rear sight (riveted to cover)
• Action (in stock): bolt handle, bolt and recoil spring assembly, barrel and barrel retaining parts, trigger, sear, hammer and their springs and pins, safety and safety detent ball, cartridge stop and spring, extractor, plunger and spring, feed throat / cartridge guide
• Magazine: inner magazine tube, outer tube parts in the butt

Special tools

• Punch set incl. small pin punches — Trigger group pins
• Fitted screwdrivers — Screws into nylon (strip easily)

Known pain points

• Gunsmiths report the Nylon 66 is the gun most often brought in as a box of parts that the owner (and sometimes a 'gunsmith') could not put back together. (reassembly)
  Owners report: Nylon 66 take down — Accurate Reloading Gunsmithing Forum forums.accuratereloading.com [3] — “When I was working for the retail shops the Nylon 66 was the one most often brought in in a coffee can with the Winchester 88 coming in second.”
• Removing the receiver cover risks losing small parts, and few gunsmiths now have the experience or parts to fix one. (both)
  Owners report: Nylon 66 take down — Accurate Reloading Gunsmithing Forum forums.accuratereloading.com [3] — “Dont even take the metal cover off unless you are very careful as you can loose a couple of small parts.”

Fit or check on rebuild

• Receiver cover screws just snug — Over-tightened cover screws make the bolt stick and strip the nylon.
• Function check: safety, trigger/sear release, disconnector and feeding with dummy rounds — Standard after any detail strip; a mis-assembled sear or disconnector can double or fail to fire.

This is Pew-Takedown's rating, not the manufacturer's. How tiers are rated. Forum reports are owners' experience, not specifications.

Procedures

Torque specifications

No sourced torque values from the manufacturer are recorded for this firearm. Where a fastener has a specified torque — action screws, scope bases, muzzle devices, barrel nuts — get it from the manufacturer or a gunsmith rather than estimating it.

Parts list

Transcribed from the manufacturer's parts list (Remington Model Nylon 66 22 Caliber Autoloading Rifle Parts List (RF 22) — Remington Arms Company, Inc., p. RF 22 (PDF p. 6) archive.org [2]) — Remington "MODEL NYLON 66 … PARTS LIST" (RF 22), standard model incl. Apache Black/Black Diamond variant rows, plus Accessories. The Nylon 66GS "Gallery Special" (22 Short) sub-list is left out. Exploded view is on PDF p. 5. Some part numbers were read from a low-resolution scan; confirm them with t. Key numbers refer to the exploded view in that document.

Function check

• Verify the rifle is unloaded — chamber and magazine — before each step.
• Cycle the bolt by hand and confirm it travels smoothly and returns fully into battery.
• Cock the action, engage the safety, and press the trigger. The hammer must not fall.
• Disengage the safety and press the trigger. The hammer should fall.
• Confirm the magazine seats, locks, and releases cleanly.
• Confirm the inner magazine tube latches securely in the buttstock.

Maintenance

Lubrication points

• Bolt sides where it rides in the receiver
• Recoil spring guide
• Sear and hammer contact

Cleaning notes

The nylon receiver is self-lubricating by design and was marketed as needing no lubrication there. Keep oil off the nylon and confine lubrication to the steel bolt and fire control surfaces. Keep the buttstock magazine tube clean and dry.

Suggested inspection interval: roughly every 500 rounds. This is a general guideline, not a manufacturer specification.

Wear parts to inspect

Extractor · Recoil spring · Magazine tube spring · Firing pin

Common issues

Also covers

The procedures above are reported to apply to: Nylon 66 Mohawk Brown, Apache Black, and Seneca Green · Remington Nylon 76 (lever variant, with differences). Verify against the manual for your specific model.

Similar manual of arms

• Marlin Model 60
• Ruger 10/22

Sourcing