Remington Model 81

Remington Model 8
Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle.
Type	Rifle
Place of origin	United States
Service history
Used by	Federal Bureau of Investigation
Production history
Designer	John Browning C.C. Loomis
Manufacturer	Remington Arms
Produced	1906–1911 (Remington Autoloading Rifle) 1910–1929 (FN Model 1900) 1911–1936 (Model 8) 1936–1950 (Model 81)
No. built	26,000 (Remington Autoloading Rifle) 4,913 (FN Model 1900) 80,600 (Model 8) 55,581 (Model 81)
Specifications
Weight	8 lb (3.6 kg)
Length	41.1 in (104 cm)
Barrel length	22 in (56 cm)
Cartridge	.25 Remington .30 Remington .32 Remington .35 Remington .300 Savage
Action	recoil-operated
Feed system	Fixed 5 round box magazine,(5-,10-,15-round box magazine)

1906–1911 (Remington Autoloading Rifle)
1910–1929 (FN Model 1900)
1911–1936 (Model 8)

The Remington Model 8 is a semi-automatic rifle designed by John Browning and produced by Remington Arms. Originally introduced as the Remington Autoloading Rifle in 1906, the name was changed to the Remington Model 8 in 1911.

On October 16, 1900, John Browning was granted U.S. Patent 659,786 for the rifle, which he then sold to Remington. Outside the U.S., this rifle was made by Fabrique Nationale of Liege, Belgium, and marketed as the FN Browning 1900. Under an agreement between Remington and FN, the Model 8 would be sold in the US while the FN 1900 would be sold elsewhere. Despite having a larger market, the FN 1900 was sold predominately to hunters in and around Western Europe and Canada. Because of the new and yet unproven nature of the autoloading rifle, the FN model never experienced the same level of sales as the Model 8. Cameron Woodall of The Great Model 8, a website dedicated to the rifle, postulates that this was likely due to the difficulty convincing European hunters to spend money on an expensive rifle that few people had ever seen before. Due to lackluster sales, only 4,913 Model 1900s were ever produced compared to the over 80,000 Model 8s produced.

The Remington Model 8 rifle is long recoil-operated and uses a rotating bolt head. After firing, the barrel and bolt, still locked together, move rearward inside the receiver and compress two recoil springs. Then the bolt is held back while the barrel is returned forward by one of the springs permitting extraction and ejection. Once the barrel is returned, the bolt is returned forward by the second spring; in so doing it picks up a fresh round from the magazine and chambers it. The Remington Model 8 has a fixed 5-shot magazine and bolt hold-open device which engages after the magazine is empty. It is a takedown design, meaning that the barrel and receiver are easily separated with no tools, allowing for a smaller package for transport.

Remington created four new calibers for the Model 8 rifle: .25 Remington, .30 Remington, .32 Remington and .35 Remington. These cartridges were rimless designs to allow reliable feeding from box magazines. The Model 8 was offered in five grades of finish (Standard, Special, Peerless, Expert and Premier) and was the first truly reliable medium power semiautomatic rifle ever commercialized (1906).