Something I never have read about is the 1990's custom rollers Remington put out. I have longed for one for years, looks like I traded into one and wanted to hear the good, bad and ugly of them.
I have handled one in a shop and felt that they are a well made rifle in modern steel with strength that goes beyond the old #5.
Funny how nobody seems to admit having one and further no written posts that I have seen.
ANYBODY?
I'm not much help. I own one but have shot it very little, about enough to make sure its on. It is just a standard one with regular sights. They are nice and shoot well.
They were fine, but for what they originally sold for they weren't worth it. Now that they've been around for a while, if the price is right, no reason not to get one if you want it.
There were two versions put out by the Remington Custom Shop. One was a standard model with full round barrel, plain stocks, and plastic buttplate. The other was a high end version with half octagon barrel, presentation grade wood, steel forearm tip, single set trigger, and steel buttplate.
The high end models seem to be consistently better fit and finish, and are usually very accurate. The standard guns have been less consistent in all these areas, so we see both good and bad.
I have a set of the high end stocks on my latest Rolling Block build, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the wood, checkering, and finish. They really did a very nice job considering they were CNC inletted. I also purchased the matching pistol grip lower tang and thinned my military upper tang to fit the stocks.
Mine built from original receiver and Custom Shop parts is chambered in .40-50SS.
Nice! Looks good.
Track of the Wolf had one for sale a while back. I saw and handled it and was some disappointed in the fit and finish for the cost of the gun. The stock was just not right.
I have one, with the tapered 30 inch round barrel. It had a MVA Seoule sight with the Hadley eyepiece with different size arpetures. It has the silver blade front sight and a buckhorn rear sight. Mine has very nice walnut and the pistol grip stock like the one pictured. It shoots very, very well, with black powder loads, or smokless, and loves the 350gr. Gould HP slug I cast up. When I say well, I mean 1.5 moa at 100 and 200 yds, that is the farthest I have shot it on paper, but have no trouble hitting silhouettes out to 500 yds, the limit of my range in my neighbors field where he and I shoot! I have an original action that had been re-case hardened, with a badger 30", heavy half octagon/round barrel, that shoots as good but no better than the 1990's remingtons.
Awesome answers! Looks like I have one on the way and she is a looker! Excellent wood with lotza figure, steel forend cap, pistolgrip butt, 30 inch barrel in 45-70.
Down side ... has no sights. Guess that leaves me to install what I want ... such as my long Leatherwood Malcolm scope with the MVA mounts.
Well I do not hear any downers so am encouraged. Will take pictures when it arrives. Am pumped! A modern steel Roller in the original Remington. I really like the Rolling Block action ... my others are vintage so I am careful with the loads. A vintage Rem 43 Spanish and a vintage sporter in 40-65 Winchester. Real fun and now a modern collector in the Remington build.
My figuring is that if a Pedersoli sells for between 1500 and 1800 dollars ... then this one should be worth every penny of that ... AND an original Remington to boot
Last edited by bigted; 07-24-2019 at 09:42 PM.
I lusted after the Mid Range model in 30-30 Winchester but never saw one.
Originally Posted by bigted
If you wanted the original long range vernier, and windage globe the gun came with, they are still available cheap at Numrich Gun Parts. They are sold as individual parts, and the cost is under $300 for both front globe and rear tang sights as parts.
I bought both for mine and the tang sight took about 5 minutes to assemble. The globe a bit longer as I had to put valve lapping compound on the threads and lap it into the sight to get more clearance and a smooth operation.
They are great sights, and a bargain at the price. Only drawback is they don't have inserts for the globe, so need to get those from Jim at Distant Thunder Gun Parts.
I know a guy that I went to grade school with that inherited one from a uncle. It's still in the box unfired. The guy has never shot a gun in his life and won't sell it. That is the only one I've ever seen other than a few at shows. See a lot more originals in militaries.
I see em up time to time for sale. They are mostly a 1500 to 1800 dollar rifle. The ped's are that price and they are Italian made ( no slam on Italian made guns at all here ).
DGW used to offer an excellent pedersoli .40-65 roller silhouette with a heavy 30" barrel and good DSTs for $1200. that went on for well over a year, or more. no more now. i had a few, one got converted to .45-70. but the sharps is still the desired 19th century cartridge single shot rifle, and rollers get little love or the montana companies (and others) would be offering them ... even though rollers probably outnumbered sharps 8:1 or better back in the day. dave higginbotham made wonderful custom rollers, and that too is all gone.
Gotta say that personally ... I prefer the roller myself. Having said this, I have a Uberti long range 74 in 45-70 that I like very much, also a couple Miroku Winchester 1885's.
When I just need a break tho, a roller is in my paw's. Just me tho. One day I will find THE Remington ... it will be vintage in 44-77 and have the original sights ... AND be in my price range. Yea I know ... I am NOT holding my breath ... do not look all that snazzy in blue.
Big Ted, I am with you on liking the rollers! I have had one or more for the past 35 years, and I seem to shoot them better. One day about 20 years ago, I asked a guy if I could come up and shoot at his place, as he had a 550 range. I had an original Rem. 45/70, with a 28" heavy barrel, no taper. I had gotten into shooting black powder loads, and man did I have it dialed in. It had a front sight that was a very thin silver blade, and a set of long range verniers, steel with no markings on them. We sat some big pieces of cardboard up and in no time, 10 shots, I was dialed in. We then sat up 3 3 liter pop jugs at 500yds, and then off sandbags, I hit all 3 with 4 shots! The guy brought out a heavy barreled 25/06 and tried to hit one, and finally bounced on in he hit about 15 feet in front of it. I knew he was a better shot than that, and we sat up some gallon jugs full of water with red food coloring in them. I told him to calm down, told him how I held, and turned him loose with the roller. He hit both jugs with 4 shots and man was he stoked. He sold the 25/06, and purchased a used C Sharps a buddy of ours had for sale. He still has it and shoots it 3=4 times a year. I was loading a compressed load of 70grs of 2FFg with a cardboard wad, and cake of SPG lube under the bullet, and had the bullet sized and lubed with SPG. I still have not found a more accurate 45/70 load, with lead bullets. Our extreme shot spread when shot thru a chrono was 8-10 fps, total each way. So yes I can relate to you having a soft spot for Rollers, even though I have Ped. Sharps, two Hi walls, a Browning and a Ped, a H&R Buffalo classic, and an original Trapdoor 1884 model.
IMHO, and simply put ...
Started life as a #1 sporter in 46 rimfire. Redone many years ago to 45-70.
Great fit and finish!Attachment 245884
Man that is a Jim Dandy! I surely do love the original rollers. The simplicity is unparalleled in my opinion. Removal of 1 screw and the block and hammer comes down for detailed cleaning. Coarse the breech is open and easily accessible all the time anyway.
All in all, just a unsung rifle in my humble opinion. Simple, rugged, attractive and tough.
I get a bit defensive concerning the Sharps sometimes. They are a nice rifle ... however ... all in all ... the Sharps rifle played a pretty small part in any part of history. Few in numbers and ALWAYS very expensive. Definitely a richer mans rifle as opposed to our every mans rifle ... the mighty Remington Rolling Block. In everyday use this old war horse is and has been ... and always will be MY favorite rifle.
Where did you purchase your stocks? That is a very nice lookin rifle. Might need to do a work over on my old 43.There were two versions put out by the Remington Custom Shop. One was a standard model with full round barrel, plain stocks, and plastic buttplate. The other was a high end version with half octagon barrel, presentation grade wood, steel forearm tip, single set trigger, and steel buttplate.
The high end models seem to be consistently better fit and finish, and are usually very accurate. The standard guns have been less consistent in all these areas, so we see both good and bad.
I have a set of the high end stocks on my latest Rolling Block build, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the wood, checkering, and finish. They really did a very nice job considering they were CNC inletted. I also purchased the matching pistol grip lower tang and thinned my military upper tang to fit the stocks.
Mine built from original receiver and Custom Shop parts is chambered in .40-50SS.
I purchased these Remington stocks from Numrich Gun Parts. They bought all of Remington's leftover parts from the custom shop run of the late 1990's. They had both the special deluxe sets like mine with steel forearm tip and buttplate, and deluxe wood. And also the lesser grade with plainer wood, not forearm tip, and black plastic buttplates.
Unfortunately I bought the very last deluxe set they had and that was 2 years ago. I'd have bought every set they had if I'd heard about them sooner as they were $165 finished, checkered, and ready to bolt on! The plain wood sets are I believe $135 ready to go.
Numrich has tons of Rolling Block parts still for that 1990's run. But they've sold out all the actions, breech blocks, and hammers also. Somebody bought them all when the word got out they had them.
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