Remington 550 Auto loader

[beezapilot]

Farmers market this morning and there is a nice (obviously) vintage 550 with a very cool old scope on it for $225. The guy selling it seemed a bit dodgy on the last time it was fired. Is there anything that is a high failure / common problem that I should look for on this??????

[Mk42gunner]

Going from memory here, but is this the one that had a floating chamber so it could cycle Shorts? I'd check that pretty well I understand they tended to not get cleaned, thus corroding and poor cycling after that.

Good luck with it,

Robert

[Drm50]

550 was a highly dependable rifle. I suppose if abused it would give problems. They will shoot S-L-Lr mixed. If gun is nice shape on outside I would take the chance same on inside. You can what if stuff to death. I’ve had a dozen 550 in various states and all functioned well. Price is a deal, I would buy it to flip.

[beezapilot]

Now that you mention it, it was dirty enough to be sold as real-estate. Thanks! I'll be looking hard at that!

[Kraschenbirn]

Once upon a time, I had a 552 and, as I recall, it was relatively trouble-free so long as it was cleaned regularly. Put, literally, thousands of rounds through that rifle before trading it in as partial payment on a Win 52 for small-bore competition.

Bill

[oldhenry]

My uncle had one. In the 50's over the school summer holiday I lived on his 1100 acre farm in Union Springs, AL (best time of my life). He was not one to "baby" a rifle & I don't recall him ever cleaning it. His idea of cleaning was to wipe it down "occasionally" with an old sock with some 3 in 1 oil. His probably never fired a L.R. or Long. Shorts were used exclusively & it never missed a beat. He killed a zillion squirrels with that gun: mostly head shots.

I got a Mossberg 151K for my 15th. birthday & saved up for a Weaver B4 scope. When he 1st. saw it after I mounted the scope, he looked at it, spat some tobacco juice, pursed his lip, grunted & commented "that's a good "crutch" if you're having trouble shootin".

My next trip to his farm he had a B4 mounted on that 550. He sighted it in by mounting it in a vise with tractor accessory drive belt material for padding: the pattern of that fabric belt material became a permanent part of the stock finish. After sight-in he mixed a salt & water solution & dripped some on the adjustments to make sure they didn't move.

I know & you know that his procedure was not correct, but I wouldn't trade my time with that old man for anything.

[sparky45]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKWcPOUOBNo

[WebMonkey]

i have a 550-1 and it has been reliable with many a golden bullet through it.
i 'learned' on my grandfather's 550-1 and can recall having to cycle the bolt a time or two to eject a failure to fire but that was very rare.
(this was back in the 70's using cheapest bought ammo)

good luck, i'd buy it.

[beezapilot]

Thanks for all the input and the video link~ Yeah... should that guy be there next week I'll be picking it up!

[frkelly74]

I bought one once and the chamber insert appeared to be missing. I took the thing apart and there it was loose in the stock in the space around the trigger. My uncle had one that suddenly stopped working right after he took it apart to clean it. He had put it back together with the firing pin outside its channel and it bound up very tight. I wish I still had either one of those rifles.