Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Your oldest semiautomatic rifle

What ya got?

My oldest is a 1976 Marlin model 989M2. My first .22 rifle. Still in good condition and shooting good today.

Only a couple semiauto rimfires around here. Oldest would be the circa 1987 serial number on my 10/22. Years ago a friend had a Marlin 60 that he inherited that supposedly was from when the Model 60 was first introduced which was 1960 (?).

Rimfire, centerfire, or both

I've got a Remington M24 .22 Short, with a 4 digit serial number, 24XX, I think that makes it a very early 1920s gun, maybe 1922. It's almost 100 years old, and the bore looks like it, as those days had corrosive primed ammo, and the half black/half smokeless stuff called, oddly enough LESMOK. It still functions, but could use a re-springing all the way around. The takedown is pretty sloppy, but pretty good for being found in an attic someplace. Somewhere along the line, someone broke the forearm and another one was fashioned, and it was reblued.

It's fun to shoot, but I hate it when it drops a case down my sleeve.

My Kodak 22 magnum was made in the early 60s.

Rimfire and 22LR not win or rem auto.
I believe the 1st production semi 22LR was the Savage 1912.

I do also AND yes it will throw um at ya.

1972 Marlin 99M1 - my dad bought it for me used for $75 when I was in Jr High - shot thousands of rounds through it. Kind of wish it was the 989M2 magazine fed version....

My oldest would be an Interarms Norinco ATD .22 (Browning Copy). Not sure when it was made but most of my semi auto stuff is ~10 years old or newer.

Remington 552, 22" barrel, no serial number, so sometime before 1968.

That would include 22short as is my rem24.
I stressed the 22LR in an effort to eliminate confusion with the win/rem auto cartridges.

That would be my Weatherby XXll semi auto, made in Italy sometime in the 60’s

Remington 550 s,l,lr. 1953.

garand. the others... a 10-22 and a 552 22s.

Italians make good firearms and maybe the best shotguns.

1950's vintage Winchester 77 with a tubular magazine.

1960's vintage Colt Stagecoach Carbine, Kodiak 260, Remington 66s, Ruger 10/22 International, and Winchester 190/290 series.

I had a Winchester model 63 years ago. I suffered from temporary insanity and sold it to fund a minty Winchester model 90 in 22LR.

Gave my niece a rem66 Apache Black which put a smile on her face which turned into a big grin when my cousin then said "oh that's one of those BOUTIQUE guns".

A Nylon 66 purchased by my father in 1966.

A Winchester model 74 54 vintage

This 1966 Ruger.

H&K 270 and the 300

Gill Gun

Rifle 10/22 my uncle gave me in '72 when we went to my grandfathers funeral.

1967 'Canadian' 10/22

Currently have three M63s in the house.....

Kaiser Norton

M1 Garand, receiver dated from 1942.

Rimfire?

Winchester M63 from 1946

Winchester 74 late 1940s

If we're including centerfires here on the rimfire forum that's OK and my oldest semi would then be my M-1 Garand which came to me from the CMP in 1996. Serial number on the Springfield receiver dates it to 1943 IIRC. Of course the rest of it is somewhat more recent.

Many of the win74 were sent to Europe by way of England during the war. These were used by the various resistance groups. They were 22LR with threaded muzzle. So I am told. I have a win74 Short without the threaded muzzle but with the British stamp from that lend/lease program. Some kind of fluke.

Clunker from '70

The oldest one currently is a Ruger 10/22 that I bought in 1982 to shoot rabbits out of the garden and raccoons out of the chicken coop. It replaced an older Stevens that I bought from a buddy when I was a freshman in college (1962). That one resides with a long-time friend (and former college room mate) who steadfastly refuses to let go of it.

Oldest 10/22 I've had is '67.
Got it a couple yrs ago. No longer have it. Like the sporter stock way more.
My first 10/22 was new, think pops paid $50 for it. Around '72

1949 Remington 550-1

I have Two Winchester 74's 1 small hole One large hole and they are both 1/2 @ 50 with most ammo- Big rifle feel and super easy to keep kleen

Jim

1914 to 1928 Remington Model 16 22 Auto. Use to be my Grandfathers.

Not wanting to derail the thread, but I have never had a semi-auto .22 (or any firearm) for that matter, and I wondered how much of an outlier that makes me.

Only semi auto rifle I own is a 10/22 Deluxe I bought my freshman year of college with some leftover scholarship money. $209 in 1999.

First semi was a marlin I got for my 12th birthday. Got from our local Western Auto for $48. 55 years ago this month. I had it refinished and gave it to my youngest daughter.

They often last forever in more ways than one.

I have a 40 year old 10/22. Dad bought it in 79-80

JC Higgins Model 30, 1952. Sold by Sears. It's the original rifle myself and my 6 younger brothers learn to shoot.
That poor rifle went though hell and back with us kids. I can't ever remember cleaning it.
I got a hold of it a few years ago from on of my brothers who had it. It was trashed. Took some work but it shoot again and looks great.

Remington 550-1, Nov. 1956.

I have two Febiger No 3's marked "22 CAL LONG RIFLE CRIMPED SMOKELESS CTG." from late 1910, these have a small box on the right side of the receiver which allows them to be switched from Semi-auto to pump for shooting something other than 22 Long Rifle.

Also Savage Model 1912's

...and these that are not 22 Long Rifle -
In 22 Short - Febiger No 1 from late 1910, Batavia Automatic Rifle and Nitro-Hunter (house branded Batavia) from 1911~1912
In 22 Long - Automatische Repeitier-Teschings, System Schmeisser, Mod. 1912, siebenschüssig

Remington 550. 1956 mfg

I like that schmeisser.

Let’s see a couple Savages when you have time Gene. You have some really good models and pics.

1971 Browning Safari grade II 3006 BAR

1939 Winchester 74 with the aperture sight on the end of the bolt. Winchester 88a sight number.

My oldest is a 1947 Mossberg Model 151 (a)

Winchester M-1903.

Gene, that Schmeisser is gorgeous.

Can you still find ammo?

My oldest semiauto is a 1920’s-30’s Marlin Model E-1.

It uses the same 7/8 round detachable magazines as the Model 80,780 series. Since I have those bolt guns, its a great match up as they can share mags.

1929 Remington 24

A DCM .30 M1 Carbine by Winchester - Sometime in WW2 serial number near 3.8 million.

Remington Model 8 in 25 Rem. The bolt is marked 25-35 REM. This is an early one!

Hoping you will let me cheat with a centerfire.... I don’t own any really, really old rimfire semi autos, oldest is prolly a Browning SA22 made in Belgium

Also have a Remington model 8,made in 1907, in caliber 30-30 rem.

I haven't followed this thread so it's been awhile. I pulled a few old pictures out of photobucket, for those who have used photobucket, if you haven't cancelled your membership all your pictures will still be there and you can retrieve them in their original resolution, I had to shrink these to get them small enough to use as attachments (and the limit is 5).

If you wish to get photo's back from photobucket to your computer here's a method to do that - Retreiving from photobucket

I think your right, the Febiger No2 & No3 from late 1910 were long rifle but did not really go into full production, seems like just a few exist - I've never seen a No2 semi-auto, all I've seen were converted to pump only, and I've only seen 3 No3's.

Here are some Savage 1912 pictures, all pictured are slightly different, several differences internally. The early guns did not have "crimped" in the roll stamp and had it added separate apparently with a hand stamp, most are crooked and poorly done, later guns had crimped included and the stamp moved to the top of the barrel..

While I was in photobucket I grabbed some more Febiger No3 pictures and a group of early semi-auto's. Febiger's in 22 Long Rifle had "crimped" in the barrel stamp, the picture also shows the stamp for the 22 Short version.

The early semi-auto's from the top, all introduced before WWI -

Winchester Model 1903, 22 Winchester Auto, early gun without a safety???? No one has every given me a logical explanation for that!
Febiger No 1, 22 Short
Nitro-Hunter No 1, 22 Short (house brand for Belknap Hardware)
Batavia Automatic Rifle, 22 Short
System Schmeisser 1912, 22 Long
Savage Model 1912, 22 Long Rifle
Remington Model 16, 22 Remington Autoloading
Febiger No 3, 22 Long Rifle as a semi-auto.

In the detail pictures you can see two plugged holes on the lefts side of the receiver, that is where the action lock would have been, all 3 No 3's I've seen had these hols plugged so it appears they used modified No 2 receivers, the Febiger/Baker guns in 22 Short had them but action locks are not really needed on a semi-auto, none of the other makers had them.

A Stevens my brother bought, it must be as old as I, I'm 76

A stainless/laminate 10/22 purchased in early-mid 1990s at Walmart. In fact, still the only SA rifle I own. I don’t understand why people replace barrels and triggers on 10/22s, because the trigger on this is absolutely fine and it is very accurate. Heck of a little gun. Kids love it.

Grade III browning from 1958.

Woah!!! That’s sweet! Can we see more of it?

a 40s win 74 for me, next is a early 50s win 63

I have no idea how old it is. One day I'll try and research the serial number. I have an OLD Belgian made Browning .22 semiauto. It still shoots great, too.