Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Nylon 66... Why?

Isn't it made anymore? And when was production of it discontinued?

I owned one for a year or so in high school but only ever plinked with it. A buddy had one with a Weaver 7/8" rimfire scope on it and it was a great shooting rifle.

Lots of summer evenings there'd be a half dozen guys at an abandoned quarry plinking around with .22s. The nylon 66s were frequent fliers there.

Most that I see for sale these days are on the rough side. I find a decent one I'll likely try to buy it...

Anybody here got one that they use to hunt?

I "heard" that the molds were close to being worn out, so they sold the machinery to CBC in Brazil and CBC, in turn, exported them to the U.S. as the FIE Model GR-8 "Great".

I have 2 of them, but can't remember the last time that I shot one of them.

One of my all time favorite.22 rifles! I think they discontinued them in the mid 1980’s.

Grew up on a Nylon 66 shooting all kinds of rabbits. My dad still has it, but it will be mine when passes.
Haven't ever found one for sale around here.

Used to be a guy that set up at the big Tulsa Gun Show every year with 4 or 5 tables of nothing but NIB Nylon 66’s And it’s variances.
3 years ago, he had a NIB Apache Black Model.
That’s the all chrome version with the black stock and the white diamond inlay. He had $650 on it. I layed 5 - $100 dollar bills on his table as an offer. He laughed and turned it down. Went back a few hours later and it was gone.

Owned one briefly, before they became a cult object. Truly a remarkable design, but not very satisfying for me, so I sold it after a bit. I suspect the 10/22 and to some extent the Marlin 60 did it in, maybe because they look less like toys. A modern version with maybe an integral rail mount might sell well now.

Might buy another one if I stumble on a nice one at a resonable price. Hard to beat one in reliability, or handiness.

I had one briefly, like, 50+ years ago. Jammed all the time, produced accuracy on the order of gallon paint cans at 50 feet, traded it for something else and gloated about how I came out ahead on the deal. Never messed with one since. It was probably a lemon, sure, but it soured me on that whole genre of .22's.

Since the "receiver" was just a sheet-metal "cover" and the barrel was almost floating in the synthetic chassis/frame, they could never achieve cutting edge accuracy, so it has long been a wonder to me how Tom Frye shot all of those hand tossed wooden blocks with Nylon 66s.

My first rifle was a Nylon 66 and I still have it. It arrived under the Christmas Tree with a Weaver V22 and a carton of 500 rounds of Remington High Speed .22 Long Rifle Golden Bullets over 50 years ago.

My Father thought that they were crap and tried to force a\ used Winchester 77 on me, but I successfully resisted. 20/20 hindsight being what it is, the Winchester 77 had more accuracy potential despite the crappy triggers.

Why they quit making them was likely reduced sales. Millions were sold, possibly the market was saturated or it went elsewhere. Although, some times a product gets discontinued due to ignorance to down right stupidity of folks in charge of such decisions. Who knows in this case.

I have 2 & they both perform alike, fantastic reliability & acceptable accuracy. The Glock of semiauto 22 rifles?

I am a lefty and the one I owned did not last long before I got rid of it. No rimfire has powder burned my face as bad as the Nylon 66 did. I developed a flinch from expecting to get hot powder in the face. Good riddance.

I bought a used one in 1965, for $25. Killed a lot of stuff with it, and it was very accurate using iron sights. Never put a scope on it. I carried it all of the time while working on 2 different fish farms, and shot a ton of snakes, turtles, and frogs. Also ducks and seagulls, but not as many of those. Never jammed despite being carried in an open jeep, that I fed out of. Lots of dust and fish feed flying about, left out in the rain, using the barrel to rake frogs into reach an other abuse. I even left it leaning against a tree in my front yard all winter one time as a test. Again never jammed, only thing was an occasional bad cartridge. Those had a good dent in them, but sometime one would not fire. I still have it and shoot a squirrel in the yard every once in a while using it. After Remington quit making them, there was a factory in Jacksonville, Arkansas that made them. Did not last long though. miles

My son paid one of his buds $35 for one a few years ago. It lacked a front sight; I found him one.

I've had one for many years, great rifle. Shot rats at the city dump back in the '70's when no one seemed to mind. Try that now....

Once, I took it apart to clean. Had to borrow one from a bud to see how to put it back together. My gunsmith was impressed that I could put one back together. He said on more than one occasion, he'd gotten a bag of 66 parts to reassemble...

So, if you have one, don't take it apart...

DF

I had two of them. They rode behind the seat of my pickup for years. Used them primarily as coon hunting guns. They were good for that and not much else. They were tough as nails but ugly as hell so you didn't care about beating them around which made them perfect coon guns. A crappier design for accuracy could not be imagined. The whole gun is flexible, the barrel is attached to the flexible stock by a sort of U clamp but not really attached to the receiver cover at all and the receiver cover is attached to the flexible stock with screws that pass through slightly oversize holes so it can move around a bit too. Consequently scoping one is pretty much a waste of time as it won't stay zero'd for shyt so you are limited to the iron sights. In reality the whole damn gun is plastic junk but by god it's tough junk and can take a beating. Neither one of mine or the one my buddy owned was even close to as accurate as any of the Marlin semi auto's I've had but then the Marlins aren't flexible and have their barrels securely attached to the receiver. In fact, I don't ever remember owning any .22 rifle of any action type or make that was less accurate than those Nylons and I've owned a truck load of .22's.

i got a couple of these nylon stock 22`s even a real nice nylon black stock with silver chromed metal rifle 22. all my 22 L.R. work well and shoot decent.

Remington has spent gazillions designing pistols (R51) and shotguns (887) that nobody wants, but when you ask them about reintroducing the Nylon 66 (which now sell for $250 and up, used), they tell you it’s “too cost prohibitive”.....

Honestly, they never really did much that a 10/22 or Marlin 60 wouldn’t do, for about the same price. They DID look cool, though...

They never were worth a darn for mounting a scope on....

If Remington could re-introduce one (and have a better set-up for mounting optics), they’d have little trouble getting $200-$225 for them (assuming Remington could build one that works, these days)....

What someone OUGHT to do, is simply design a mannlicher stock that looks EXACTLY like the Nylon 66 stock, and can be fitted to a Ruger 10/22....

I had a brown one. felt like a cheap plastic daisy bb gun and was about as accurate.
sold it.

Heck of a gun for rats at the dump with head lights at night.

We’d turn off the lights to reload, give the rays a minute to regroup. Hit the lights and the carnage resumed.

A brick of ammo goes pretty fast like that. Rat body count, extremely high.

Those were the days.

DF

Yeah, when I lived in Nevada and shot tons of jackrabbits, we would always grab our Ruger 10-22's or marlin/glenfield 60's. The old Nylon 66, just sat in the corner. It never got used. None of us liked it. It was cheap and undesirable. Now they have a following for some reason..

Damn, now I know where my buddies dad got his...