The first, most successful, and best known of the series was the Nylon 66 autoloader, introduced in 1959. Like the other nylon series rifles to follow, it was a hunting and plinking rifle. This was a blowback operated, tubular magazine fed semi-automatic rifle chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge (only). The receiver of this rifle was actually nylon, with the bolt running on "self lubricating" nylon rails. (The Owners Manual advised not to lubricate the action with gun oil.) A slipover blued sheet steel cover was used to give the receiver a more normal appearance. The 19 5/8" barrel was also blued.
Its one-piece structural nylon stock was a sleek creation with very slender and attractive lines. The standard stock color was a "Mohawk Brown" with black streaks that vaguely resembled wood grain, a fluted comb, long and graceful forearm with a schnable tip, and a curved pistol grip. This was the Nylon 66 MB model, by far the most popular of any of the Remington Nylon .22 rifles. For the first few years the Nylon 66 was also available with a "Seneca green" stock that never really caught on.
For those who wanted something even more unusual, in 1961 Remington introduced the Nylon 66 AB rifle with a black ("Apache Black") stock and chrome plated barrel and receiver cover. This was supposed to be the deluxe version of the Nylon 66, but most customers felt that the Mohawk brown version was actually more attractive, and it was certainly more practical for a hunting rifle. There was also a gallery special version, the Nylon 66 GS, set-up to run on .22 Short cartridges only.
The last variation, the Nylon 66 BD, was introduced in 1978 and came with the AB's black stock mated to a black barrel and receiver cover. The diamond inlays in the forearm were also black.
All Nylon 66 versions sported a black plastic buttplate, grip cap and forearm tip that were set off by white line spacers. The streamlined trigger guard was also made of black nylon plastic, as was the trigger itself and the bolt cocking handle. Both pistol grip and forearm wore molded-in checkering in a conventional point pattern, and there were white diamond inlays in the center of the checkering pattern on both sides of in the forearm.
Iron sights were provided. The front blade was a streamlined shark fin shape and the open rear sight was screw adjustable for windage and elevation. The steel receiver cover was grooved for tip-off scope mounts. The comb was straight and featured minimal drop at heel, allowing for something close to a common sight line for both iron sights and low mounted scope.
The brass tubular magazine ran through the butt stock of the rifle, not under the barrel as is more common. It was loaded through a recess in the plastic buttplate. Capacity was 14 Long Rifle cartridges. The "shotgun" type safety was a slider at the top of the pistol grip and very convenient in use. The Nylon 66 measured 38.5" in overall length and weighed only 4 pounds (empty).
The list price in 1959 was $49.95, and that remained the price for about 10 years. Around 1970 it went to $54.95. My 1968 copy of the Gun Digest shows the Nylon 66 MB still priced at $49.95. For comparison, that same year Remington's Model 552A Speedmaster, a standard walnut stocked .22 autoloader, carried a list price of $59.95, and the deluxe 552 BDL version cost $69.95. (The 552 BDL is still offered in 2006!)
The Nylon 66 action was a good one, quite reliable in function. It was capable of an extremely high cyclic rate of fire. I remember reading somewhere of experiments where a number of popular .22 rifles, including a Nylon 66, were converted to fully automatic fire. It was found to be the speed king of all the .22's tested, with a cyclic rate of fire that far exceeded that of any conventional machine gun in the world.
A Nylon 66 was used by a Remington professional shooter Tom Frye to hit, in the air, 100,004 hand thrown wooden blocks (about 2" square, if I remember correctly) out of a total of 100,010 thrown. This was (and probably still is) the world record for breaking wooden blocks, and was used in Remington advertising copy to illustrate the reliability of the Nylon 66.
I have dwelt on the Nylon 66 because it was produced for many years and sold in good numbers, unlike Remington's other nylon stocked .22s. A Nylon 66 was my first real gun, given to me by my Mon and Dad for Christmas after I had qualified for my High School ROTC rifle team in my freshman year. Before that I had only been allowed to own BB guns.
A gun crazy kid, that Nylon 66 immediately became my most cherished possession. Equipped with a Weaver 4x .22 scope and Remington's accessory sling swivels and nylon sling, I couldn't count the number of squirrels and small varmints I took with that rifle over the next few years. This in spite of its creepy trigger that finally broke at about 5 pounds, which was typical of these rifles.
The intrinsic accuracy of my Nylon 66 was pretty good. From a bench rest it would shoot groups comparable to the best my friends' Marlin Model 60 and Winchester Model 77 .22 autoloaders could do. However, due to its ultra-light weight and (compared to wood) flexible stock, its practical accuracy in the field was probably not as good. However, it was more reliable than other autoloaders.
Using the sling as a shooting aid, for example, would move the point of bullet impact a couple of inches to the side at 25 yards due to lateral stock flex. The springy Zytel stock made the Nylon 66 shoot away from any hard surface against which it might be rested against in the field (rocks and stumps, for example). This is true to some extent of all rifles, of course, but the effect was exaggerated by the nylon stock. And the rifle was so light that it was very hard to hold steady from unsupported positions.
