Remington Model 24 Rifle
In 1912 John Browning finished designing his third .22 calibre firearm. Following the slide-action Model 1890 and the bolt action Model 1900 for Winchester Browning finished a semi-automatic design, filing a patent for the design in March 1913, which was granted in January 1914. The production rights were immediately taken up by Browning’s European partner company FN Herstal of Belgium who sold the rifle throughout Europe.
Production rights in the US were taken up by Remington in 1922, who began production calling the rifle the Model 24. The Model 24 was initially only chambered in .22 Short but was later modified to chamber .22LR as well. Up until this point the T.C. Johnson-designed Winchester Model 1903 had dominated the .22 semi-automatic market with Remington’s Model 16 chambered in a proprietary cartridge failing to seize the market.
Disassembled FN .22 Semi-Automatic (Author’s photograph)
The Model 24 remained in production until 1935 when it was replaced by a the Model 241 'Speedmaster’ which built on the original design but introduced a longer 23.5-inch barrel and was heavier, weighing 6 lbs. The Model 241, refined by Crawford C. Loomis, built on Browning’s design adding a tilting cartridge guide and a slightly different take down system - moving the take-down catch from the bottom to the left side of the receiver.
Remington ended production of the Model 241 in 1949 and sales of the rifle ended in 1951. In 1956 the Browning Arms Company began importing FN made rifles of the original design. Browning continues to sell the rifle today making it another of John Browning’s enduing designs.
More about the design and its FN variant here.
Sources:
Images: 1 2 3
‘Firearm‘, J.M. Browning, US Patent #1083384, 06/01/14, (source)
The History of Browning Firearms, D. Miller, (2014)
John Browning: American Gunmaker, J. Browning & C. Gentry (1987)
'Remington Model 241 Autoloading Rifles’, Remington Society Journal, (2) 2010, J. Gyde & R. Marcot (source)
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