Remington Steel Barrels
 

In what year did Remington begin using fluid steel barrels on their side by sides?

The first fluid steel barrels appeared on the Remington model 1894 in August, 1896 as special blued steel barrels, 1897 catalog lists them as Remington steel barrels.

Bill

When introduced in the October 1894 Remington Arms Co. catalog, the Remington Hammerless Double Barrel Shotgun was offered in 10- and 12-gauge in five grades with various styles of Damascus barrels. Both "Remington Steel" and "Ordnance Steel" barrels were first offered in the April 1897 Remington Arms Co. catalog. Remington Steel was only offered on the A-quality guns and at the same price as the two-stripe Damascus barrels. Ordnance Steel was offered on all five qualities. Ordnance Steel was the same price as the Damascus barrels on C-quality and above. They were $5 extra on A- and B-quality extractor guns, and $10 extra on A- and B-quality ejector guns. The 16-gauge was added to the offerings in the October 1897 Remington Arms Co. catalog.

Right near the end of Remington double gun production a few were made with Krupp Fluid Steel barrels, but such barrels were never cataloged.

When Remington Arms Co. introduced their John M. Browning designed Remington Autoloading Shotgun in 1905 and their John D. Pedersen designed Remington Repeating Shotgun in 1908, they came standard with a Remington Steel barrel. For several years an Ordnance Steel barrel was an extra cost option for those shotguns.

What's the difference (if any?) between Remington Steel and Ordinance Steel?

Didnt they use a fluid steel on the Whitmore lifters? Or was that just some decarbonized or musket barrel steel?

On both the E. Remington & Sons and the Remington Arms Co. hammer guns the steel barrels were marketed as "Decarbonized Steel." Now what was the difference between the "Decarbonized Steel" on the Remington Arms Co. Model 1889 hammer guns and the "Remington Steel" barrels on the K- and A-quality hammerless doubles being made at the same time? Here is what Remington Arms Co. had to say about their steel barrels in their 1898 catalog --

Attachment 60848

They don't say anything about the Decarbonized steel on the hammer gun --

Attachment 60849

but all the pages say "Guaranteed for Nitro Powders."

.i have a b grade 12 ga that has the oridance steel barrels...i also have a a grade 10 ga with remington steel barrels....i cannot tell the differance in these steels by the eye....charlie

They meant until Fluid Steel became cheaper to produce.

While I was putting away the notebook with all my Remington Arms Co. catalogs, I noticed a repro of the 1878 E. Remington & Sons catalog I had gotten in one of the many door prize drawings at an RSA seminar. Thumbing to the section on their Hammer Lifter double, I found they went in to a lot of detail describing the manufacture of their Decarbonized Steel barrels.

Attachment 60854

Attachment 60855

Attachment 60856

Attachment 60857

I would love to see a video of the rolling of the nine inch bars of steel into barrels. Thanks for that enlightening post, Dave.