Remington Repairs during WW2

[Kevin McCormack]

Remington did repair Parker guns during the war, albeit on a limited basis. According to Babe Del Grego and Bob Runge, the supply of common parts (e.g., triggers, floorplates, top levers, spindles, hammers and such) available to repair guns was thought sufficient to last for literally years, but specialty items and the machines to make and install them like barrels, vent ribs. and ejector parts were virtually unobtainable either because the machinery to make them had been scrapped for the WW II effort, or their specialty materials used in their production (specific types of tensile steel for barrels) were strictly relegated to arms production for the war. A fascinating sidebar is that one repair category, single triggers, was listed as 'unavailable' because the counterweights used to reset the triggers for the second shot were made of stainless steel, a component deemed critical in the logistics of armament production. Chromium plating ordnance steel was contemplated as an alternative, but the cost was deemed prohibited given the frequency of requests for same and the duration and intensity of labor required to produce them. Remington produced a list of
doable and not doable repairs, which was sent to jobbers and dealers and as a response to individual inquiries from interested clients. If your requested repair was on the approved list, they would do it for you, provided you remembered there was a war going on!