Old .22LR rifles are a ton of fun, and they are some of the few guns that haven’t skyrocketed in price. Depression era .22LRs in particular can often be had for maybe a couple of hundred dollars.
Guns like the Remington Targetmaster Model 41 can be found for less than $200 and are an awesome piece of history. I have two of these guns, one is sadly broken, but one still goes hard.
The Model 41 is a reasonably simple rifle, but it’s representative of America at the time. The Model 41 was introduced in 1936 and produced through 1939.
Three hundred seven thousand of these rifles were produced. C.C. Loomis designed the rifle, and it replaced Remington’s Model 33. According to a 1936 ad, this model retailed for $5.25.
Remington produced several variants of these guns. This is a bare-bones 41A that can fire .22 LR, .22 Short, and .22 Long. There was also the 41P with peep sights, a takedown design, and an ejector. Remington made a 41SB, which stands for smooth barrel. One of my favorite parts of that ad is the weight. According to Remington, it’s about 5.5 pounds.
America and the Remington Model 41 TargetMaster
The Remington Model 41 is about as simple a rifle as can be. It’s a bolt-action single-shot rifle with no option for a magazine. This model lacks a proper ejector. The sights are rear notch, and the front is a little hump. The bolt-action doesn’t cock the gun; it just cycles the action.
Shooters must manually pull the striker back to cock it. The gun features a rotating safety on the bolt. In the up position, it blocks the sights and indicates that the safety is on. Push it to the left, and the gun is ready to fire. It’s not fancy at all, and this type of simple rifle was popular in this era.
It reflects the United States of this era. It’s the middle of the Great Depression. Money was tight with everyone, and gun companies weren’t pushing the envelope forward. Instead, they were trying to make affordable firearms that people could still afford. The TargetMaster offered a simple, affordable rifle backed by the Remington name.
If we use the inflation calculator, we can see that 5.25 in 1936 is about 123 dollars today. That’s about the price we’d pay for a polymer stock single-shot .22LR rifle like the Savage Rascal. We do get a nice wood stock that’s very plain, but wood is always nicer than polymer, at least how it looks.
If you were spending $5.25 on a gun, you wanted it to be functional, accurate, and nice enough to last. Seeing as how this example is nearly a century old, it is of great value.
The Targetmaster In Hand
The Targetmaster is plenty light, but it’s a great long rifle. The 27-inch barrel may be overkill, but it provides a long sight radius for accurate precision shooting. While that barrel is long, the rifle is still light and manageable. The barrel is fairly heavy for a .22LR, but it also aids accuracy.
The tiny sights are outdated but appear to be precision-focused. We get a small notch in an adjustable rear sight and a tiny little hump for a front sight. The tiny sights help prevent the sights from obscuring the target. If you’re hunting squirrels or rabbits and taking headshots, you want that tiny sight.
I shot the Targetmaster at a rimfire dueling tree. The front sight only covered the smallest, top position of the dueling tree at 25 yards. This makes it easy to make the dueling tree targets ding and spin. Not quickly, because a single-shot bolt-action isn’t exactly fast; however, it’s remarkably fun to hit those little steel targets with an offhand shot at 25 yards.
The gun shoots exceptionally straight and earns its name as the Targetmaster. I’d love to shoot the peep sight models and see exactly how accurate these guns are capable of being.
Even after almost a hundred years, the Targetmaster still shoots reliably. The striker design is strong, strong enough to feel the forward movement when you pull the trigger. It slams those rimfire primers and certainly helps you hear more bangs than clicks due to rimfire reliability.
The ejection is easy. It doesn’t have an ejector, but it has an extractor, so if you pull the bolt back fast, it will eject the cases too. If not, just tip the gun over, and the case falls right out.
Still The Targetmaster
The Remington Targetmaster most certainly taps that Pre-Freedom group Remington glory. Very Pre-Freedom group. The Targetmaster is ridiculously simple, but still quite well-made. It’s accurate, it’s fun to shoot, and it has that old school cool look and feel. What I love most about these types of old guns is their price.
You can experience a little piece of history without breaking the bank. Mil-surp prices keep skyrocketing, but bolt-action .22LRs remain affordable. I don’t think the Tagretmaster necessarily falls into the category of Boy’s rifle, but it’s pretty close, and I collect Boy’s rifles.
If you see one of these old gals hanging out in the dusty corner of a pawn shop or gun store, don’t overlook it. It might not grow in value in terms of money, but you won’t regret the purchase. Now, excuse me, I need to go find a peep sight version of this gun.
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