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The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:07 am
by 81police
Here's some photo's of Model 81 #25 chambered in .25Rem. This rifle was mfg in June, 1936. I don't know of any records showing which caliber a specific rifle was manufactured in or how many of each caliber was made, but this rifle looks all legit. The 25Rem in the Model 81 was not listed as a production caliber, probably since sales of the 25Rem in the Model 8 were pretty dismal already. I believe, however, there is a pre-production announcement of the 81 in Henwood's book which lists the 25Rem. Anyways, the assumption is that Remington made a limited number of 81's in 25Rem, by customer request, until stock of 25Rem Model 8 barrels ran out. This would lead us to believe any Model 81 in .25Rem should probably be an early production rifle.

Have any of y'all encountered another Model 81 in .25Rem?

What do you think Corey, did I leave anything out?

Photos provided by member Jack1653

Image

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:50 am
by jack1653
Howdy,

I want to thank 81police for posting the pictures of this rifle for me. I think I sent about 30 pictures of this rifle to 81police and left the selection up to him. When I received this rifle, I tore it completly down and took pictures of all the components not only to clean the rifle, but to confirm the serial numbering. Everything matched up to serial number on the receiver and I was elated. The forearm, stock butt plate, tangs and barrel shroud all carry the number "25". The barrel codes are consistent with the year of issue and this is important to me and has nothing to do with the function of the rifle. The only thing that I can't explain is the difference in color beween the forearm and the stock. The old "Beaver Tail" forearm is just a lighter piece of walnut. If the wood were not in such good condition, I would consider trying to match the stock, but that isn't going to happen on this gem. I would rate the rifle in the 94-96% range for quality.

The rifle had been used and had the expected powder and oil build up on the internals. Everything cleaned to factory issue condition and I was again very pleased with the effort to get it looking good.

This is the lowest serial number in the Model 81's that I have seen but I am sure there are 24 out there with lower serial numbers. I think the thing that makes this rifle kind of unique is that the caliber, 25 Rem is the same as the serial number, 25. I did ask some our Forum members and experts about this rifle before having it posted and received positive feedback as to it originality.

Regards,

jack1653

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:58 pm
by Roger
Jack, I once spoke to a senior age mod 8/81 collector,from Virginia, who claimed to have a legit. Mod.81 in 25 rem. Caliber. He never told me a serial # range, and I never saw the gun or any proof of it's authenticity. I really never knew whether to believe him or not. I've never seen or heard of another one til your pictures showed up on this forum. I hope yours is the real deal. Congrats on getting one of the most rare 81 s out there.
I've heard # s from less than ten to less than 100 made, total. I'm no expert, but that's pretty rare in my book.
Thanks for your time,
Roger

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 3:36 pm
by jack1653
Posting deleted.

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:29 pm
by Roger
Jack I do believe that was his name. I haven't heard from him in a long time ,and I'm afraid he may have passed away. He had 600 plus guns that he started collecting in about 1960 or so. Thanks for your time,
Roger

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:11 pm
by imfuncity
Very cool indeed, congrats on finding another very rare bird!!

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:04 pm
by 81police
We keep a small database here at the Great Model 8 on various unique and rare Model 8 & 81's, so if anyone should come across another Model 81 in .25Rem please contact us and we can update our records.

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:10 pm
by Rem8&81
Jack did find a rare bird and what’s even cooler is the #25 serial number on a legit factory .25 caliber 81. I think Jack explained the situation correctly about the rarity and limited production of the 81 as I understand it and based on what can be pieced together from limited factory documents we have examined.

The .25 was discussed to be eliminated from the production offerings of the 81. At that point in time the .25 caliber was considered by some to be not much more than a squirrel gun and at best a varmint gun during an era where bigger was better, as also evidenced by the supposed upgrades to the heavier and chunkier wood package on the 81. Sales of the .25 had been limited in the model 8, so it did not make sense to the factory boys and their advisors like famous gun authority and shooter Gus Perot, to continue to offer it or make up any additional barrels. They did have the caliber listed in at least one initial announcement regarding the future offering of the 81, but by the time the official catalog came out, my recollection is that the .25 caliber was not listed as an offered caliber. They of course still had some limited remaining barrel inventory and they certainly weren’t going to not use them, but probably not enough to list them officially in print due to the limited supply.

The 81’s in .25 caliber should probably be found only in the early beavertail 81’s as it was my understanding the .25 barrels were shortly exhausted. Although these rare .25 caliber 81’s look and act like any 81 in .30 or .32 calibers and there is nothing about them that is otherwise special, the mere fact that there are few available factory specimens causes them to command a fairly hefty premium. After some discussion with my father Bob Creamer, John Henwood listed in his book that the 81 in .25 caliber as probably the second hardest version of the 8’s or 81’s to find only behind the Trials rifles of which there were only 25 produced. While I think there is some logic out there to support that theory, I think there could be maybe a couple of exceptions. While John lists in his book “Any Fancy grade 81” as only the 16th most difficult version of 23 listed to locate, I think that is probably incorrect. I think an “F” or “E” grade 81 is nearly impossible to find and there seem to be very very few out there. I have only heard of one 81 E and only a few 81 F grades period. While I am sure there must be more and I have heard stories of a few more, I can only speak with regards to what my father and I have seen hunting for the rarer models for some 30+ years. We have located and confirmed far fewer than the number of 81’s in .25 caliber I have seen. It would seem there were less engraved 81's made than the 100 Navy made rifles or the rare but often found POE rifles. There are certainly fewer than the hundreds of Special Police rifles made. Heck, L.A. County ordered and received at least 200 Special Police rifles alone. I guarantee there are not that many High Grade 81’s out there, especially not in “E” and “F” grades. As a matter of fact, how many 81 “D” grades do you ever see?!? Therefore, High Grade engraved 81's should probably be shifted down the list to amongst the rarer of the versions made. However, the 81 in .25 caliber is probably up there amongst the rarity of the Trials Rifles, Engraved 81’s and any still in existence Navy Rifles, if anyone can show one of those. Nice find Jack!

BTW, I tried to trade Jack for his #25 rifle, his grip is pretty tight and I couldn’t wrestle it away from him with four rarer model rifles to offer. I don’t think he will be parting with it any time soon!

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:31 pm
by imfuncity
Corey, did not know that you tried to get it away from Jack but... if anyone could, it would have been one of the Creamers... that said, I'd still bet on Jack - I'm still in awe of it. :shock:

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 10:58 pm
by iwishiknewitall
My wife just inherited a Remington Model 81 in .25 caliber. Her grandfather bought this gun new a VERY LONG TIME AGO for an outrageous sum of money which made his wife VERY angry. The stories about this gun and others she inherited are very funny. This gun intrigues me. I know very little about it. It is in remarkably good shape. I am disappointed there i no way to get ammo. We have one box of ammo for it and that's it. What is something like this worth? I am surprised to find out the .25 is so rare. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 11:27 pm
by jack1653
iwishiknewitall wrote:My wife just inherited a Remington Model 81 in .25 caliber. Her grandfather bought this gun new a VERY LONG TIME AGO for an outrageous sum of money which made his wife VERY angry. The stories about this gun and others she inherited are very funny. This gun intrigues me. I know very little about it. It is in remarkably good shape. I am disappointed there i no way to get ammo. We have one box of ammo for it and that's it. What is something like this worth? I am surprised to find out the .25 is so rare. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Hey iwishiknewitall,

I would like to know a little more about your rifle. Can you give some additional information such as serial number ands any barrel codes that would be on the barrel shroud? This will help answer some of your questions. We would like to see some pictures if possible.

There is really nothing rare about the 25 caliber except you can't buy it and many of us wonder why Remington discontinued this caliber. It is almost impossible to find ammunition as you have noticed. Occasionally you may find some vintage ammo but it is very expensive. Some of the members have created reloads where they use brass from the 30 or 32 and neck it down to the 25.

If you read the thread where you made your post you will get some idea of why the 81 .25 is "rare". Corey Creamer did a great job explaining the reason why the 81 .25 is unusual. What we believe happened was that Remington had some left over barrel assemblies from the model 8 era and there were a few that made it on to the model 81 probably at the request of the buyer. Remington would custom build rifles at the request of buyers if they had the parts.

I hope this helps with your questions. If I can be of further assistance, please ask.

Kindest Regards,

jack1653

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 9:12 am
by MinnesotaDan
I don't know if anyone is still watching this thread, but I recently acquired an 81 in 25 Remington. It is very nice, only a small chip out of the pistol grip, other than that, a very solid rifle. It shoots great! I got a couple of boxes of ammo with it (Precision Cartridge). I have dies and plan to reload it with the same 117 gr Hornady that this ammo has, and use 23.8 gr. of 3031. I can send pics if anyone is interested.

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 2:08 pm
by jack1653
Hey MinnesotaDan,

We are always interested in seeing pictures of member’s rifles. I have two of the 81-25’s. The first is the one mentioned in this thread. I got the second one when I purchased a collection out of Virginia. While I believe it is an authentic rifle, the previous owner had tapped the receiver to hold a scope and the stock had been shortened 1 1/2 inches. The owner said thais the way he had purchased it. I knew the previous owner and he was a collector of these rifles and not a hunter. He told me had recognized the value of the rifle and had talked with other collectors as to its rarity.

Kindest Regards,

jack1653

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 5:09 pm
by MinnesotaDan
Made in 1937, so maybe one of the last in 25 they made.

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 5:18 pm
by MinnesotaDan
More photos

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:34 am
by Bandersnatch
Here's some ammo:

https://shop.reedsammo.com/25-Remington_c144.htm

It's good stuff.

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 6:46 am
by Hairtrigger
Mine is marked 25-35 Rem

Re: The Model 81 in 25REM.

Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 1:31 pm
by 81police
If it's marked "25-35" that's a dead giveaway for a swapped, non-original barrel. The 25-35 Rem stamping was discontinued around 1910ish