This is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.  Many of you know that little, if any factory records remain from the 19th century Remington era.  This has caused endless frustration among rolling block collectors and shooters.  My area of interest is the #2 sporting rifles circa 1972 – 1913.  I have a small collection of them.  

I have studied Roy Marcot’s excellent book on Remington Sporting rifles, pouring over the #2 rifle chapter. He has done phenomenal work and it is a great start.  However, there is more work that can be done.  I am focusing on and limiting my research to #2 sporting rifle standard features only, not options or custom features.  The later are almost endless - I’m not going there.  However, discerning collectors know that standard features on #2 rifles constantly changed and evolved over the 40+ years of production.  I am cataloging these features and mapping them to rifle serial numbers.  In this way, I will be able to identify serial number ranges that common features were used.  Furthermore, by studying advertisements, company ownership/name changes, and in some cases - cartridge introduction dates, I hope to be able to narrow down approximate periods of production for serial number ranges.  Here are a few example standard features: There are at least 9 different Remington address markings, two different front, and two different rear sight dovetail sizes and two different extractors.  This is just a few of the features that vary, there are quite a few more. 

Besides, scrutinizing the features of my own rifles, I’ve been scouring the internet for #2 rifle photos that include the serial number.  This includes auction sites, ads, forums and facebook.  This search has been surprising fruitful.  But I know it only reflects a very small sampling of #2 rifles that exist.  Therefore, I’m reaching out to the community for addition help.  If you have one or more #2 rifles, and would like to contribute to this research project, please send me a private message with your email address.  I will send you a well-illustrated questionnaire in MS Word and/or .PDF format that you can fill out with details about your rifle and return.  Or email me directly at splitdorf(at symbol)cox.net.

After gathering and sorting this data, it will be freely shared to help the rolling block community better understand these rifles. I will be posting this on several different forums and groups to get the widest dissemination.

Thanks,
Steve Blancard

Great thing you're taking on Steve! And the #2 is significant enough to certainly be of interest to many others once you've gathered enough info to get a feel for what was done for certain eras.
Another great resource for #2 info is John Gyde's book, "Remington .22 Rimfires" 
John did an excellent job on detailing approximate dates when things like rollstamps changed, or features changed. It is strictly a .22 rimfire book, so wont go into all the calibers. But it gives a lot of detailed info on the various changes that apply to all #2 rifles in general.

Since I'm on this research project, I thought it appropriate to take my .32 Extra Long #2 rifle to the range today. Sorry its a little dark in some parts, but it still shows how fun these rifles are. (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

I'm still gathering data on Remington #2 sporting rifles. If you own one and have not participated, please PM me with your email address and I'll send a questionnaire. Please complete it and return to me by email: splitdorf(at symbol)cox.net. Because it contains many photos, it is too large to PM here.

Thanks,
Steve

Bull Schmitt wrote on Mar 1^st, 2023 at 4:34pm:


Sure. 
Splitdorf@cox.net

Thanks.

Bull Schmitt wrote on Mar 4^th, 2023 at 2:34pm:


I sent you a PM with my email. Thanks,
Steve