doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Remington Model 12 Option?

I have come across a Remington Model 12C in Remington Special. I understand the Remngton/Winchester special ammo issue. Are there other options? This gun is in decent shape but has no great real collector value so any options to make it more shootable as a fun gun are open for consideration.

I know a guy who has one with an original barrel & chambered for the Remington Autoloader cartridge. This guy took an unfired .22 WMR cartridge and pulled the load. Then he cut the case long enough to fill the chamber and fastened (epoxied?) it in place as a chamber liner. The rifle now shoots ordinary LR cartridges very well. The rimmed section of the WMR case was discarded.

A Model 12 in .22 Auto?

Well, it's your gun and you get to do what you want with it.

But if what you want is just a fun shooter, I'd sell it and use the $$ to get a Ruger 10-22. A decent 12S should get you enough to do that, and a brick of plinkin' ammo too.

Personally, tho, I'd "invest" the time in finding a supply of .22WRF (the real name of the ".22 Remington Special"). It is out there if you have the time to look for it, made in occasional runs by Winchester and CCI. A superior small game cartridge to most .22 LRs, and a sentimental favorite (my dad came thru the "other" Depression partly on game killed in the Black Hills with a 12S, including some big game....). I have a Winchester single shot in .22 WRF and find a box or two from time to time in my perambulations.

Just my opinion, of course.

.22WRF (NOT RF 22Magnum) is the correct ammo for the rifle as Mike states.
Remington called the round the '22 Remington Special',,Winchester labled it the Winchester .22 WRF.
One used flat tipped bullets,,the other pointed bullets and I can't recall which used what now but the case is identicle.



The 22 Remington AutoLoading Rimfire round was made and chambered for the Remington Model 16

Winchester had it's own odd stepchild semiauto round, the Winchester .22 Automatic, for the Model 1903.

Neither of these 2 autoloading rounds are interchangable with each other though the slightly smaller and straight cased Remington 22 Autoloader will chamber in the Winchester M1903.
The result is usually split or swelled cases as the 1903 chamber is larger in diameter at the rear.

The Remington 22 Autoloader cartridge is a straight cased short version of the 22 Remington Special (22 WRF) so it can be chambered in the Rem 12C rifle.
I don't know if the shorter case will work correctly through the repeating feed mechanism of the 12C.
Either of the odd 22 auto loading rounds are harder to find and more expensive than .22WRF anyway.


Look around for some of the recent limited production .22WRF ammo would be my suggestion for some occasional shooting.

I have heard of the chamber insert conversions being done to .22WRF rifles as described above to shoot .22LR ammo but never had any experience with them.
I'd probably leave a decent 12C alone and look for a nice pistolgrip/oct bbl 12 in 22lr to shoot. But an epoxyed insert is certainly reversable w/o harm if it doesn't work out if you want to try it.

My .02

Well I have no great desire to fiddle with a decent gun for no great gain. I had been told that alteration to a more available ammo was an option but after a fair amount of research it is not. So I spent a few hours beating the internet for correct ammo and have about 600 rounds coming my way via my FFL dealer. I just bought every box I came across and did not bother to worry about the price. Sometimes fun comes at a price and it just does not matter what it is in money terms.

I do have another Remington Model 12A in .22s,l and lr that is a shooter with problems. Restocked by a talented 12 year old with some type of palsy, using a two dollar blank of walnut, receiver pitted like the moon surface, every screw buggered and the bore like a fine sewer pipe. Should be a decent shooter when lined and a solid project gun is I ever live long enough to finish it.

Such things seem to be coming out of the woodwork. I have a beat up 12C that I tell myself to line the barrel and give the "Owen" treatment, but with all that I have on my plate I'm probably kidding myself.