According to Paul, the Remington Model 760 GameMaster was the most popular pump-action rifle of all time. His father purchased this .35-caliber M760A in 1958.

In an earlier column, I made the argument that the pump-action rifle is a uniquely American development that never quite caught on among hunters and sporting shooters outside of the western hemisphere. While the first pump-action--slide-action or trombone-action, as some refer to it--firearms were developed in Europe between 1866 and 1880, they were not successful and had extremely limited production. But shooters on this side of the Big Pond have always had a thing about firepower, and the 1880s saw the development of several pump-action rifles and shotguns: the Colt "Lightning" rifles and the Spencer and Burgess shotguns.

These were successful to varying degrees and introduced Americans to the fact that a lever-action was not the only way to obtain rapid repeat shots. The inventions of that great firearms genius John Moses Browning only added to America's affection for pump-action firearms. His .22 repeaters and the famous Model 1897 Winchester shotgun paved the way for a flood of similar firearms that appeared on the American market in the following decade.

In 1907, Remington Arms Co. introduced a pump-action shotgun designed by John Pedersen, but Remington desired a pump-action rifle in its line to compete for a share of the lucrative market dominated by the Winchester and Marlin lever-action rifles. So in 1912, Remington introduced another Pedersen design, the Model 14 rifle. It was based upon an enlarged version of Remington's Pedersen-designed Model 12 .22 pump-action repeater.

For this rifle, Remington introduced a new line of rimless cartridges: the .25, .30, .32, and .35 Remington. The Model 14 used a unique spiral, tubular magazine to prevent bullet noses from resting on the primers of the cartridges in front of them. Between 1912 and 1925, Remington also produced the Model 14½ rifle and 14½ R carbine, which were chambered for the .38-40 and .44-40 cartridges.

The year 1925 saw a new small-frame pump-action rifle, the Model 25, chambered for .25-20 and .32-20 cartridges. In 1935, the Model 141 was announced, and it was chambered for the .30, .32, and .35 Remington. It was available in rifle or carbine versions and remained in the catalog until 1950.

The Model 760
In 1952, Remington introduced the Model 760 GameMaster, a rifle that was to give the company a virtual monopoly on the pump-action, centerfire rifle market. Designed by L.R. Crittendon and William Gail Jr., it used a machined-steel receiver, removable box magazine, and rotating bolt with fourteen interrupted thread-type lugs that locked into an extension of the barrel. The latter feature made for a much stronger lockup while allowing the receiver to be lighter. It was a feature common to a number of Big Green's pump and semiauto rifles and shotguns.

The bolt assembly rode inside a carrier that was attached to twin action bars mounted to the forearm. Lugs on the inside of the bolt carrier matched up with helical grooves on the bolt itself. So when the forearm and carrier moved rearward, they caused the bolt to rotate, unlock, and move rearward with the carrier, extracting and ejecting the spent case and recocking the hammer. Pulling the forearm forward chambered the next round and rotated and locked the bolt. The forearm moved on a separate tube attached to the front of the receiver and did not bear on the barrel