august 2019 ❘ 44 ❘ americanhunter.org
shop floor to barge for shipment down-
stream to customers. The canal now flows
about a mile away from the front door.
The original channel now sits beneath
the employee parking lot. It’s used as a
proof range to test-fire rifles destined for
military and police contracts. Today the
oldest extant buildings may be traced to- Yep, this place is old—like the com-
pany itself, America’s oldest arms maker.
Here we learned a lot of new things.
The size of the workforce here and its
scope has ebbed and flowed for, literally,
centuries. A look through archival mate-
rials in a storage room upstairs reveals
old black-and-whites of generations past
scrutinizing production with what look
like no more than eyeball checks. Today,
technologies and processes employed
here are state of the art.
Everyone who fills a production posi-
tion on the shop floor, union members
all, is dedicated to producing the finest
guns possible. Ask around and you’ll find
some families have worked here for gen-
erations. This is not the service industry.
This is American manufacturing at its
core. These people build a shining exam-
ple of American craftsmanship one gun
at a time. It’s hard to leave Ilion without
swelling with pride.
After we settled on specs, prototypes
were built. Senior product manager Eric
Lundgren and I took them to Texas for
a “prototype hunt.” After all, one can’t
properly release a new gun to market
without properly hunting with it. There
we both dropped a couple of fine bucks,
and I took another opportunity to spot
and stalk a doe. Yep, this’d do. After-
wards, we codified the final specs then
waited eagerly for the first production
models to roll off the assembly line.
The Remington Model 700 American
Hunter is a bolt-action, centerfire rifle
chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, the most
popular cartridge in America. Magazine
capacity is four rounds. The floorplate
features the nameplate of everyone’s
favorite hunting magazine. The barrel
is 20 inches long and made from cold-
hammer-forged, chrome-moly steel.
The barrel’s heavy contour settles nicely
on target and stays there. Fluting helps
lighten the load a bit. Its 5R rifling is cut
with five grooves and a 1:8-inch right-
hand twist. The muzzle is cut with 5/8x24
threading for a suppressor and fitted with
a cap that fits flush. Atop the receiver can
be found two-piece Leupold Mark 4 bases
factory-installed. The X Mark Pro trigger
is single-stage and adjustable. The com-
posite stock is from Bell & Carlson, and
features a cheekpiece, aluminum bedding
block and 1-inch Pachmayr Decelerator
recoil pad; length of pull is 13.63 inches.
Metalwork is finished in black Cerakote;
the bolt is jeweled and finished in black
oxide. Overall length of this practical big-
game rifle is 39.38 inches. Weight is 6.9
pounds. A special serial number range
includes a “19AH” prefix—the year ofThe Remington Model 700 American Hunter is on sale now through Remington’s
dealer network nationwide. To find one, visit Remington.com and click on the
“retailer locator” button in the upper right corner of the home page.Photo: Forrest MacCormack
Photo: Author