REMINGTON ~ 514SB ~ .22 LONG RIFLE SHOT

The Remington Model 514 in .22 caliber does not have a serial number because it was manufactured between 1948 and 1970, long before serial numbers were required by the federal Gun Control Act of 1968. The Routledge Bore is a unique barrel design invented by Michigan gunsmith Fred Routledge in 1938. It was engineered to solve a major problem with .22 caliber shot shells: standard narrow barrels caused tiny pellets to clump or scatter wildly. The first half of the 24-inch barrel has a standard smooth .22 caliber diameter. The final 12 inches are dramatically back-bored/hollowed out to a much wider .40 caliber diameter. This step-up acts like a built-in miniature shotgun choke. It prevents the shot column from blowing apart right at the muzzle, producing a tighter, more uniform pellet pattern. While Remington manufactured nearly 780,000 standard Model 514 rifles, only about 5,617 were made with the Routledge Bore variant starting in 1951. They were never featured in standard Remington sales catalogs and could only be acquired via special order. The usage of these firearms was pest control and MO-SKEET-O, a miniature clay target game that simulated Skeet whose 17 yards was reduced to 17 feet.