Remington Express .22

Remington Express .22

Well, I've done it. I've been intrigued by this Chinese rifle for a while and so it was only a matter of time before I caved in and bought one. The first impression is of a seriously nice looking gun. The finishing on the woodwork isn't perfect, some of the inletting is a bit rough and there's a couple of marks that are under the lacquer, but in fairness you've got to look hard for the blemishes. The metalwork is also quite acceptable, the blueing is nowhere near Weihrauch or Air Arms standards but then again neither is the price.

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Cocking the Express gave rise to a cacophony of twanging and graunching although the firing cycle itself was okay, as in plenty of spring twang but no worse than many standard Weihrauchs. I didn't notice any dieselling and the trigger, which was my main area of concern, is actually pretty decent. The Express was also remarkably consistent over the chrono, if a bit naughty out of the box. As an aside, with its 28mm cylinder the Express makes power very easily...

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Stripping the Express is simple once you've sussed the safety catch mechanism. After that, it's case of press on the end and knock out the two pins holding the trigger block. You might want to use a spring compressor but mine only had about 20mm of preload. There's also no need to remove the barrel to get the piston out. The cocking link is in two parts which I separated by removing one of the circlips, the free end of the link can then be then withdrawn from the piston and the piston removed without removing the barrel.

Looking inside the Express revealed a case of the good, the bad and the ugly. The spring itself was properly finished on both ends, the piston has a factory fit liner and there weren't many rough edges inside the action. However, the spring guide was a very loose fit and the piston seal was rough around the edges where it had clearly been forced in. There were also rust marks on the piston and everything was swimming in oil. Yes, oil.

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I cleaned everything up, relubed properly and fitted an Aussie green seal. Eventually I intend to machine up a properly fitting spring guide but in the meantime I had a rummage in the spares box and found a similar main spring with a slightly smaller internal diameter which was a better fit on the standard guide. A further rummage turned up a suitable top hat. Good stuff.

One issue is the integral top hat built into the piston. This doesn't seem to be removable and my new found spring and top hat didn't want to fit over it. A quick head scratch and I found a Delrin power washer in the spares box. This sits over the built in top hat and allowed me to fit the new spring and guides. It also acts as a slip washer. Bonus!

Reassembly is the reverse of dismantling... And it's really not bad. Cocking is much smoother and the firing cycle isn't far off of my Weihrauchs. And while the trigger may not be a Rekord unit it's way better than most budget (and plenty of not so budget) guns. Accuracy is decent too, I shot the groups shown above using JSB RS on a day with a strong left to right crosswind and I think they're pretty good. Overall the Express is a bit rough out of the box but it can be turned into something quite decent with minimal fettling.

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Update: As mentioned elsewhere, I don't use open sights and I found that the ones fitted to the Express tended to intrude too far into the sight picture when using a scope. Removing the sights cured that but left the barrel looking a bit unfinished. So I made a muzzle brake from a spare bit of Delrin that I had laying around.

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The barrel on the Express is apparently an imperial size but I drilled out the muzzle brake's internal diameter to 14.5mm and then finished it with a 15mm reamer. This is actually slightly too small, however I lightly oiled the end of the barrel and heated up the muzzle brake in boiling water. This allowed it to be gently tapped down into place with a rubber mallet and once cooled it's shrunk firmly onto the barrel. It finishes things off nicely, makes the rifle more comfortable to cock and I think it looks the part.

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