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Old 10-26-2019, 01:51 PM
Calfed Calfed is offline
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Originally Posted by DWalt View Post
It looks correct. It is highly unusual to see one of them and you are very fortunate to have found one. I believe all of the FBI M81 rifles were chambered in .30 Rem. At least for a while, the FBI used a special more lightly loaded version of the .30 Rem cartridge, and the FBI version of the M81 rifle used the lighter recoil spring of the .25 Rem rifle. Originally, the FBI M81s had a fitted leather case, but I have never seen one of those. .30 Rem ammo is somewhat difficult to find today, but it is occasionally seen at gun shows, often the "white box" FMJ loads made for law enforcement and prison use by Remington back in the 1950s-60s. You can use .30-30 dies to reload for it. Not exactly correct, but they will work. You can also convert .30-30 brass to .30 Rem if you have access to a lathe. I have made several hundred .30 Rem cases that way. At one time, it was not too difficult to find new .30 Rem brass as Remington continued to sell a run of brass every so often. But I don't think they have made any for the last several years.
Thanks, DWalt!

As you know, the tip off for the FBI model is the lettering on the receiver.

I have a "civilian" Remington model 81 in .30 Remington caliber which I bought years ago.




Because the Lyman 41 sight covered the serial number, the FBI had Remington shift the serial number and manufacturer lettering over to a spot just below the model information.

My non-FBI Model 81



The FBI model 81



Of course, there are other more subtle differences, but this one is the most obvious.
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