- Remington Model 600 .350 Remington Magnum -

Alasken Pipe Dream and the Remington .350 Magnum

Here is the basic scenario - it's 1964, you're 14 years old and your mind, for some reason, is stuck in the Alaskan outback. There are visions of tossing your gear into a canoe and heading into the wilderness, an adventure - but of course, requiring the proper gear and precautionary equipment. Remington releases a new carbine in a then new .350 Rem. Mag. caliber with a laminated wood stock in an unusual combination of walnut and beech. It also boasts a funny looking bolt and saber tooth front sight (borrowed from the XP 100 single-shot pistol) and of all things, a ventilated rib on the little rifle's barrel. It seemed, the perfect, compact solution.

 

From what I remember, there was quite a hoop-la in the reviews. At 5 1/2 pounds, recoil was ferocious in the little gun and you had to really like getting kicked to love the .350. But after a while, not many shooters seemed interested in the new short fat magnum. To me, this was the perfect companion for my Alaskan bear dreams, and I wanted one. In the end though, this gun was filed away with others on my childhood wish list, and years later this carbine became very hard to find on the used market.

Hard to find, because a few shooters it seems, believed in the .350, even with the ballistics limiting 18 inch barrel. Remington continued to make the brass and ammo (one load with a 200 GR. Core-Lokt ) which required a fair amount of persistence to hunt down in later years. Knowledgeable gun writers like Wayne van Zwoll seemed to believe in the .350 and appreciate its ballistic similarities to the .35 Whelen. Years after Model 600 production had ceased; Remington devoted a Classic Model 700 year to the caliber. For a short time, Ruger chambered a Model 77 in the .350, and the Remington Custom Shop had an offering in a custom carbine not too far back. A few years ago, I looked around the used market for the old 600 with laminated stock and had no luck. I finally found a Remington 700 Classic in like-new condition and that was the first and only 350 Rem Mag I have owned. With the advent of all the new short magnums that have recently become popular, I kept thinking, "what about the .350"? A great, powerful, almost forgotten caliber and short and fat are suddenly in back in vogue.

 

 

Now, as you’ve no doubt heard already, Remington has reintroduced the .350 Remington Magnum in the new Remington 673 Guide Gun (in .350 Rem Mag and .300 Rem SA Ultra Mag). Does it provide a viable substitute for the old unobtainable 600? We’ve got one on order and will have a future review of the shipping product. Links to info at the Remington site and reviews of pre-production guns are listed below.

 

Model 673™ Guide Rifle
Company info and spec sheet [Remington site]

Remington Returns a Classic
By Ralph Lermayer [Remington site]

The .350 Remington Rides Again!
By Craig Boddington [Remington site]

Remington's 600 Revisited
by Mike Schoby [Cabela’s site]

Handloading the .350 Remington Magnum
By Stan Skinner [Guns and Ammo site]