Favorite Firearms: “Show Me A Carbine With Real Power And I’ll Buy It!”

I saw that statement (title quote, above) in a Remington print advertisement in 1965 as a teenager. Soon afterward, I walked into our local sporting goods store, and there, on the gun rack among the traditional long-barreled, walnut-stocked rifles, was a short carbine with a multicolored stock. I recognized it immediately as the new Remington Model 600. When the clerk handed it to me, I quickly turned it over in my hands to read the barrel: “.350 Rem. Mag.”

I only had $18 with me, but the clerk said he’d put it aside for me if I’d come back the next day. The 600 Magnum cost $144.95 with a factory leather sling and detachable swivels; I bought it and a box of 250-grain Remington Core-Lokts early the next morning. I mounted a Weaver K4 scope with Weaver steel rings and took the carbine to the range. I don’t think the other shooters thought much of the laminated stock or the ventilated rib. What they really didn’t like was when I shot it.

The second three-shot group I fired at 100 yards was under 1", with two holes touching! That really got everyone’s attention. Incredibly, my carbine shoots both 200- and 250-grain Remington factory loads into virtually the same spot at 100 yards. Except for the time I served in the United States Army, I’ve carried that carbine now for more than 50 years. It now wears a Leupold Vari-X III Compact scope along with an aftermarket Neil Jones steel floorplate.

I’ve taken it across North America hunting bears, moose and deer. When my son Wyatt was 11, he shot his first (and second) deer with it! That sure puts the myth about the .350’s “ferocious recoil” to rest. Today, the Remington 600 Magnum is iconic. People always comment on it when they see it, and hunting guides invariably want to shoot it.

With my RCBS press and a full set of dies, Wyatt will continue to shoot the .350 Rem. Mag. for another 50 years and then some.

—John Allen Pritchard