There aren’t many American rifles which have been more popular in Australia than their home country, but the Remington 7615 pump-action .223 rifle is certainly a leading contender for the honour.
How did an unusual US rifle end up becoming so popular in Australia? Read on…
Prior to their 2020 bankruptcy and subsequent sale to various other entities, Remington had been making pump-action rifles for a long time. The company made a conscious decision to do so from the early 1900s, differentiating themselves from Winchester and its lever-action rifles.
The Remington Model 14 was introduced in 1912 and was chambered in the now long-forgotten .25 Remington, .30 Remington and .32 Remington centrefire rounds.
It was very popular, especially in an era when self-loading rifles were in their infancy and extremely expensive as a result, and it received a boost when the Model 14½ was introduced the following year, adding the .38-40 and .44-40 Winchester chamberings to the proceedings.
Remington realised it was onto something, and continued to offer centrefire pump-action rifles as a central part of its line-up throughout the early-mid 20th century.
In 1952, the company introduced the Model 760 Game Master, which was a pump-action centrefire rifle with a detachable box magazine, chambered for full-sized centrefire cartridges such as the .30-06, .243 and .308.
An updated version, the Model 7600, was introduced in 1981 and produced until 2020, and one of its limited run spin-offs, the Model 7615, ended up finding fame and success here in Australia, almost completely eclipsing its mother design.
The Model 7615 — also called the Remington 7615P — is more or less a Remington Model 7600 designed to take standard AR-15 pattern magazines (hence the “15” in its name), and was designed as a police and security patrol rifle.
The rifles have synthetic furniture and feature a fixed magazine well adaptor to take the AR magazines, as well as coming with ghost-ring sights as standard issue; some were also made with express sights mounted on the barrel.
In stark contrast to pretty much every other American firearm ever made, there is almost no historical information on the Remington 7615.
They don’t appear to have been made for long. They first appear in the 2006 Remington Law Enforcement Catalogue, and are in the 2009 catalogue, but are not present in the 2010 catalogue — and even The Standard Catalog of Remington Firearms by Dan Shideler simply notes they exist as a variant of the Remington 7600 rifle.
The rifle was initially marketed as being attractive for two reasons. First, it handled exactly the same way as the Remington 870 shotgun (right down to having the safety catch and slide unlock in the same place); and second, it didn’t look like a scary black assault rifle (or, as the catalogue puts it, it features a “non-military look to better fit your department’s urban mission”).
By 2009 the “doesn’t look like an assault rifle” aspect of the marketing had been dropped, with the catalogue saying the 7615 was available in a range of configurations which could be “custom-matched to virtually any tactical situation”.
I could not find much in the way of reliable information on which police forces in the US actually used the rifles, although given the enormous size of the US and the countless police departments and agencies in it, some certainly did.
The limited contemporary discussion I could find from when the rifles were introduced is that it appears to have been a solution in search of a problem as far as the Americans were concerned. The AR-15 was widely available, and for anyone looking for something a bit less “military”, the Ruger Mini-14 fit the bill perfectly.
However, it did find a problem to solve in Australia, where semi-auto rifles were banned for 99% of shooters, yet there were plenty of hunters who needed quick follow-up shots, especially for dealing with groups of feral animals.
It is very likely more Remington 7615 rifles were sold in Australia than America. One large Australian dealer I spoke to recalled importing literally tens of thousands of the rifles, and selling them almost as quickly as they could get them in.
Until very recently, the Remington 7615 rifles remained highly sought after for hunting and practical shooting purposes here. It’s only been with the introduction of Australian-made pump-action and straight-pull .223-calibre modern sporting rifles such as the Southern Cross Taipan X and the Oceania Precision SP-15 that their popularity has waned somewhat; the new wave of self-ejecting rifles like the Akdas Alcor will doubtless accelerate the decline of the 7615.
SHOOTING THE REMINGTON 7615
The Remington 7615P handles very well thanks to its synthetic stock, light weight (3.17kg or 7lb), and 16.5in (42cm) barrel.
The rifles are chambered for both .223 Remington and 5.56x45mm ammunition, which is largely just an interesting fact in Australia, where military surplus 5.56mm ammo is uncommon, but a useful feature in the US where it’s possible to buy literal storage drums of military-spec ammunition.
The rifles perform well on the range and in the field with commercial .223 ammunition. I’ve had excellent results using 55gn Federal Power-Shok and ADI Outback ammunition.
The trigger pull is a practical 2.1kg (4.5lb).
The pump action needs to be worked with authority on closing to ensure the action is closed and the round chambered, but the opening action is smooth and the ejected brass is cleanly thrown clear.
The 10-round magazines provided from the factory are steel with a green plastic follower, and are quite difficult and fiddly to extract from the rifle when it’s time to reload, particularly as they sit flush with the bottom of the magazine well.
However, aftermarket magazines — such as those made by Magpul — work well with the rifles and have the advantage of being much easier to extract and replace, while still complying with the 10-round capacity limit applicable in most states.
The magazine follower also acts as a bolt hold-open, so care must be taken when handling a 7615 without a magazine, as picking up the gun by the forward grip alone will cause the action to close.
Recoil is mild — it’s a .223, after all — and is further cushioned by a rubber recoil pad on the stock. Interestingly, this recoil pad has been known to break down in gun safes, especially those with carpet or towels in the base.
While the rifles originally came with ghost ring sites or express sights, many of those encountered today have telescopic or red-dot sights fitted, depending on the sort of shooting the owner generally does.
The best technique for field stripping the 7615 is don’t. It’s quite an involved process to take the gun apart and reassemble it, and while it’s certainly possible, it’s best done on a bench at home with proper tools rather than in the field with a Swiss army knife.
Despite being seen as somewhat clunky, especially by modern standards, the Remington 7615 is still an enjoyable and practical rifle to shoot and has been used very effectively against a lot of small and medium-sized animals in Australia.
While a lack of spare parts will eventually relegate them to the collector’s market, for now they’re still a lot of fun to shoot if you have the opportunity.
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