The most popular firearms of the 20th Century

[natedog]

What, in your opinion, is the most popular firearm (in America) of the 20th Century? You can pick one of each class. Mine are as following:

Rifle: Remington 700. Almost every bolt action I see at the range is a 700. There are more accessories and gunsmiths who are familiar with it than any other rife I've seen.

Shotgun: Remington 870. Bar none. It seems that anyone who owns a pump shotgun it's an 870. Again, accessories and gunsmiths galore.

Revolver: S&W .38 Special revolver. I don't know exact Smith model numbers. S&W .38 revolvers are the most traced firearm by the ATF. Police agencies the country over used them for years.

Pistol: 1911.

 

[sm]

-Bolt Rifle:Win. model 70 ( various cal)
-Lever Rifle: Marlin/Win 30-30

-Shot gun : model 12, 870, 1100 and H&R Topper single shot

-Revolver: K frame ( M&P)

-Semi: 1911 and BHP
Ruger 22 lr mkI and mkII
Colt woodsman

SA revo: Ruger Blackhawk

 

[jsalcedo]

Full auto AK's and 50 cal snipers rifles...

Oh sorry that was drug dealers.


I'd say winchester 94 30-30

 

[BigG]

I would think there are a passel more of Win 94s than Rem 700s. You just don't see em at the range.

Revo - S&W M&P Model 10 38 Spl.

Automatic Pistol ?? Maybe Colt 45 Auto ??

Shotgun ?? Maybe Rem 870 ??

 

[Brian Williams]

US made
win 1894
Rem 870
S&W M&P
1911

Foreign
AK47
SXS 12 gauge
S&W M&P and clones
bhp and clones

 

[Kamicosmos]

While not American made, I think the most popular in a sense of being recognizable by non-gun owners around the world would be the German P-08 Luger.

As far as American made guns, probably a tie between 1911 types or Colt SAA types.

I bet though, if you were to look up sales stats, the most popular gun would probably be some type of bolt action .22, followed by 12 gauge shotguns...

 

[CMcDermott]

From the article "Sixty Million Guns" in the 1983 Gun Digest some production figures. These are 20 years old and obviously some models have had considerable production since then, and some were long out of production at the time the article was published. Unfortunately he didn't go into pistols, but here are the long arms with more than 1,000,000 produced.

Centerfire Rifles

Winchester 94 = 6,000,000+
Marlin 336 = 3,500,000+
Remington 700 = 2,000,000+
Savage 99 = 1,500,000+
Winchester Model 70 = 1,000,000+
Remington 742 = 1,000,000+

Shotguns

H&R singleshot = 10,000,000+
Savage 94 = 4,500,000+
Remington 870 = 3,000,000+
Remington 1100 = 3,000,000+
Stevens/Fox Double = 3,000,000+
Browning Auto-5 = 2,000,000+
Mossberg Model 500 = 2,000,000+
Winchester 1200 = 1,500,000+
Winchester 1400 = 1,000,000+

Rimfire rifles
Marlin 99 = 4,000,000+
Stevens Falling-blocks = 3,500,000+
Stevens Bolt = 2,500,000
Remington Nylon 66 = 1,000,000+
Marlin 39 = 1,000,000+
Winchester 190 & 290 = 2,000,000+
Stevens 87 = 1,000,000+

Combination Guns

Stevens 24 = 1,000,000+

 

[SquirrelNuts]

I was thinking maybe a Marlin Model 60 might be up there.

The AK47 and variants are the most numerous around the world, but probably not in the US.

Supposedly, the CIA Deer Gun is WAY up there too. There are still some in crates all over Europe.

-SquirrelNuts