I stopped in briefly at a local gun show on my way to the airport to fly to an airshow. I passed by a surplus dealer who usually has good deals and noted a Remington 541X on his table with the military trainer stock and on inspection it was US Property marked.
Remington produced 9077 of these from 1984 to 1986 under military contract. The date code on this one dates to October 1984, and the CMP shipping label on the box indicates it shipped from CMP south on October 1, 2001.
The surplus dealer was selling it for his uncle who thought he’d had it for about 20 years. It was US property marked with a CMP box and appeared to be new, unfired with the open box and foil.
It was priced at $700. I poked around on the internet for a couple minutes, then offered $650 cash and he said “ok”.
To be honest that was the going rate four to five years ago for a US Property marked 541X in excellent condition. I also saw a new in the open box example listed with one of the higher end auction houses with an expected price in that range that actually sold for $1495. However, that is probably an outlier, and to be honest this one won’t be unfired for long.
It will go with the rest of the trainers, Springfield M2, Remington 513T, Mossberg M44US, and Winchester Model 52A:
Kimber 82G:
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It also joins its Remington 540XR precursor. About 6000 Remington 540X rifles were made between 1969 and 1975, when it was replaced by the 540XR with a deeper stock. About 7000 of the 540XR rifles were made between 1975 and 1983, when it was replaced by the economy model 541X. The 541X has a detachable box magazine fed action, a non adjustable 513T style stock, a non adjustable trigger and a single action screw. The 541X was produced until 1999.
The 540 and 541 rifles all used a Rem 788 style action with six rear locking lugs, a 60 degree bolt throw, and a very fast lock time.