The Model 8 was the first major attempt by any major maker to sell semiautos for the sporting market.

Take the Model 700, one of the world's most successful sporting firearms. Over the years the basic platform has been turned to civilian, military and police use in a staggering array of calibers and configurations--and it's still going strong. If you want to collect Model 700s, it's just possible you may never get caught up.

While bolt actions dominated Remington's sporting output since the war, the autoloader and pump-action were not forgotten and the Model 760 Gamemaster and Model 740 and 742 Woodmasters, among others, are also fair game. Some of the premier grades bringing some pretty serious bucks, but most can be bought for shooter prices.

On the rimfire front, starting in the early part of the 20th century, Remington introduced an extensive line of .22 single-shot and repeating rifles in Rolling Block, bolt action, slide action and semiauto. The early Model 12 pump action and Model 16 auto rifles are fairly hot with collectors and can command some surprising prices, as can bolt actions such as the Model 37 and later pump and semiautos like the Model 24 and 121. The spectrum of Remington rimfires is so great that one could accumulate them for a lifetime and still never come up with a complete collection.

Most of the Remington .22s are of fairly standard configuration, but the Nylon 66 autoloader and its later variants--the Model 10 and 77 autos, Model 10-SB single-shot, Model 11 and 12 bolt-actions and Model 76 lever gun--provide an interesting sub-genre of Remington collecting.

Introduced in 1959 (the 66) and noted for their all-plastic stocks, the guns were far ahead of their time. It would be a lot of fun to try to track down a complete set. While most sell for under $350 in good shape, the 10-SB can be elusive little devil, and you might have to spend upwards of a grand or so for a nice one.

In almost 200 years of operation, Remington has churned out such a huge inventory of firearms that it's almost an embarrassment to even attempt to cover even one facet of the company's production in a short magazine article. If I left out any of your favorites , such as the Model 40 series or any of the later long guns such as the Model Seven or Model 78, well, maybe we'll just have to revisit the topic down the road.

One nice thing is that Remington is still very much a going concern, and every day it's producing another batch of tomorrow's collectibles. Accommodating of them, isn't it?

Along with Savage Arms, Remington produced Springfield 03A3s during World War II.