The Remington Model 572 "Fieldmaster" is a .22 calibre pump-action rifle , and counterpart to the Remington Model 552 "Speedmaster". The Fieldmaster closely resembles Remington Arms' designs for shotguns.
The Model 572 "Fieldmaster" is considered to be "hammerless" as the hammer is concealed within the action, while the ejection port is located to the side. This design means that the cartridge can't eject upwards (possibly striking the user in the face), as well as leaving the upper surface of the receiver clear to have grooves cut into it to allow aftermarket scopes to be mounted to the Fieldmaster.
The Fieldmaster is pump-action, meaning that it more closely resembles Remington's shotguns (in operation) then it does their rifles. The Fieldmaster shares the same trigger guard mounted, cross bolt safety which prevents the bolt from moving when active as the Speedmaster has, as well as closely resembling the Speedmaster in appearance. Features shared between the two include the walnut stock, 21in rifled barrel and tubular magazine feed system.
The Fieldmaster fires any of the various .22 calibre rounds of popular use. As well as the ever prominant .22 Long Rifle cartridge, the Fieldmaster can fire the .22 Long and .22 Short cartridges without any modification required. Magazine capacities vary according to which .22 cartridge is used.
The Remington Model 572 "Fieldmaster" was originally named the Model 572A, the successor to the Remington Model 121. The M572A Fieldmaster was intended to only be a lightweight version of the M572A (with aluminium fittings), however Remington Arms decided that the Fieldmaster should survive, ending production of the M572A (in all of its various configurations) in the early 1960's.
At present the Fieldmaster is marketed by Remington as the Model 572 BDL "Fieldmaster", and is sold as the counterpart to the semi-automatic Remington Model 552 "Speedmaster" rifle. Both rifles are sold as "varmiters" (designed to shoot rodents) and as small game hunting rifles.