Remington Society

That makes a lot of sense. I know that Sam Norris was in Central Europe about that time... the exact date escapes me but I would be very surprised if he didn't at least try to sell some Remingtons to the Bulgarians. Unfortunately, his letters don't confirm that but they are very thin in that period.

Ed, During the Russo Turkish War Remington made a serious effort to sell Spanish Model RBs to the Russians. Both Sam Norris and Watson Squire were in St. Petersburg for this. In Norris's letter to the Russian Ordnance officials he specifically mentions that the .43 Spanish RB will accept the .42 Ber...

They do show up occasionally in .43 Spanish but weren't made that way. They are rifles altered for sale in Latin America etc. I seem to remember George Layman telling me he found one in the Philippines in the 1970s in the same cache of captured arms that had a couple of Whitney-made Plymouth rifles ...

A couple of points... these were NAVY carbines, intended for use by Naval landing parties. The Navy liked carbines for this purpose and had bought Smiths and Sharps & Hankins during the Civil War. At the time they were purchased, the Marines were still armed with muzzle loaders, usually M1861 &a...

I knew about the rifle because George called me... he was really excited about it and glad its in the hands of someone we know. He can tell you exactly what the character on the butt plate means... its fairly complicated so better you ask him as I may mix up what he told me. In brief, it can mean &q...

Great find Ed. I believe it is Chinese and I would bet one of the first made. The quality seems very good but that shouldn't really surprise us because, at the beginning at least, the machinery was all new and the supervisory personnel were English. I suspect the quality declined as more of the work...

Thanks George... I couldn't have answered that!

jp

That is one of the pitfalls of writing a book. Invariably, the book itself draws out information you didn't even know existed. In this case, Geo. was contacted by a retired Mexican Ordnance officer who sent him a copy of a report on the program these rifles were produced under.

Its a Mexican conversion of a Swedish action... the work was done in Germany for the Mexican govt.. Its a long and complicated story, but confirmation of this only came after we published Geo. Layman's RB book.

Joe Puleo

My apologies for not answering sooner... I'm on the road in the UK and have been unable to connect to the internet for a week or so. The markings are almost certainly just numbers... we have no idea at this point what they mean but I personally believe they are a quite late addition. I say this beca...

Yes, it does and that is the reason I'm so pleased to see it. George did tell me that he had seen one - or thought he had as it was probably 30 or more years ago. Even George, who has a virtually photographic memory, did not feel comfortable with any more than a conditional suggestion that some may ...

Joosse... I'm not so much the expert as I edited George Layman's book on the Military Rolling Block and thus got a first rate education on the subject. I also found the Samuel Norris papers and his copy of the 1st Egyptian contract so its only coincidental that I'm able to help. George is the real e...

I certainly does look as if it had the conventional Egyptian markings. That makes it very unusual is that thus far I don't think any more than a handful of carbines with real Egyptian markings have been seen. There are carbines in .43 Egyptian caliber ... there is one in the Remington Museum, but th...

Its the swivel and hook from a CW era over-the-shoulder carbine sling.

Excellent photo... thanks very much.

JVP