Guns International #: 102976029
Seller's Inventory #: 247308

Category - Civil War Carbines - Spencer Rifles

Category
Civil War Carbines
Spencer Rifles

Antique SPENCER SADDLE RING CAVALRY CARBINE SPRINGFIELD Alteration .50 Rim Famous Civil War & Wild West REPEATER

Description:
Antique SPENCER SADDLE RING CAVALRY CARBINE SPRINGFIELD Alteration .50 Rim

Famous Civil War & Wild West REPEATER

Here we present an antique Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. Army Model Carbine, made circa 1863-1865 in Boston, Massachusetts, during the Civil War. These lever-operated, breech-loading rifles were marvels of the time and had a lasting impact on how war was to be fought in the future. Though their service life in the U.S. military was relatively short, the Spencer story includes Christopher Spencer, the inventor of the rifle, demonstrating and shooting with President Abraham Lincoln, who gave his full endorsement of the piece. Supposedly, during the battle at Gettysburg, a captured Rebel that day said one could “load in the morning and fire all day!” This was due to the Spencer’s most endearing quality: a 7-round magazine tube in the butt of the gun. This gave the shooter phenomenal firepower in a day when most soldiers were muzzle-loading single shots or even singly loading their breech-loading carbines. This is one of the iconic carbines of the Civil War and Western Frontier.

This Saddle Ring Carbine was bored out and the old .52 caliber barrel received an inserted, reinforced rifle sleeve in the new .50 caliber (.56-50). These reinforced Spencer short arms and long arms produced higher velocity and greater accuracy for the troops. Ordnance Department records indicate that roughly 11,000 Spencers were altered at the Springfield Armory facility between 1866 and 1874 and bore the characteristics found in this Spencer Carbine including the Stabler Cut-Off. In the latter part of the war Edward M. Stabler of Maryland invented the Stabler Cut-Off Device. It prevented the cartridge from feeding the magazine to the receiver by limiting the lowering of the breech block. The carbine could then be used as a single shot weapon. A few of these equipped carbines, as is this one, were manufactured by the Spencer factory, plus 19,000 of the 30,496 of the Burnside Spencers were equipped with the Stabler Cut-Off Device.

This would have been an upgrade for a grunt lugging around the Trapdoor rifles of the time that were powerful, but only single shot, whereas the Spencer still packed plenty of punch but with 7 in the rear-feed magazine tube.

This is the type of Spencer that was used by Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood in the movie “Unforgiven”. Many a buffalo were taken off the plains during westward expansion by the Spencer rifle.

The overall condition is very good. Armory refinished at the time of the conversion. Good case colors remain on the breech block. The action is excellent. The bore is bright with sharp rifling. The forestock has an old, smoothed out sliver on the left side, otherwise the stock is solid throughout. The left side of the stock has a good cartouche.

Own the original! This is a legitimate antique and not a reproduction.

Barrel is 22 inches.

Caliber: .50 (.56-50)

Overall condition as seen in photos.

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ancestryguns

$4000

#247308
 

SOLD

Antique: Yes