Long Branch No.4 MK 1* "Light weight"

This is a prototype rifle… only an estimated 50 were produced (maybe). Special features are the one-piece stock and original black rubber Hawkins recoil pad.  Cal. .303. British. 22.8″ 5-groove bbl. Very rare Canadian lightweight as described in Ian Skennerton’s reference book The Lee Enfield, pgs 324-326.  These were converted from a No. 4 Mk I* action with reduced thickness sidewalls and left side profile like No. I Mk VI trials rifle. Front sight also similar to Mk VI, with light alloy trigger guard, magazine well and forend cap. Large recessed hole in knob of bolt handle which is slightly swept forward. Distinctive and immediately recognized lightening cuts in buttstock and grooved forend and hand guard.

oldguns.ca, virtual museum collection.

This is the Walther version of the Gewehr 41, also known as the G41(W).  By 1940 the German military realized the need for a semi-auto battle rifle, so they invited various manufacturers to submit prototypes. Walther and Mauser answered the call, thus there are 2 versions of the G41, this being the Walther or "W" version.

The military specified 3 criteria for the new design.

- no holes were to be bored into the barrel for a gas operating system.

- the rifle could not have any moving parts on the surface.

- if the semi-auto mechanism failed, there was supposed to be a bolt action system as a back-up.

Walther took it upon themselves to disregard the last 2 items, regardless, their rifle design won out. The G41W mostly saw use on the Eastern Front, and thus saw a very high attrition rate, making them quite scarce today.  Eventually the G41W rifle was re-designed in 1943 and became the Gewehr 43, or G43.

This particular example has matching numbers throughout except for the nose-cap.  It sports a beautiful shiny bore with good strong rifling, the metal finish is as expected for a war time rifle as is the wood condition, bumps and bruises but good and solid.  Mechanically it functions as intended, minor issues are the missing dust cover on the top of the bolt which does not affect the functioning of the rifle and a missing front sight hood.  The leather sling is believed to be correct and original.

oldguns.ca, virtual museum collection.

Manufactured from 1866 to 1917, the Remington rolling-block cartridge rifle was so popular that more than half the world’s armies adopted it or purchased quantities for police or martial purposes. During the American Civil War, gunsmith Leonard M. Geiger designed the basic action, in which the shooter “rolled” the breechblock backward with the thumb and inserted a cartridge in the breech, before the block “rolled” forward and the interlocking hammer cocked in one fluid motion. E. Remington & Sons, America’s oldest firearms manufacturer, took over Geiger’s patent and assigned one of its chief engineers, Joseph Rider, to make the necessary refinements. Rider brought the new action along, and with his 1864 and 1865 patents, put it in its nearly perfect final form.

In the last year of the Civil War, the U.S. government placed an order for what became known as Remington “split-breech” carbines, just before Rider’s final improvement—strengthening the breechblock by machining it out of a solid billet of steel. The early “split-breech” action allowed the hammer to sit between the weaker, split-wall breechblock configuration that took only low-pressure, rimfire ammunition such as the .56-56 Spencer or .44 Henry cartridges. Once Rider’s mid- 1866 patent was issued, the simple but virtually indestructible rolling-block action became Remington’s new ace in the hole in countering the post–Civil War glut of surplus arms that was putting many gun companies out of business. Remington had something radically new to offer, and the new gun temporarily saved the company from bankruptcy. 

An expert rifleman, Remington claimed, could fire 17 shots a minute with the rolling-block rifle. But initially, only the U.S. Navy showed enough interest to place a few small sporadic orders. In late spring 1866, Samuel Remington crossed the Atlantic to demonstrate the rifle in Europe. Its superior design was quickly recognized, and many nations, including Denmark, Egypt and Mexico, began to place orders. During the 1867 Paris Exposition, the High Commission on Firearms called the Remington rolling block “the finest rifle in the world” and awarded it the silver medal (highest award) for mechanical excellence.

Meanwhile, back in the States, civilians were taking to the new Remington long arms. By the fall of 1866, cases of Remington rolling-block rifles in various calibers had found their way to Kansas, Texas, Colorado Territory and elsewhere in the West. The rifles were regularly stocked items for such Western dealers as Denver’s Carlos Gove and E.C. Meacham of St. Louis, and they were also in demand at gun shops in more out-of-the-way places. The courageous cattle drive by Nelson Story from Texas to Montana Territory in 1866 had been a great “domestic” boost for the Remington rolling block—an adventure that the Remington factory quickly capitalized on in its advertising literature.

After making money in the gold mines around Virginia City, Montana Territory, Story hired some 30 men, mostly Confederate veterans, to help him herd 3,000 Longhorns from Texas to the grasslands of Montana Territory. The cowboys nearly all had muzzleloading rifles and cap-and-ball revolvers that all took a long time to load— a drawback that could prove deadly when traveling on the Bozeman Trail through hostile Indian country. Upon reaching Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and hearing warnings that the Lakota leader Red Cloud was on the warpath, Story decided to buy a fresh shipment of Remington rifles and large quantities of ammunition. It is uncertain whether these arms were the old Remington split-breech carbines in .56-50 Spencer rimfire caliber or the newly introduced Remington rolling blocks in either .50-70 center fire caliber or .58 Berdan rimfire caliber. Most authorities believe that the 30 long arms purchased by Story were early versions of the Remington rolling-block carbine. In any case, the cowboys used the Remingtons effectively in fighting off an Indian attack near Fort Reno (in what would become Wyoming). After leaving two wounded cowboys at the fort, Story’s party of 28 pushed on, and in late October 1866, north of Fort Kearny, they faced even greater odds—an estimated 500 Sioux warriors readying for an attack. For several hours, the cowboys kept up a steady stream of fire from the rapid firing rolling blocks and forced the Sioux to retreat. Two other Sioux attacks were also thwarted, and the cowboys completed their incredible drive with the loss of just one man. Later, the Indians suggested that the white men were protected by some “new medicine.”

Capitalizing on Story’s amazing story and other positive reports from Europe and elsewhere, the Remington company sold more than 1.5 million rolling-block rifles by the 1880s. Most were sold on the international market; however, thousands of the guns in various calibers—from .32 to the more powerful .44-77 and .50-90— were sold and put to use in the American West. Hunters, lawmen, adventurers, homesteaders and many others appreciated the strong, accurate and well-made Remington rolling block. Between 1866 and 1896, repeating rifles made great strides in the West, but many individuals still chose the powerful, reliable single-shot rolling block. In the early 1870s, Remington boasted in an advertisement that its sporting rifle was “the preferred arm for hunting purposes on the Plains; it's simplicity and durability especially commending it for frontier use.” Among buffalo hunters, Remington’s heavy barrelled sporting rifle was the second most popular killing machine, behind only the Sharps.

From the 1870s until the late 1910s, the biggest fans of the Remington rolling block seemed to be in Mexico. The early Remington rolling blocks (and all other commercial American firearms) used black powder as the basic propellant for all ammunition until the smokeless, nitrocellulose-based powders became available to the U.S. civilian market in the mid-1890s. The U.S. Army had switched over to smokeless powder in 1892. While many of its single-shot, post–Civil War peers had long since been discontinued, the Remington rolling block, with its modern heat-treated steels, made the transition into the future. The first Remington rolling block introduced in the smokeless period was the Remington Model 1897. In 1899-1900, Mexico bought 14,712 of these military-style rifles and carbines for issue to its second-line army troops, as well as to federal and rural police. All were sold in the smokeless powder German 7.92mm Mauser chambering, since Mexico and most other Latin American countries had been using that cartridge since 1893.

When Pancho Villa raided Columbus, N.M., in 1916, many of his band carried the Model 1897 Remington rolling-block rifles or carbines in the contemporary 7.92mm Mauser cartridge, most of them probably stolen from the many rurales (rural police) armouries in northern Mexico. As late as 1918, bandidos armed with rolling blocks were still raiding border settlements, but they found themselves outgunned by U.S. lawmen and state militiamen. Large-caliber repeating rifles had been serious competitors to all single-shot rifles as early as 1881 (with the single shots’ biggest advantage being their lower price), but now came the era of semi-automatic weapons and machine guns. In fact, as early as 1908, the Remington company had come out with a semi-automatic rifle, the Model 8. By the end of World War I, rolling blocks had been left in the dust; yet during the Depression years, hunters and miners still used them.

Back in June 1876, less than three years after the Remington company received his letter of kudos, George Armstrong Custer took his cherished rolling-block sporting rifle with octagonal barrel on what would be his last campaign. On June 25 at the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory, Colonel Custer and his immediate command were wiped out, and his Remington rolling block—probably the most famous one of all time—was lost forever from the pages of history.  

oldguns.ca, virtual museum collection.

From the E. Lind collection.

The Remington target rifle designed by Lewis Hepburn, Remington's supervising engineer. Remington-Hepburn No.3 Rifles were made in various models c.1880-1907. SN 4533

Circa 1880 Remington-Hepburn (U.S.) No. 3 Falling Block Creedmoor Target Rifle (single-shot/ breech-loading/ black powder/ cartridge ammunition) In the 1880s, sophistication grew in the eastern United States. Towns and cities were urbanized, labor unions organized, education became important, and sports were popular. Among the latter, target shooting gathered thousands of adherents, particularly as the major rifle companies began to produce marvels of technology. This display gun represents one of these.

Lewis Hepburn, its inventor, was superintendent of Remington's mechanical department and a member of the American Creedmoor International Shooting Team. This falling-block target rifle is his contribution to the sport. --Dr. William L. Roberts, THE AMERICAN LIBERTY COLLECTION; #98 During the latter years of the 19th century, medium-range Schuetzen (offhand) matches became very popular.

From 1858 through 1878, Lewis L. Hepburn made custom muzzleloading sporting rifles. The decline of his gunmaking business had caused Hepburn to turn his attention to related pursuits.

On April 24, 1875, Hepburn was granted US Patent (no. 162,473) for rebounding hammers on gun locks. Hepburn consigned this patent to E. Remington & Sons. On October 7, 1879, Lewis L. Hepburn received another US Patent (no. 220,426), this time covering a breech loading system that featured a dropping breech lock activated by a lever on the right side of the frame.

The 'No. 3' or 'Remington-Hepburn' rifles were introduced in a 'No. 3 Midrange' rifle for target competition - a sporting rifle with barrel sights as well as a long range Creedmoor target rifle.

A typical off-hand rifle of that period was fitted with an adjustable palm rest below the forearm. The palm rest often could be swung to a vertical position for firing, with the ball or grip piece held in the shooter's hand. The shooter's elbow was braced against his hip to provide the necessary steadiness in the off-hand position. Action of the typical Schuetzen rifle was fitted with a heavy barrel, usually octagonal, and the target sights were fully adjustable for windage and elevation. The action was fitted with double set triggers and an elaborate finger lever typical of the ornamental designs of the late 19th century. Also standard was a high comb buttstock to properly locate the shooter's face in the off-hand position, and an elaborate hooked buttplate to accurately position the butt of the rifle when firing.

This particular rifle has been professionally/painstakingly restored to exact original configuration.  It is absolutely beautiful and in as new condition.

For additional information,  please contact Mr. Lind at jolind33@yahoo.ca .