Of a sad lightning serpent
An alarming swarm of elements is restless -
And here I stand motionless.
(M. Yu. Lermontov. "Thunderstorm")
Weapons and firms. Today we continue our story about the very first examples of rifles with reloading using a sliding forend. As you know, the M1897 Winchester was very popular among them. He had a chance to serve as a hunter, and a policeman, and a soldier. Although, yes, he was not the first in a series of pump-action shotguns. In the previous article, another example was named - a series of guns by Spencer and Roper. But there was another curious sample from the constant competitor of Winchester - the company … Colt. Yes, "Colt" made the well-known revolvers, and then pistols. But business is business. It strives to expand, it strives to capture more and more sales markets, occupies more and more product niches. And one of them, and earlier than Winchester, was occupied by Colt, although in this case it had to play on a foreign field.
To begin with, Colt held a dominant share of the revolver market in the 1880s, but was also quite interested in acquiring a share of the rifle market. This initially manifested itself in the Colt Burgess lever action rifle, leading to the famous alleged agreement between Colt and Winchester that Colt would not manufacture lever action rifles and Winchester would not manufacture revolvers. Well, if this agreement really took place, then Colt was not very positive about it - because in 1884, a year after Burgess's rifle was taken off the market, he introduced a new rifle.
The Colt Lightning rifle, introduced in 1884, was designed for the.44-40 cartridge, the most popular pistol cartridge at the time offered for the 1873 Colt revolvers. Colt then released the Lightning in three versions, using a wide range of cartridges from.22 Short to.50-95 Express. More than 185,000 lightning rifles were manufactured, but none have been produced since 1904, that is, until now.
The Colt-Molniya carbine, which is also called the Colt-Molniya rifle, is a fairly short carbine with manual pump-action reloading. The three models produced differed primarily in barrel length, but outwardly they all resembled the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Remington Arms pump-action shotguns.
"Lightning" was actively bought as a weapon for hunting, for sports shooting, and it was also acquired by the San Francisco Police Department. But it should be noted that she never had such popularity as modern rifles with a lever action reloading mechanism.
"Lightning" "medium" was produced from 1884 to 1904. It turned out to be the first Colt rifle to have a sliding bolt. A total of 89,777 copies of these rifles were produced in three calibers:.32-20,.38-40 and.44-40. Moreover, the highlight of this "line" was that the company produced its famous army revolver in the same calibers. Two versions were produced: the first - a rifle with a barrel length of 26 inches (66 cm) and with a 15-round tubular magazine, and a relatively short carbine with a barrel of 20 inches (51 cm) and a 12-round magazine chambered for.44-40, which was used by the police of the city of San Francisco.
The small-sized version of the "Lightning" (also known as "Colt-Lightning" second model ") became the first" Kolt "rifle chambered for rimfire cartridges, and it was produced from 1887 to 1904. This sample received its name "gallery rifle" for being used for entertaining shooting in shooting ranges. It was produced even in larger numbers than the previous model: 89,912 pieces in.22 Short and.22 Long calibers. So, as you can see, it turned out to be the most popular. All metal parts had an excellent blued finish. The barrel was 24 inches (61 cm) long. High-quality walnut wood was used for the stock and butt.
Finally, the company also produced the "Lightning" model "Express" (in production from 1887 to 1894), but only relatively few of these guns were produced, only 6,496 copies, and chambered for.38-55 Winchester and.50-95 Express. The trunks could be 22 and 28 inches (56 and 71 cm).
The firm planned to release two more military versions, one of which could easily fold, and the other, a large-caliber one, was to be equipped with a bayonet, but they were never produced.
"Winchester", I must say, in this "war of interests" did not remain in debt and responded with the release of three or four models of revolvers (ultra-rare today), which turned out to be better than the famous "Colts".
Well, then they sat down at the negotiating table (many authors wrote that this was the case, although, of course, no one was holding a candle there!) To discuss the "difficulties" that had arisen for both firms. It was decided that the Colt would abandon the lever action rifles and the Winchester - the revolvers. So the "Koltovtsy" still won back the "Lightning". And in the end, it was released until 1904.
However, the Colt company did not produce the sporting rifles themselves until 1957.
Today the Molniya rifle is produced by the Italian company Uberti, and it is an exact copy of the original Colt product. At the same time, thanks to the use of modern steel and production technologies, Uberti's Molniya can be used with the most modern ammunition.
They are available in calibers.45 Colt or.357 Magnum, all with a glossy matt walnut stock and a choice of either blued or tarnished. As for the rate of fire, the "lightning" can still beat any "Winchester", because, as Sam Colt himself said, "".
