They say that 80% of men are murderers at heart. And this is quite possible to believe, if we recall our thousand-year biological history: men hunted game, and women gathered cereals. Therefore, it is not surprising that it is pleasant for us to hold a weapon in our hands, to have it at home, to read articles about it in magazines, and to shoot from it ourselves - which is really there. And every man has, in general, his favorite model - someone has an army machine gun ("love of youth"), someone bought an expensive Winchester for bucks in the states ("just like in cowboy films"), and someone else has something else. I personally really like … Remington swing-bolt rifles (or with a crane, as they also say). However, for some reason, little has been written about them in our country, although in the history of armed struggle at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. she played a very important role!
Carbine "Remington".46 caliber 1865.
Well, and the story about this weapon will need to start by thinking that one of the quirks of the history of technology is that a good idea often occurs in the head of different people, moreover, at about the same time. But even more often it happens that a completely different person uses a good idea of one person. And here is just the story with the Remington rifle from this number. And, by the way, it is very instructive in all respects.
Eliphalet Remington.
Eliphalet Remington himself was born on October 28, 1793, and died on August 12, 1861. Like many other Americans, he was born into a family of immigrants from England who left to seek their fortune overseas. Becoming a blacksmith, at the age of 23 he made a good rifle, for which he forged a barrel, and bought the mechanism from a visiting merchant. And since he liked the rifle, and he worked out the technology, the only thing was to open his own company for its manufacture, which he did. The company was called E. Remington and Son."
Capsule revolver Remington "New Model" mod. 1858
The company was officially registered in Illion, New York in 1825. Father and son worked together for 19 years, after which they took over the nephew of Eliphalet Sr. - Philo Remington. And then two more sons of the founder of the company - Samuel and Eliphalet the Third - joined the family business.
Cartridge revolver of 1875.44 caliber, decorated with engraving.
After that, the company was renamed into E. Remington and Sons. The company operated under this name until 1888, when the reins of government passed into the hands of the grandsons of the founder of the company - Graham and Hartley Remington. The brothers decided that Remington Arms Company sounded more solid than the old name coined by their grandfather, and without hesitation, they changed it for the third time. Under this name, it exists today, however, it is no longer only producing weapons.
Remington revolving rifle.
For the first time, the company became famous thanks to the revolver created in 1863, which competed with the Colt himself (he, by the way, had already died at that time!) And was adopted by the American army. The success of the revolver, which had a solid closed frame, unlike the Colt revolvers, led its owners to the idea of releasing revolver carbines of the same system. Well, almost simultaneously with this revolver and its revolving rifles, the company released its world masterpiece - a cavalry carbine with a so-called crane bolt or "rolling block" bolt, as the Americans themselves call it.
Moreover, it was not invented by Remington or his sons, but by a certain Leonard Geiger. For a long time it was thought that he was an employee of the Remington Company. However, thanks to new research done by Ed Hull, it became known that Geiger not only did not work for the Remington family, he may have never even met them.
The bolt and trigger of the carbine mod. 1865 year.
But Joseph Ryder was indeed an employee of the Remington firm and he developed his shutter almost simultaneously with Geiger. In any case, the similarities between the ideas of Geiger and Ryder are evident. Ryder received his patent on November 15, 1864. Geiger - April 17, 1866 And here, instead of suing, Remington bought the patent rights from Geiger. The two Geiger brothers got rich on this, but the shutter designed by Joseph is now called "Remington"!
The shutter is open.
However, the firm managed to release rifles under Ryder's patent, which received the designation "Old Model Carbine". In March 1864, the federal government ordered 1,000 of these.46 caliber (11.6mm) carbines for rimfire cartridges. In December, the contract was revised and the order increased to 5,000 copies. The first 1,250 were produced in February 1865, more than 1,500 were produced in March, and the final delivery was made on April 30, 1865. At the same time, "Remington" signed a second contract (in October 1864) for 15,000 carbines, called the "second model". They were designed for the more powerful.50 caliber (12.7mm) Spencer also rimfire, which was used in the 1865 model seven-shot carbine. The first 1,000 were delivered to the army in September 1865, five months after the cessation of hostilities. The remaining 14,000 carbines were manufactured by March 1866 and were declared redundant by the army. Therefore, in November 1870, the company bought the entire supply from her and sold the rifles to France, where they were used during the Franco-Prussian war!
Carbines also proved to be a successful weapon. For the riders, anyway. It was the Remington Sporting carbine that General Custer was armed with in the fateful battle with the Indians at the Little Big Horn in 1876. The general (even if he fought there with the rank of colonel) could probably afford any weapon. But he chose the unpatriotic large-caliber Bulldog revolvers and … a single-shot Remington carbine!
1871 Remington rifle, Spanish-made.43 caliber cartridge. Produced by the Spanish National Arsenal in Oviedo.
Well, the "crane gates" themselves were also produced not by the Remington company, but by the Savage company from Middleton, Connecticut. That is, everything was the same as before, when Eliphalet Remington himself forged the barrels for his rifles!
Well, now let's look at the technique itself. After all, before us, undoubtedly, the most ingenious bolt for a rifle of all times and peoples, and there is simply no equal to it in its completeness, simplicity and reliability.
Leonard Geiger patent.
Let's turn to Geiger's patent, because in the drawing from it, everything is very clearly visible and understandable. What immediately bribed the gunsmiths-technologists of Remington with this shutter was its simplicity and high manufacturability. After all, the entire bolt consisted of only three main parts, two axles and four springs, not counting the screws. The bolt itself had the shape of an inverted P, but the hammer chambered for circular ignition was typical of its time and consisted of a spoke and a striker. Both of these parts were large and therefore strong, rotated on massive axles, so there was simply nothing to break in the bolt! At the same time, the triggered trigger entered the middle groove of the bolt and, in fact, in the closed state, made one whole with it.
Fastening of the bolt pins with one screwed plate. After removing it, they could be easily knocked out and removed the bolt and trigger.
This shutter acted like this. In order to make a shot, you had to pull the trigger back with your thumb. At the same time, he was held in this position by the trigger. Then the U-shaped shutter was retracted, which had a groove for fingers on its protrusions on the left and right. Now it was possible to insert a cartridge into the barrel and press it with a bolt, spring-loaded from below with a special spring. After that, it remained to aim and pull the trigger. The latter entered the bolt, firmly propped it up so that no recoil force could jointly throw them back, and at the same time, with its striker hit the rim of the cartridge.
A shot followed, after which everything had to be done in reverse order. At the same time, the extractor pushed the sleeve out of the barrel, and the rifle was ready for reloading.
Sports carbine.32 caliber.
From 1867 to 1896 the Remington company produced a huge number of rifles and carbines chambered for black powder cartridges. For example, in 1869, 125,000 rifles of this system were supplied to Turkey alone.
One of the many Remington rifle models.
And then Berdan's central battle cartridge appeared, and the company had to remake its bolt for a novelty. It all boiled down to the following changes: for example, the bolt acquired the shape of a trigger, inside which a channel for the striker passed. On the right side of it was installed a curved plate ("spoke") to take it back. And that's all the changes! Now the hammer was hitting the striker and, as before, it was tightly locked in the "dead center".
Remington advertising leaflet.
Moreover, despite the fact that in 1896 many countries had already switched to multi-charge rifles, "Remington" still produced "single charges", but already chambered for smokeless powder cartridges and sold them all over the world. The rifles were produced in the following calibers: 6 mm (.236 caliber "Remington"), 7 mm for Mauser cartridges for Spain and Brazil, 7.62 mm (.30 US caliber), and 7.65 mm for Belgium, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. What lured you with? Cheap - since the cost of the rifle was only $ 15 with a bayonet. And high fighting qualities. For example, the emphasis was on the length of the barrel - 30 inches, despite the fact that it itself was shorter than many others, and the weight was about 4 kg with a bayonet. The rate of fire of the rifle was higher than that of many magazine samples and reached 15 rounds per minute.
The aiming range was 900 meters, although some rifles had sights at 1280 meters. Disassembling and cleaning it was also easy and convenient. Both axes of the trigger and the bolt were kept from falling out by a special plate on the left side of the receiver with an ordinary screw. It was enough to unscrew it, knock out both of these axles, as well as the bolt and the trigger were easily removed, and the barrel could be cleaned from both sides! As a result, even the papal guard in the Vatican made it their service weapon!
Rifle "Remington".50-70 caliber New York National Guard.
