Substitute for the Spencer I couldn't get .... Pics Added

[RattlesnakeJack]

I don't know if I have yet reported that impenetrable Bureaucratic Red Tape ended up defeating the Marshal and I in our mutual mission to make me the owner of a 56-50 Spencer carbine, but we finally gave up on it recently.

One reason I wanted one is that Canada purchased a few thousand of Model 1865 Spencer rifles and carbines in 1866, in order to get our Militia armed with breechloaders in the face of the Fenian Threat.  At the same time Canada also purchased 3000 .50-60 rimfire Peabody rifles.  Just today, I have committed to purchase one of the original rifles, in pretty decent shape, and with a very clean"CM" (Canada Militia) mark on the buttstock ...







One reason I have decided to get this rifle is that they are not too difficult to convert to centerfire, and appropriate cartridge cases can be made from .50-70 brass.  (I have already ordered a Peabody breechblock and striker from Dixie Gun Works, to be used for the conversion, since I certainly don't want to mess up the original parts ...)

[Frenchie]

I don't know if I have yet reported that impenetrable Bureaucratic Red Tape ended up defeating the Marshal and I in our mutual mission to make me the owner of a 56-50 Spencer carbine, but we finally gave up on it recently.

Bureaucracy, the curse of civilization.

"...after having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered but softened, bent and guided; men are seldom forced to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrial animals, of which government is the shepherd." -- Alexis de Tocqueville

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished." -- Pierre Proudhon, 'General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century'

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

[Steel Horse Bailey]

ditto

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[RattlesnakeJack]

The real irony is that all of the bureaucratic red tape which defeated us was on the "Land of the Free" side of the border ....   

[Frenchie]

The real irony is that all of the bureaucratic red tape which defeated us was on the "Land of the Free" side of the border ....   

Indeed, Jack. I can't speak for Canada, having never been a citizen and only knowing what I read about it, but I can assuredly say that the Democratic People's Republic of Maryland (nicknamed 'The Free State' - there's irony for you) is the worst of those I've inhabited, and that includes California. But lately My Lovely Bride has voiced a desire to move to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, aka God's Country, and my joy is nearly unbounded. The only downsides I can see are the necessity to keep a lower profile while wearing the Union Army blue and never, ever, saying anything positive about Generals David Hunter and Philip Sheridan. Hey, I can handle that. 

[RattlesnakeJack]

Frenchie:

I've never had the pleasure of visiting Virginia, but by all accounts I believe that I'd greatly prefer it to either California (which I have visited) or Maryland (which I haven't) ....   

[Frenchie]

Oh, I meant to mention also, Canada has the most unfailingly polite police officers I've ever encountered.

[Cannon Fodder]

I dont understand all the big words but I'm speculatin that your guns havent come in yet!!

CF

[River City John]

Oh, I meant to mention also, Canada has the most unfailingly polite police officers I've ever encountered.

Oh Hell!, the whole dam country is filled with nice people. Ya can't get away from 'em!

[Frenchie]

Got the cure for that, John: Go into a café in Montréal or Québec and speak English in a loud, annoying tone of voice as you complain about the food and the dual languages. Or go see my relatives in Newfoundland and talk about how good they had it after the Yanks came to build the big base at St. John's and marry up all the young women so they wouldn't become old maids. You may well start an international incident and we'll get to read about you in the papers

[Frenchie]

I dont understand all the big words but I'm speculatin that your guns havent come in yet!!

CF

Me? No, haven't got 'em yet, just lots of bruises from bouncing off the walls.

[Beau]

Vous pouvez voir par mes vêtements que je ne suis pas un cowboy.
xlate:  you can see by my clothing I am not a cowboy?

Hey Frenchie,
Unk Beau here from over on the Dark Blue side.    I feel I am getting to old to be a young Union whippersnapper.
But glad to see a familiar face over here.

Looking for a Spencer like Great Uncle Hans Kelling carried in 2nd Iowa Cav.    May have to find a used repro to play with.
I have got my eye on one, we will see if it comes through.

"Sometimes the super deals are like ripe fruit,  it takes a while for it to fall off the tree into my hands."
Jeepers that is a great quote,  you may use my name with it!
Yours,
Unkle Beau
late of the 24th Iowa Co. G

[Frenchie]

Unkle Beau! Great to see you here! You bet, that's what it says, "You can see by my outfit that I am not a cowboy." I never thought I could pull off being a buckaroo and since my CW stuff works up to about 1872, I decided to stay in the Army. I have a Taylor's 1865 Spencer rifle in the pipeline along with a Remington cartridge conversion revolver, but for now I have my cap 'n' ball shooters, two Navy Remingtons, a Navy Colt, a "Wells Fargo" Colt Pocket, and of course "Charlene", my Armisport '61 Springfield. Ever pushed a .58 Minié ball out of your musket? Whole 'nuther experience from blowing blanks!

Getting old, yup, the beard is almost completely gray now, might have to promote myself to crusty old career sergeant, maybe. Cool thing, the Spencer works for my Navy outfit too (whenever it gets here... sigh...).

Now get your carcass over to the Spencer Shooting Society conference and sign up! Tell Two Flints you want one of those beautiful patches too!

"Sometimes the super deals are like ripe fruit,  it takes a while for it to fall off the tree into my hands."
Jeepers that is a great quote,  you may use my name with it!

Good one!

[River City John]

Not to hijack Jack's thread even further, but I want to know when will his definitive limited pictorial edition of "Shooting Historical Arms of the Canadian Military from the Collection of Rattlesnake Jack" be published, and where do I send the money for an autographed copy?

[RattlesnakeJack]

Egad, RCJ, Sir!  An interesting suggestion, BUT ....  I have several firearms I fully intend to shoot but which I haven't yet gotten around to getting fully functional or acquiring loading dies for, or for any number of other reasons, with yet another such beast on the way!  Who's got time for writing?   

And, in any event, such a work would undoubtedly need to be subtitled ".... and Shooting None of Them Too Well Because There Are Too Darned Many ...."    (The corollary of the caution: "Beware the man with only one gun - he probaly knows how to use it.")

[Dr. Bob]

Frenchie,

If ya donaw wanna be a Sgt.,  ya kin just darken the outline of Sgt. stripes and bitch bout bein busted, again, and again &c, &c.    Yer story and yer stikin to it!

FCJ,

I want a signed copy too!!  The problem would be not to drool on the pretty pictures!

RJR,

I've only got a couple, so I need to come up with another excuse for my shooting shortcomings!

Dr. Bob   The handsome NCOWS Senate Candidate!

[Grapeshot]

When I was in Germany, way back in 1977, one of the NCO's at the 1/1 Cav purchased an original Snider Conversion of a .577 Enfield Rifle Musket.  I do not know where he got his amm from or who was making it, but it was a neat looking rifle.

[RattlesnakeJack]

Currently have three Canadian-marked .577 Snider-Enfields - a three-band Infantry Rifle and two two-band Short Rifles (the latter issued to "Rifles" units and Sergeants of Infantry). 

Devilish hard to get to shoot accurately ... despite the fact that the muzzle-loading Rifle-Muskets they were converted from were among the most accurate military rifles of their day.  (Mainly a function of poor cartridge and chamber design, including the fact that they persisted in using an under-bore-sized .573 Minie-type bullet, which couldn't expand properly when confined in a cartridge case.  After all, this was at the very dawn of the development of self contained cartridges and breechloaders to shoot them in.)

But they are, indeed, handsome firearms ... this is my three-band:

[RattlesnakeJack]

My Peabody rifle arrived last week, though I've only now gotten around to taking a few photos to supplement those obtained from the vendor's website which I posted initially ...

[Frenchie]

A very handsome rifle, I must say. Clean lines, nicely proportioned. Looking forward to your report when you get to shoot it!