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FINE REMINGTON TYPE-1 SPLIT-BREECH CARBINE

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The split breech Remington carbine is the precursor of the rolling block action, which for a time played a major role in the international military arms market. This was the first Remington arm using metallic cartridges and about the last carbine qualifying as Civil War, with two samples delivered in March and April 1865, and major deliveries starting in early May and completed by the end of June on a contract for 5,000. Remington had been busy making revolvers and subcontracted manufacture to the Savage Revolving Arms Co.  through William Norris. The carbine comes in two configurations. This is the Type-1, delivered first, though on the later contract, and is in .46 caliber rimfire, with 20-inch barrel fitted with carbine style front sight and rear sight with single leaf graduated to 500 yards, the barrel secured by a single barrel band and the receiver fitted with side bar and sling ring. The Type-2 was slightly more hefty, used a .50 caliber cartridge, and differed in some other respects, but deliveries of the 15,000 called for in that contract did not begin until September 1865 and were not completed until May 1866. In the end, most of these carbines, some 3,600 of the Type-1 and almost all of the Type-2, still in government store, were repurchased by Remington in 1870 for sale to the French in the Franco-Prussian War, but McAulay notes that in 1871 the 9^th US cavalry, one of the two U.S. Army black cavalry regiments was armed with these .46 Type-1 carbines.

This is a very strong example with the metal rating about excellent and the wood near fine.  The barrel retains better than 80 percent of its color, transitioning from a muted blue forward to plum from about the tip of the forestock back to the breech. The barrel band matches in color, as to the front and rear sights. The breech shows mottled faded blues, thin browns and grays of faded case hardening. The upper screw shows good color, the lower screws shoe more gray. The hammer, rear of the block, trigger, and wrist tang, show a lot of muted blue. The side of the hammer shows mottled blues and grays. The buttplate shows some rubs and a mix grays, faded blues, and browns.

The wood to metal fit is tight throughout and the wood has a pleasing warm brown tone with good surface. We see a couple of wear spots on the forestock with one small chip on the barrel channel on the right, just forward of the band, two small dings on the side just behind the band, and a short drag line on the left, midway between the band and receiver, and one small ding forward of the buttplate tang. The buttstock shows some light scratches and handling marks, including a couple darker ones on the left, aft of the wrist, but also shows a small factory subinspector letter at the wrist and two extremely sharp US inspector cartouches: The “CGC” mark of Charles G. Curtis, a civilian employee of the Ordnance Department inspecting contract arms, and the “JT” of principal sub-inspector John Taylor.

The tang is crisply marked “REMINGTON’S. ILION. N.Y. / PAT. DEC. 23, 1863. MAY 3. & NOV 16, 1864,” the dates referring to the company’s acquisition of patents covering the breechloading system, which had been invented and patented by one Leonard Geiger, and then improved by Remington’s Joseph Rider. We have not removed the forestock to check the carbine serial number, which is applied to the underside of the barrel. The buttplate tang has a sharp “US”.  Bore is clean with good rifling; mechanics function well.  [sr][ph:L]

DISCLAIMER: All firearms are sold as collector's items only - we do not accept responsibility as to the shooting safety or reliability of any antique firearm. All firearms are described as accurately as possible, given the restraints of a catalog listing length. We want satisfied customers & often "under" describe the weapons. Any city or state regulations regarding owning antique firearms are the responsibility of the purchaser. All firearms are "mechanically perfect" unless noted, but again, are NOT warranted as safe to fire.

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