Posted on 07/20/2015 11:15:44 AM PDT by Kartographer
A 132-year-old rifle discovered on a remote rocky outcrop in the heart of the Grand Basin National Park in Nevada is still a mystery as researchers try to find more answers.
The Winchester rifle, which was found unloaded in November, has been shipped to the Cody Firearms Museum in Wyoming where it is temporarily on display among 7,000 other guns.
Museum workers said there are no records showing who owned the rifle and that its lifter was removed making it able to only fire a single shot at once, according to Fox News.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Maybe the gun was left there since the owner got tired of carrying around a gun that didn’t feed ammo.
In the same animated fashion as “Cars”?
I can honestly see Disney going full retard and making something like that.
“The rifle in question has a tubular magazine located under the barrel, as do many other lever action, slide action and semiautomatic firearms. Partially working the action allows a spring in the tubular magazine to push a cartridge back onto the lifter. Continuing to work the action allows the lifter to lift the cartridge up in line with the barrel so it can be pushed into the chamber.
So far as I know, it’s a legitimate term, although there may be others.”
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Correct. That explains the lifter. But it looks like an odd combination of rifles. In pictures of the right side of the rifle, it is a side load, and it has the under barrel magazine. In the xray it shows a rear tube feed with a cartridge still in the tube in the stock. Looks like a .45 long colt or maybe a .44 .
Was the 1873 capable of being loaded either way? I am only familiar with replicas and modern lever guns, which I have only seen to be either one way or the other.
IOW, The lever-action reloading of the rifle was disabled by it's absence, and made it a single-shot... Open the chamber with the lever, hand feed a shell into the chamber, close the chamber w/ the lever... ready to fire... yes?
“...and that its lifter was removed making it able to only fire a single shot at once.”
As a kid I wanted a tube-fed semi-auto .22 like all my buddies. My dad said the single-shot we had was better to learn with. Safer, and taught better shooting (hit it on the first time).
I wonder if the lifter was removed for a young shooter just learning? A youngster would also be more prone to leaving their rifle behind. (Well - once anyways!)
You got! Follow the money.
Now that is patina right there.
Didn’t I see this about 3-5 years ago? How many old guns are there leaning on trees, anyway?
If you look at the picture in #4 you will see a lid in the middle of the butt plate. Small items or extra ammo could be stored there. The Spencer was the most common stock loading rifle of the day, all 1873’s were side load into the under barrel magazine tube.
The cartridge is likely a .44-40 (44 W.C.F), as the 1873 was not chambered (originally) for the .45 Colt.
That’s not a rear feed tube.
Hollywood writers who have not had an original idea in 30 years are all over it.
I don't think the 'tube' in the stock is an actual magazine, but perhaps just a place to keep a few spare rounds... The actual magazine is the tube under the barrel as with modern carbines. If you look at that x-ray upthread, the bored hole in the stock stops well short of any mechanism...
Del Gue:
Damn! He was a wild one, old Hatchet Jack. He was livin’ two year in a cave up on the Musselshell with a female panther. She never did get used to him.
That is not a feed into the tube. Some had cleaning rod storage in the stock. Some would use that space to store extra ammo.
https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/shooting-history-winchester-1873-old-gun-review/
Excellent. That makes sense.
“Was the 1873 capable of being loaded either way?”
No. I agree with what’s already been posted.
The opening in which the cartridge can be seen doesn’t extend into the action so a cartridge couldn’t get to the chamber from there.
I think it was used for storage, in this case of extra cartridges.
The butt plate looks more substantial than anything I can find in a picture or exploded diagram on the web, so maybe it has a hinge or opening for access that can’t be seen in the x-ray.
Yes.
“I don’t think the ‘tube’ in the stock is an actual magazine, but perhaps just a place to keep a few spare rounds... The actual magazine is the tube under the barrel as with modern carbines. If you look at that x-ray upthread, the bored hole in the stock stops well short of any mechanism...”
I agree. Also, the butt plate looks more substantial than any thing I can find in a picture or exploded diagram on the web. Possibly it allows for some hinged opening that can’t be seen in the x-ray.
The tube in the stock was used to store a cleaning rod in the .44 WCF (44-40) 1873 Model Winchester. The “lifter” is normally called a “carrier” by those, like me, that shoot these old rifles.
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