Well the new to me rolling block carbine arrived Friday.
Interesting carbine. Came with a bunch of paperwork. It was relined by a gentlemen out in Ma who does a lot of rebuilds for the SAS crowd, rifles, pistols and shotguns.
The work was done around 2003-04 and was featured in the Remington Society Journal in 2004.
Relined with a Redman 44-40 liner, 20 inch barrel. Rebuilt extractor, reworked front sight for correct point of aim.
Reading the journal it seems this carbine started life in 58 Berdan (late 1860's). Was relined to 43 spanish around 1896.
Markings show use in the National Army in Spain. There are seven "kill marks" on the rifle, five on the barrel and two on the wrist of the butt stock. From what I've read about kill marks, this could indicate kills or the number of battles the soldier fought in while carrying this rifle. Still interesting.
The history of the rifle since the reline. It was done for a customer (the sellers son), shot a few times then the owner passed away and it sat in a gun cabinet for almost twenty years. Then I bought it.
When it arrived here it was dirty and had surface rust on the barrel and in the action, the block, hammer and trigger were stiff with a horrendous trigger pull. The hammer would not catch the firing position at first attempt and was sporadic after that. Cleaned the bore and it looks brand new!
I pulled the action apart and addressed the rust, the worst was the trigger spring and the mainspring. Both were heavily pitted with rust, probably never changed or addressed?
The main spring was bent out of shape like a spaghetti noodle close to the hammer and upon inspection I found that the hammer spring was almost 1/4 of an inch too long, why?? That would explain the bent spring.
The action internals cleaned up great! I replaced the trigger and main spring with a couple of lightened ones I had as spares for my 45-70 roller. The action is now smooth as butter, trigger pull is just under 4 pounds and it catches the fire position as intended and locks solid. Cleaned up the outsides of the carbine and ready for a field test.
The only concern I have about the rifle right now is the head space. According to what was published in the journal the gunsmith set it with minimum head space. Minimal in this case is the breech block when closed on a round it is flush with the base of the cartridge but has a few thousands of clearance between the breach block and barrel, none at the cartridge. No tilted breach block when locked on a round. The breach does lock firmly against the base of the cartridge, snaps right into place. With a round in the chamber, breach closed and the hammer down there is no play at all in the action.
The rifle was test fired after completion and looks like it is very accurate, I was sent 2 test targets at 30 and 40 yards, 7 shots each with bullseye hits and one flier on the 40 yard. No mention of the condition of the fired brass was made during the test. The seller said the rifle shot great with no mention of problems with the brass.
Other than the headspace concern, I'm real happy so far with the rifle. I really like the looks of it, old with character! Going to give it a workout today if all goes well. Going to run a box of winchester cowboy loads and a few BP loads through it for a start.
Really hoping all goes well. There's a pistol cartridge shoot next weekend and I'd really like to attend it with this rifle.
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