A snider

[Beekeeper]

Has anyone bought one of the battlefield pickups being offered by IMA?
Was it complete or are you looking at more to get parts than you paid for the carcase.
Have a Gahendra that I would love to shoot but can't find anyone to tell me if the barrel is safe.
Was thinking of getting one of the sniders to rebuild but would like someone elses input before I do the deed and around here there isn't anyone who will even talk the old guns.
Ain't M16, M14 ,AK47 don't know or care.


Jim

[m.chalmers]

IMA list them as is/shown. As in some are shootable $599+ and other are wall hangers $399 and last the $250 untouched shells.
Hit this:
http://www.ima-usa.com/index.php/cPath/29_115?osCsid=4ab80d05942eda97f31afa6bc929e8f6

[m.chalmers]

See this also:
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?t=128962

[Beekeeper]

M Chalmers.
Wikipedia says they are unauthorized knockoffs.
So I thought better of it and saved my money.
Guess maybe I'll buy another Mauser instead

Jim

[Buckshot]

...........One of the guys on the British and Militaria board got one of the 'Pick up" ones, and it was as ugly as sin. But after cleaning it up it had a shiney bore, clean action and lock. Once the stock was refinished it was a smart looking piece. It was of indigenous manufacture, not British make but I'm sure he plans on shooting it.

...............Buckshot

[Cactus Farmer]

Snyder actions are inherently strong due to the design.....a brass frame and breach bolt would be good enough to shoot BP loads........Your not wanting to shoot a mangelem' in it,are you? Any reasonable condition bore will shoot some and a few less than good bores have (IMHO) shot better than I would have ever thought. A 6.5 Carcano comes to mind......Bore was a rusty pitted mess. A few strokes with a concoction a friend had brewed up on a SS bore brush got a lot of bad out. Then a few "J" words to shake out the loosened rust and a few boolits with a dab of lapping paste. Now remember this is a cut down (22 in. tube) rifle with iron sights........4-5 inch groups with cast at 200 yards.........I was amazed....told the customer if he ever wanted to sell it,PLEASE sell it to me! A great pickup/knock around rifle. "El coyote" wouldn't fair too well in a chance incounter with it!

[BruceB]

On the subject of the .577 Snider CARTRIDGE, NVCurmudgeon and myself were poking around the tables at the last Big Reno Show, a couple weeks back.

We came across a double rifle chambered in .577 Snider. It was based on an old (English?) side-by-side exposed-hammer shotgun with damascus barrels, which had been sleeved to .577 with fluid-steel liners.

I suspect the gun weighed fifteen pounds, with ten pounds ahead of the hinge pin! The barrels were pristine, of course, and the action was nice and snug. The gent said it would print a pair of those fat .577s within a couple of inches of each other at 80 yards.

The amazing thing was the asking price...$750, and open to offers. At that price, the rifle would provide almost endless opportunities for experimentation. After considerable discussion and drooling, we moved on without the rifle. I still sorta regret that, because NOBODY you'd ever run into could say, "Oh, a double .577 Snider? *I* have one of those...." Also, imagine the possibilities...exploding bullets, round ball loads, you name it.

[Red River Rick]

Here's a good source for "Original" Sniders and Martini's, if your looking to buy: http://www.denner.ca/weapons/longguns/index.html

RRR

[9.3X62AL]

Also, imagine the possibilities...exploding bullets, round ball loads, you name it.

Not to mention, the ability to stop Kenworths in their tracks.

[BruceB]

At one time, years ago, I owned a Snider rifle which had definitely seen some service.

One evening, a friend who happened to be the RCMP detachment's "ident man" asked to borrow the rifle for a few days to do some checking. On returning it, he said that human blood was caked around the lockplate and also around the buttplate.

Later on, a dentist friend identified two deep dents in the top of the butt, near the the heel. He said they were the imprints of some poor soul's incisor teeth, doubtless driven deep into the hard walnut by a determined butt-stroke.

What desperate action was this rifle used in? Was the blood from the owner, or the adversary, or both? Clearly, the battle came down to hand-to-hand range as witnessed by the butt-to-the-teeth evidence.

The Sniders saw considerable service in the British colonial days before the advent of the Martini-Henry and .303 Enfield, and almost anywhere in the middle east or Africa would be a possibility.

It truly makes one wonder.

[Beekeeper]

IMA offers (battle field pick ups Officers short rifles for $250 (untouched) meaning as found.
Several people have bought them and I was thinking about one but other places say they are Kiber Pass ripoffs. Is there anyone here that purchased one and knows for sure?
Would make a good conversation piece if non fireable (which I Hate)


Jim

[Beekeeper]

We will know in the next week or so.
I sent in an order to IMA this morning after doing some more research and am looking forward to getting the rifle .
I think this one will be my last foray into the world of antiques.
SHMBO has put her foot down on old rifles.Guess that means I can only order new ones from now on.
Anyway if anyone wants it I will do a picture post of what it looks like and how it cleans up.

Jim

[Beekeeper]

Well I got her!!
She is of Nepaleese Manufacture.
After getting all of the Yak S$$t off it si a remarkable weapon.
Bore is pristine (haven't slugged it yet as no slugs big enough) with about one inch of the muzzle with a little rust.
Most of it came off with s brush and Eds Red
The stock has its share of dings and scratches but is quite repairable.
Was amazed to find checkering under all of the crud.
I think she will clean up and be a good shooter, if nothing else one heck of a conversation piece when someone looks down that barrel,( looks like you can drive a truck through it.)
with the short barrel i'll bet she will kick like a mule (broken shoulder time ) if you don't tuck her up tight.

Jim

[smkummer]

A friend of mine in the Air Guard was somewhere over there and had one shipped home. I believe he paid $40o and it only cost about $30 to ship after customs declared it was antique. His was not a converted muzzle loader and actually manufactured as a snider. I found about 15 cases at the big Louisville gun show and we loaded some of my 58 minies in it with pyrodex cartridge powder. They were loose fitting and I would try and wedge out the skirt to they would hold in the case. We didn't have dies so we manually dprimed and primed. I discovered that the snyder mold is a .585 diameter bullet. And Lyamn at one time made a 585 213 for the cartridge. We had fun shooting the beast and it was OK accuracy wise and would only get better if we had the correct bullet.

[Buckshot]

...............My first Snider was a MkII** 3 band I bought from a place in Canada. It had 2 different types of barrel bands (early and late), had obviously been carried around. It's bore was actually not bad, but did have a a rust patch just short of the muzzle. Without magnification you could see the fairly minor but still detrimental pitting there.

This was some time back, and a freind said if I would give up one of my 577-450 cases he would mangle up a 577 Snider from it, and he did. He said he used a wide assortment of stuff including some automotive suspension tools :-). I did not know then what I do now about Sniders, and all I had for projectiles was a couple different 58 caliber Minie bulley types. By far the 505gr Lee was the most numerous.

Understanding that there wasn't supposed to be any room between the powder and the Minie', I filled the case right on up:shock: The way we initially brought the case to size was to get it started into the chamber and put a piece of wood against it and using a hammer borrowed from the rangemaster we drove her on in! Knocked it out with the clearing rod. The case had been a Berdan Primed Kynoch I'd converted to 209 shotgun primer.

After the case had been filled with powder, the base of the Minie' was filled with Crisco and then was set on top. You had to hold the case upright or the Minie' would fall out. To load the rifle you had to also hold it muzzle up, tip in the loaded round, push it up into the chamber and then swing the breechblock closed. Actually it was "almost" closed and we had to use our chambering stick to tap it completley closed.

I hiked my left buttcheek up onto a shooting bench and leaning forward rested my left elbow on my left leg as I aimed the rifle downrange. My right leg was basically just dangleing off the edge of the bench. I was actually a bit fearfull of shooting it, and when I'd finally pulled the trigger the hammer just when "CLACK" against the firing pin. However I produced such a fearfull flinch in anticipation that there was much amusement and ribbing. Had I had a bayonet I would have performed a bayonet charge upon them.

The hammer was re-cocked and another bead was drawn on the 100 yard berm (It seemed a likely target). This time there wasn't the slightest hesitation on the primer's part in doing it's job! With a stunning "KA-BLOOOM!" she went off. I rolled back on the bench and hand my right leg which had been dangleing there not touched the ground, I would have simply fallen over backwards onto the pavement [smilie=w: Once again I was the subject of much hilarity.

Due to the cloud of smoke no one recorded the hit, wherever it was. However we had success! With some basic tools we knocked out the old primer and put in a fresh one. From then on we used a cut down 12 ga hull we got from the trash can to measure in the powder, and it was NOT a full case! We used newspaper for wadding under the Minie', and naturally still had to load the rifle pointing the barrel straight up. We also still had to use our stick to fully close the breechblock, and it was, "I say there Ron, be a good chap and hand me the breech knocker if you please? There's a good lad."

The 3-4 guys who'd been standing around all had to shoot it, and then Ron and I shot it until we ran out of Minie' boolits. Due to the exceedingly casual fit of the Minie' to the chamber/bore accuracy was for all practical purposes non-existent. However we were having so much fun it didn't really matter to us. While we didn't have any 'whistlers', actually hitting the 6' tall 100 meter berm was cause for celebration.

Some years later, a Canadian freind of mine found out I had a Snider and wanted to know if I'd like to have a bunch of Snider parts he had 'lying about'. I naturally said sure.

http://www.fototime.com/35572699B1D8361/standard.jpg

What he sent was a complete carbine (above, a cutdown rifle) in parts, and missing only the screw that held the hammer on the tumbler.

http://www.fototime.com/1A15641CDD2AC93/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/91195394A760CC0/standard.jpg

I had to cut a new crown, and set it up in the steady rest only to find out the bore was running about .015" out of round with the barrel OD :veryconfu. I had to break all that down and then turn a brass plug I could drive into the muzzle and then cut a center in it. With it set back up and using a notched dead center for the brass plug to run on, I was able to recut the crown.

Accuracy with the military Sniders can be a chore due to the chambers having been cut generously for the Boxer foil cartridges. One of the easiest ways is to simply use a .600" round ball if you don't have a Minie of .590" OD on hand. Using a Lee RB mould and cast of WW alloy the RB's run about .604".

http://www.fototime.com/AD10AA21E7DA774/standard.jpg

The above is 31 rounds loaded up in 5 round batches representing 6 different load concoctions. Each row of 5 is sitting on top of it's load data. The brass is MagTech 24ga shotshells cut to length. These were the older Berdan primed type I converted to 209 shotshell primers. A couple years ago MagTech changed from the Berdan primer to a large pistol primer, hooray!!

http://www.fototime.com/6B7DDA0EB79A324/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/AAA154F8ADB8308/standard.jpg

These were the 2 best targets shot. Shot at 50 yards. The #2 target has 2 rounds through the higher hole. I don't know if the 2 high ones were the flyers or the 3 lower ones! Again that dad burn flyer on target #6. Naturally I'd somehow lost or misplaced that sheet of load data so I have no idea what these loads were.

................Buckshot