1868 Transformed Rifle :?:

[calcollector]

1868 Transformed Rifle After studying George Layman's book "Remington Rolling Block Military Rifles of the World", I believe I may have come across one of these rifles. It appears to be a match for the one pictured on page 45 in the section on the Model 1868 transformed rifle. It has a 36 inch barrel measured from the muzzle to the breech block, two barrel bands, and the rifle musket rear sight as pictured. It has a three-digit serial number between the sight and the breech. The butt plate has the marking "US" but no other markings or numbers. The lower tang is longer and the upper is marked "REMINGTONS ILION N.Y. U.S.A. PAT. MAY 30 NOV. 15th 1864 APRIL 17TH 1866". I slugged the barrel. It appears to have three lands and three grooves with micrometer measurements of .502-.506 inch. There are no cartouches or other markings on the stock. Any chance this could be one of the Remington-Springfield conversions? Thanks for your input.

Here is the link to my photobucket account with pictures:

http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t226 ... =slideshow

[rudybolla]

Possible. Photos always help here.

[calcollector]

Rudybolla: Thanks for your interest. For you and any others interested I edited my original entry to include a link to photos of the rifle.

[oldremguy]

Hello Calcollector,

Very nice find!!! It is one of the rifles that was made by Springfield and later converted from the 3-band rifle to 2-band. For the past 2 years I have been trying to pick up original parts to rebuild one of them. Will have to take some photos of it later on and post them for you to see. Thanks for showing it to us. One of the parts at I am still looking for is the forearm. Will have to send you a email to see if you could give me some measurements, so in case i have to make one, I can get the barrel bands in the right spot.

Have A Good Day,
Matt

[calcollector]

Matt:
Thanks for your reply to my post. I'd be more than happy to make any measurements you would like. Please feel free to email me.

I enjoy shooting and reloading for many rifles and pistols and especially enjoy several older military rifles including Swedish Mausers, .303 Enfields, M1 Garands and Carbines, and a US Model 1917 30-06. My wife the antique dealer purchased this Remington rolling block at a country estate sale about three years ago because she thought it was a really cool old rifle. I've recently retired and found the time to research the rifle to see what she'd found. I was surprised to discover it appeared to be one of the 504 rare Springfield conversions and I couldn't believe her good luck. I found the Remington Society site early on in my research and thought -Where better to get information on an old Remington? I decided to post to the forum to see if any of the members would be kind enough to either help confirm or point out the error in my identification. Thanks again for your response.

[oldremguy]

Hello Calcollector,

Your wife pick up a very good rolling block rifle to start you out with. I seen one at a gun show about 20 years ago, but didn't know if it was correct or not, so I didn't buy it. Back when I starting collecting them 25 years ago, there just was not a lot written about them. I dealer in England had one about 8 to 10 years ago for sale, but it had the standard length trigger guard and not the longer one as seen on most of these rifle. Didn't know if it was correct or not, so I passed on it. Here are some photos of the one that I am putting back together. Started out with the barrel and found the receiver, ramrod, nose cap, and the correct longer trigger guard. Have a butt stock for it, but will have in inlay it for the longer trigger guard.

P1010529 - Copy.JPG (19.55 KiB) Viewed 4077 times

Here is the over all rifle, the photo is a liitle dark, the sun was going down at the time the photo was taken

P1010530 - Copy.JPG (46.43 KiB) Viewed 4077 times

Here is photo showing the longer trigger guard

P1010534 - Copy.JPG (51.8 KiB) Viewed 4077 times

Here is photo of serial number on barrel in back of rear sight

Have A Good Day,
Matt

[calcollector]

Thanks to all for your interest.

I removed the fore-end of the rifle for taking photos and measurements for Matt (oldremguy). With the fore-end off I carefully inspected the underside of the barrel. On the lower-left side near the breech end there is an odd collection of punch marks. Attached is a picture showing these marks and also, beneath the marks, what may be a plug of some sort? (The white is just some chalk I rubbed on to make them show up better for the picture).
Does anyone know what these marks may be?

IMG_0044-forum-web-size.jpg (26.44 KiB) Viewed 4047 times

[tjack]

Belgian reworked Rolling Blocks frequently have various punch marks in the metal for maybe in-house identification. Any Belgian marks on the barrel? ie crown/ a letter, the perron (a shaft-like structure on a pedestal) or a crown/ ELG in an oval?

[calcollector]

tjack: Thanks for looking at my post and taking time to reply.

No. I've looked over the entire surface of the barrel and can find no marks on it other than what you see in the photo-and the serial number.