Rifles with levers and applied magazines
Lever-action rifles of all kinds are very popular in modern cinema. Frame from the film "Crossfire" (2001). Sharps Lever Rifle with Scope
“Trying to move calmly, as if on a walk,
Henri took a few steps forward,
bent down and picked up the winchester.
Looking around and not noticing any changes,
Henri jerked the bolt and threw out the spent cartridge case.
So he was not mistaken, the shot was fired
from this gun.
With the little finger, removing the earth from the trunk,
she got quite a bit
Henri sent the shutter forward
and drove a new cartridge into the barrel.
Now he had the real in his hands weapon,
not like browning.
Feeling much more confident
Henri took the butt under his arm,
put the barrel on the bent left arm
and looked around."
Yuri Tupitsyn "Blue World"
Henri took a few steps forward,
bent down and picked up the winchester.
Looking around and not noticing any changes,
Henri jerked the bolt and threw out the spent cartridge case.
So he was not mistaken, the shot was fired
from this gun.
With the little finger, removing the earth from the trunk,
she got quite a bit
Henri sent the shutter forward
and drove a new cartridge into the barrel.
Now he had the real in his hands weapon,
not like browning.
Feeling much more confident
Henri took the butt under his arm,
put the barrel on the bent left arm
and looked around."
Yuri Tupitsyn "Blue World"
Weapon stories. In general, people very quickly realized that the one who shoots second is the first to be killed. And what if you still have bullets in your rifle, but your opponent doesn’t, then ... you are stronger anyway, if you don’t miss, of course. And so the lever systems spread. They were convenient for riders mastering the Wild West, but in the infantry they were still content with "single shots" with bayonets.
A still from the film The Last Battle on Saber River (1997). The main character with a Spencer carbine
As noted in the previous article, there were a lot of designs for repeating rifles with a lever that controlled the shutter, and not only in the USA, but also in Europe. For example, in England in 1881, a Needham rifle with a unique grommet-drum system appeared under the same designed cartridge with a reverse taper sleeve.
12 rounds were loaded into the underbarrel tubular magazine. From it, the cartridges in turn, with each retraction of the bracket-lever, were fed into a flat drum for two cartridges.
A hammer blow on the primer caused a shot, and the movement of the lever back and forth first led to the filing of the next cartridge into an empty chamber, and then to the fact that the appendage of the trigger knocked out an empty cartridge case from another chamber, since its conical shape made it easy to do.
It turned out that he designed the most ... repeating drum rifle in the world. But she did not receive distribution because of her specific cartridge and a number of defects.
Needham rifle device 1881
The famous John Browning was also noted for lever-action rifles, and he offered them in abundance and also patented them in abundance.
For example, look at the original lever-action rifle he patented in 1879. The lever-bracket, acting on the vertical shutter, sliding in the grooves of the receiver (very short, which is always beneficial!), Lowers it down through the earring. At the same time, the bolt with its protrusion presses the extractor lever and it ejects an empty sleeve from the chamber.
Naturally, in this case, the trigger is automatically cocked, striking the striker located inside the massive shutter. The construction is simple and obviously very solid. But ... the rifle is single-shot, and this is its drawback.
J. Browning 1879 rifle. Diagram from US patent
The famous American gunsmith Ebenezer Townsend Starr, who supplied carbines to northerners in 1882, offered his "single-shot", clearly trying to outdo Browning. In his rifle, by lever action, the bolt was thrown back, like the bolt of a Spencer rifle, and half out of the neck of the box.
At the same time, its protrusion fell into the cutout of the extractor plate and pushed it out of the chamber along with the spent cartridge case. With a sharp movement of the lever, the sleeve, most likely, simply flew out of the chamber.
Diagram of the design and operation of the bolt mechanism of the 1881 Ebenezer Starr rifle. J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
A year later, Brown Standard offered its own version of a vertical bolt operated by a lever and with a hidden trigger. For some reason, the diagram does not show the extractor, but, of course, it should have been. The role of the lever was performed by a slightly enlarged trigger guard.
Scheme of the device and operation of the bolt mechanism of the Brown Standard rifle of 1882. J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
In 1887, Kuno Buchel rifles (upper), Adolf Lindner, similar to the Peabody rifle, and with a hidden trigger (middle) and O. Lettov’s rifle, also with a vertical lever-operated bolt, which was located ... in front of the trigger guard . J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
Drum rifles continued to appear, again, with a lever ...
Rifle A. Swingle. J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
Rifle G. Piper. J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
Well, in the most active way, John Browning continued to create lever rifles, who now focused his attention on rifles with a middle magazine. He received a patent for one of them in 1891. Its shutter was fixed with a U-shaped wedge that rose and fell in the grooves of the receiver, so its locking was exceptionally strong.
The attached store, the Lee system, was designed in such a way that the cartridge was first removed from it by the shutter and fell on the tray. With the reverse movement of the shutter, the tray raised the cartridge to the chambering line. The system was ingenious, but apparently seemed unnecessarily complicated.
Scheme of the action of the shutter of a rifle by J. Browning in 1891 from a US patent
More rationally designed was his 1895 stack-loading rifle from the US patent.
And although she also did not get into mass production, the Browning rifles of 1894 and 1895 gained worldwide fame.
The mechanism of the Savage rifle with a hidden trigger, "Henry bracket" and a drum magazine. J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
The latest innovation in the field of repeating lever rifles was Savage's 1899 drum lever rifle. The military abandoned it, but as a hunting rifle, success awaited it.
Sevage's 1899 rifle magazine device. Scheme from the patent
Savage rifle advertisement
On this one can say story lever rifles ended, although they are still being produced. The fact is that all the “new” rifles of this type are nothing more than copies of the old ones, and only materials, finishes and a little design change in them.
Well, since one of the first rifles with a lever was a Spencer carbine with a magazine in the butt, we will talk about them today, although not about all of them yet.
So, the M1860 Spencer carbine with a lever and a butt magazine. Moreover, his store was interchangeable, for seven rounds, and was a rather long tube with a spring inside and a cartridge lock at the open end, which was inserted into the carbine into the hole in the butt. Since it took a long time to reload them, the shooters relied on a hexagonal pencil case, in which ten loaded magazines were stored.
Selected shooters of the 1st and 2nd regiments of Berdan snipers during the American Civil War. In the figure at the bottom left, a soldier is just pulling out a magazine from such a pencil case. Fred and Lillian Funken. Wars on the American Continent XVII-XIX centuries: War of Independence - Civil War - American-Mexican War - Conquest of the Wild West: Infantry - Navy. M.: Astrel / AST, 2003. S. 81
"Spencer" M1860 chambered for .56 caliber. Photo imfdb.org
Already in 1870, Benjamin Hotchkiss proposed a rifle with a tubular magazine in the butt, but with a sliding rotary bolt. The company undertook to produce this rifle ... Winchester, and although it was not accepted into service in the USA, it began to be used in China!
In 1880, Ferdinand Mannlicher decided that one tube in the butt was not enough, and put three in it. For 18 rounds! Rotating with the movement of a sliding rotary bolt, feeding cartridges in turn.
The main drawback of the rifle was too thick and also round, not oval neck of the box. Well, the mechanism itself was very complicated. In addition, a rifle with such a stock neck could not hit the enemy on the head!
Following the Mannlicher rifle, a Schulhof rifle appeared for 26 rounds, which were inside the butt in three separate canisters, and were also fed into the bolt alternately using a rack and pinion. Pricking the primer with neighboring cartridges in this arrangement was excluded. The rate of fire of the rifle was very high: 25 rounds in 30 seconds.
Another innovation was the top descent in the form of a key mounted on the neck of the stock. This rifle was even tested in Russia, but it is clear that no one dared to adopt it because of the complexity and high cost.
A very similar shop was proposed by August Larsen in 1883; his other development was, again, an applied vertical magazine for only 5 rounds, since a multi-cartridge applied magazine changed the balance of the gun very much.
Two original systems were proposed by Aries Jones in 1884: the first had a Peabody bolt, but a vertical magazine in the butt, and the cartridges in it were pressed from above by a lever with a spring, while in other similar rifles they fell on the feeder under their own weight. The movement of the cartridges occurred due to the movement of the plate with projections under the fingers along the neck of the stock. The second sample had a magazine that was inserted from the top left and acted by moving the plate back and forth along the neck of the stock.
Schematics of Larsen and Jones rifles. J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
In the same 1884, the Simson and Luke rifle appeared with a magazine in the butt and feed in the form of several pairs of connected lever "scissors". It is interesting that they did not have a cover in the butt of the magazine. That is, cartridges could be added there during the shooting process. But dirt could also get into it without interference! And Marcelius Hartley, again, connected the tubular magazine and the Peabody-Martini mechanism ... J. Lugs. Hand-feuerwaffen. Systematischer Überblick über die Handfeuerwaffen und ihre Geschichte. Band II. Berlin. Militarverlag der Deutschen Demokratische Republik, 1982
In general, at the end of the XNUMXth century, no significant designs of rifles with a magazine in the butt appeared. But there were two very original designs, which we will certainly tell you about.
Surprisingly, the tubular magazine in the butt was not forgotten in the coming twentieth century. But that's also a completely different story...
To be continued ...
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