Spencer (rifle)

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Spencer carbine model 1865. Caliber .50 inch

The Spencer rifle is a lever action rifle that was developed by Christopher Spencer in 1860 and used in the American Civil War and the following Indian Wars. Known as the Spencer Repeating Rifle, the weapon fires .52 caliber rimfire cartridges . It has a tubular magazine with a capacity of seven rounds in the butt and an external hammer that must be cocked before firing.

history

The first usable bolt action rifles for metal cartridges were the American Henry rifle model 1860 and the Spencer rifle patented by Christopher Spencer in 1860. Even before the American Civil War, the US Army tested some Spencer rifles, but the procurement in large numbers was rejected by the Chief Ordnance Colonel James Ripley on the grounds that the ammunition was wasted and the weight of the weapon.

From 1862 onwards, the US Navy , which was independent of the army in terms of procurement, purchased 1,009 Spencer rifles for its marines. Either a layer of tin or a mixture of beeswax, linseed oil and turpentine oil was applied as rust protection.

A test shooting after the beginning of the war in front of Abraham Lincoln led from 1863 to the procurement of 11,000 rifles for the infantry and about 50,000 carbines for the cavalry . The guns were manufactured by the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company in Boston, Massachusetts and the Burnside Rifle Company in Providence, Rhode Island.

The superiority of the powerful weapon quickly became apparent, e.g. For example, at the Battle of Hoover's Gap in June 1863, in which John T. Wilder's "Lightning Brigade" demonstrated the advantages of bolt-action rifles over the opponent's single-shot weapons. After two regiments under Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer had successfully used Spencer rifles in the area of ​​the Battle of Gettysburg in skirmishes near Hanover and East Cavalry Field, Spencer carbines that were more suitable for mounted troops were increasingly given to cavalry and dragoon regiments of the Union troops and against the poorly armed southern troops deployed. Spencer rifles captured by soldiers of the Confederation could only be used to a limited extent due to a lack of ammunition, as no suitable ammunition was produced in the south.

With a rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute, the Spencer was superior to any other rifle, only the Henry rifle had a higher rate of fire . The disadvantage, however, was the weaker ammunition, and with the magazine open at the bottom, it was susceptible to contamination. Another disadvantage of the Spencer was the spring sleeve of the magazine, which could be lost as a non-integrated part of the weapon.

After the war, the Spencer carbine was used in the Indian Wars (including with success in the battle near Beecher Island ), but was later replaced by the Springfield Model 1873 single loader. Since the cavalry was used against Indians far away from their bases, the exchange of repeating rifles for single-shot rifles can also be explained with the scarce ammunition. In 1876, during the Battle of Little Bighorn , only 50 carbine cartridges were available per trooper and 50 in the saddlebag, plus 18 revolver cartridges.

Many of the decommissioned Spencer carbines went to France , where they were used in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.

In the late 1860s the company was sold to the Fogerty Rifle Company and ultimately to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company .

technology

Spencer carabiner, magazine insert (spring sleeve), cartridges
Sectional drawing of the Spencer system

The Spencer rifle is a lever action rifle with a vertical block lock that is locked with the abutment behind it in the breech block. The locking system is swivel-mounted on an axis going transversely through the locking housing and is actuated by the combined loading lever / trigger guard. The magazine is in the butt and holds seven cartridges. The downward movement of the loading lever pulls the locking block downwards and unlocks it, and the locking system then swivels backwards; the sleeve ejector is activated. The ejected sleeve is guided by a finger-shaped spring-loaded element above the breech block. The next cartridge is brought into the loading position by spring pressure and is fed into the chamber when the bolt is closed. The external cock must then be cocked to fire the weapon. The blow of the hammer is transmitted to the right side of the case rim by the firing pin located in the breech.

To load the magazine, the base of the spring sleeve is pivoted out of its abutment in the piston cap and the spring sleeve is then pulled out of the piston; the cartridges are pushed one after the other into the magazine bore with the bullet tip first. The spring sleeve is then pushed back into the piston and locked.

The infantry rifles, barrel length 30 inches (762 mm), are provided with a bayonet mount . The barrel of the carabiner measures 20 inches (508 mm), and a saddle ring is attached to the left behind the lock box.

The guns used in the Civil War had six-barreled barrels. From 1867, the caliber of the weapons in the Springfield Armory was reduced by inserting a .50 caliber barrel with three pulls into the previously drilled barrel.

These rifles received a magazine shut-off (Patent Stabler), which made it possible to use the weapon as a single loader and to keep the cartridges in the magazine in reserve. The magazine shutdown can be seen as a small pivot lever in front of the trigger. If it was turned sideways, the bolt block could be lowered and the bolt carrier could be swiveled back partially - far enough to pull out the case, but not far enough to feed a new cartridge from the magazine. These weapons have rounded edges around the opening at the top of the breech block to facilitate insertion of the cartridges; In addition, the extractor received a spring that brought it to its starting position after the empty sleeve was pulled out.

Since Spencer had to pay Stabler license fees for using his magazine shut-off (which was reimbursed by the witness office for government contracts), Spencer developed his own magazine shut-off, which consisted of a swiveling plate on the cartridge guide. If the plate was swiveled sideways, it prevented (like the Stabler magazine shut-off) a complete swiveling of the bolt carrier.

ammunition

The .52 caliber ammunition used in the Civil War was officially designated as No. 56 or .56-56 and is now known as the .56-56 Spencer . Spencer cartridges were sold in the US civilian market until the 1920s.

The designation 56-56 referred to the front and rear case diameter of 14.2 mm. The ogival bullet of the 56-56 had a weight of 350 to 360 grains , corresponding to about 23 g. The bullet diameter was just under 14 mm. With a gunpowder charge of 42 to 45 grains, corresponding to about 2.8 g, a muzzle velocity of 370 m / s was achieved, with the shorter carbine it was slightly lower. The ammunition for the later converted Spencer rifles had a slightly higher muzzle velocity with a .512-inch (13-; mm) bullet and the same powder charge.

One reason for replacing the Spencer with the Springfield rifle and carbine was the much more powerful .45-70 Government cartridge, introduced in 1873, with a muzzle velocity of 425 m / s and a projectile energy of 2370 joules compared to the 1526 joules of the Spencer Rifle.

The Blakeslee fast charger

Usually the cartridges for the Spencer repeater were carried in the cartridge pouches (leather with a wooden insert with holes for the individual cartridges) that were common at the time. A special cartridge pouch was supplied with the first Navy models, which was divided into two compartments; each compartment held three cardboard boxes with seven cartridges each. In addition, this cartridge pouch had a small compartment for a combination tool and cleaning device.

Reloading the Spencer repeater with individual cartridges from the cartridge pocket took some time and reduced the rate of fire. A rider had to hold his carabiner, the spring sleeve and the reins of his horse in his left hand while he reloaded with the right.

To speed up reloading, Colonel Erastus Blakeslee developed a new cartridge pouch for the Spencer repeater (which his unit, the First Connecticut Cavalry, was equipped with). It was an elongated leather bag of rectangular cross-section with a shoulder strap and an outside compartment for combination tools and cleaning equipment. Inside was a wooden insert in which six longitudinal holes were drilled. Each of the holes took a metal tube that held seven cartridges.

In U.S. Patent No. 45,469, issued to Blaskeslee on December 20, 1864, the metal tubes were still open at both ends and had a spring lock to prevent the cartridges from falling out. In fact, the metal tubes were simply made with one closed end.

In order to load the Spencer repeater with the Blakeslee cartridge pouch, the shooter removed the spring case as usual, held the gun with the muzzle down and opened the cartridge pouch. He took one of the metal tubes at the top (open) end, pulled it out and poured the cartridges into the magazine tube. After stowing the empty metal tube, he put the spring sleeve back into the weapon as usual.

The witness office ordered the first 500 Blakeslee cartridge pouches on September 20, 1864. In 1866 a further 32,000 Blakeslee cartridge pouches with 10 tubes (the so-called cavalry model) and 1000 with 13 tubes (the so-called infantry model) were procured, which were placed in the following Indian Wars were used.

The Blakeslee cartridge pouch was a popular accessory for the Spencer bolt action rifles and was given the name "Blakeslee Quickloader" by the soldiers equipped with it.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Walter: Dictionary of Guns & Gunmakers. Pages 86 ff. Entry: Spencer (PDF, 706 kB) ( Memento from February 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Standard Flayderman: Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms and Their Values. Pages 633 ff. (Online preview)
  3. ^ B. Poten: Concise dictionary of the entire military science. Volume 9, page 41 Entry: Spencer rifle