Designed by brothers Charles and Sebre Howard and first patented in 1862, this is a single shot lever action produced by the Whitneyville Armory between 1866 and 1870. It is a really neat compact design that is all contained within a tube. The system was made in rifle, sporting rifle, and shotgun configurations, with a total production of not more than about 1700. The rifle pattern guns, like this one, were chambered for .44 Rimfire. A prototype military configuration example was tested unsuccessfully by the US military in 1867.
Prototype
Experimental Reising 7.62mm Full-Auto Battle Rifle
In the late 1950s or early 1960s, Eugene Reising experimented with adapting the mechanism of his submachine guns to a locked-breech 7.62mm NATO military pattern rifle. The resulting rifle used an M14 gas piston and […]
Single Shot Rifles
Hall Breechloading Carbine at RIA
The M1819 Hall rifle was the first breechloader adopted on a wide scale by a military force (the British Ferguson predated it, but was only made in small numbers). The Hall stayed in production on […]
Handgun
James D. Julia: An Assortment of James Reid “My Friend” Knucklers
James Reid was a Catskills gunsmith who emigrated form Ireland by way of Scotland. He made a number of different revolvers, but is best known for his line of “My Friend” knuckleduster pepperboxes (or “knucklers”, […]
Everybody was looking to create the next great rifle sensation and hopefully obtain large lucrative military contracts. One of the more unusual designs I have ever seen. Someone ought to bring that back as a real production rifle for reenactors. They sould try the same reproduction of the Evans rifles.