This is a very rare and fine condition US Model 1847 Cavalry Musketoon that was rifled and sighted and has the rare ramrod chain attachment.  This particular Musketoon was manufactured at Springfield Armory in 1854, and was rifled and sighted in the late 1850s.  This is a museum quality example of one of only about 344 Model 1847 Cavalry Musketoons that received these modifications before the Civil War.The history of the Musketoon began in 1842 when the Ordnance Department first considered the adoption of a short rifle, or "musketoon," for the artillery. A prototype was not ..

This is a very rare, Confederate marked, Kerr Patent .44 caliber revolver made by the London Armoury Company and shipped to the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. The principal source for information about this Confederate Revolver comes from Confederate Handguns, by William A. Albaugh, III, Hugh Benet, Jr., and Edward N. Simmons, Bonanza Books, New York, 1963. This book has detailed information on the Kerr Revolver and the Confederate purchase of these handguns for Confederate military service during the war.   When the Civil War began, many southerners..

This is an excellent example of one of the rarest of Civil War rifles from one of the most famous manufacturers of the 19th Century. This is the Deringer Original Percussion Rifle, sometimes referred to as the 1861 Deringer Rifle, in .58 caliber. These rifles are similar to the Model 1817 rifles manufactured by Henry Deringer of Philadelphia years earlier. It is believed that these Deringer rifles were either purchased by the state of New Jersey or by some of the private militia companies formed in southern Pennsylvania at the outbreak of the Civil War.There is yet another mystery surrounding ..

This is an original and very scarce Connecticut Militia Contract Flintlock Musket manufactured by Oliver Bidwell of Middletown, Connecticut.  This musket was manufactured sometime 1814 and is one of probably less than 200 muskets that were made specifically for issue to Connecticut Militiamen.   The story of this musket begins prior to the War of 1812. U.S. history prior to the War of 1812 is a fascinating and little known period and was marked not only by the solidification of the acrimonious two-party system in the U.S., but also by vigorous debate over the role of a s..

This is a very rare and fine condition Webley-Fosbery Model of 1903 Automatic Revolver manufactured by Webley & Scott and chambered in the .455 Webley cartridge.  This rare automatic revolver is inscribed to and was carried by Captain Charles Beresford Tennent who served in Indian Mountain Artillery during the Gallipoli Campaign and Mesopotamia Campaign in World War One. The Webley firearms manufacturing company began in 1835 when brothers Philip and James Webley began producing firearms in Birmingham, England.  After James Webley’s death in 1856, coupled with the cl..

This is a rare, original, correct and excellent condition Springfield Armory manufactured U.S. Model 1855 Rifle Musket with Maynard Tape-Primer Mechanism with the steel forend tip that was manufactured in 1860. This is the very desirable Type II Model 1855 and only 8,600 were manufactured at Springfield Armory in 1860. Following the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th Century, arms developers in Europe began to digest the lessons learned from the linear style of warfare used by Napoleon and his numerous opponents on the continent. One of the critiques of the infantrymen of the day w..

This is a very rare and fine condition Springfield Armory Model 1855 Pistol Carbine, including the even more rare, original Stock, from 1855.  The principal source for the description of this Model 1855 Pistol Carbine is John Willyard’s definitive book on the series, U.S. Model of 1855 Series of Small Arms, Andrew Mobray, Publ, 2018.  As Willyard points out, the genesis for the Model 1855 series was the abundance of flintlock arms, many nearly new, after the Ordnance Department approved the use of percussion ignition systems in the 1840s.  The conversion of flintlocks w..

This is a very early and very fine condition, Springfield Armory Model 1903 Rifle in .30-06 that was manufactured in 1911.  This rifle is very rare because it remains in its 1911 configuration and was never modified.The serial number of this 1903 Rifle is 501898, which was manufactured at Springfield Armory in late 1911.  In 1911, Springfield Armory only manufactured 45,746 Model 1903 Rifles, or approximately 3,800 rifles per month.The serial number on the receiver is stamped in the correct sans serif style. The Receiver retains the majority of its original oil case-hardened fi..

This is a very rare and fine condition, all matching WWI German Model 1914 Luger manufactured by the Erfurt Arsenal in 1914, the first year of WWI. The Royal Government Arsenal at Erfurt only manufactured about 7,000 Model 1914 Lugers in 1914, by far the fewest number produced during Erfurt production during the war. The end of the 1890s and early 1900s saw great international military interest in semiautomatic weapons, particularly handguns. The famous Borchardt design and the Mauser C96 pistol are both examples of this interest at the turn of the century. The German Army ultimately settled o..

This is a very rare, correct and desirable WWII Colt Commercial/Military Model 1911A1 Pistol that was originally a Commercial Government Model with the rare Swartz Safety and which was converted to an Army Model 1911A1 at the Colt plant in Hartford in late 1942. Only about 6,575 of these rare WWII Colt variants were manufactured during a very limited run from October to December 1942.The WWII Colt Commercial/Military Model 1911A1 resulted in October 1942 from Colt’s inability to complete its Ordnance Department contracts with newly-manufactured 1911A1 components. Colt actually continued manufa..

This is a very rare and fine example of a late-war Volkssturmkarabiner 98, or VK 98, also known as the Volksgewehr 5, or VG 5 in standard 8mm Mauser caliber. This rifle was manufactured under contract with the Nazi Party by Steyr in Austria in 1945 using slave labor from the Steyr-Münichholz concentration camp for issue to the Volkssturm troops assembled by the Nazis to defend Berlin in the closing days of the war.With Soviet forces moving into Poland from Byelorussia and Ukraine, and into Estonia and Latvia in the north, the Nazi Party knew the end was near. With the attempt on Hitler’s life ..

This is a fine condition, and quite rare, WWII-era Walther Die Schaftausfuhrung or “WSF” 16-gauge side-by-side shotgun that was manufactured in May 1940.  It is unknown how many shotguns Walther manufactured, but the numbers are probably considerably less than 3,000 total. Walther manufactured two different models of shotgun in both 12-gauge and 16-gauge from around 1932 until 1940.  These shotguns have Purdey-style dual under-lugs, utilize the Anson-Deeley boxlock design, and have the Greener cross-bolt locking system.  The two models are this particular shotgun, t..

This is a scarce and very good condition National Rifle Association marked Springfield Armory Model 1903 Rifle in .30-06 that was manufactured in early 1916 and sold through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship to a member of the NRA.By 1910, Model 1903 Rifle production at Springfield had reached a number that allowed a limited number of service rifles to be sold to members of the National Rifle Association through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship (“DCM”).  Sales through the DCM to NRA members was authorized by the same statute that created the National Board for the Promotio..

This is an original condition Springfield Armory Model 1873 Trapdoor Rifle in .45-70 caliber from 1882.  This rifle is in the serial number range of rifles issued to the 1st United States Volunteer Engineer Regiment during the Spanish American War, which served in Puerto Rico. The serial number on this rifle is 203511, which places its date of manufacture to 1882.  Springfield Armory only produced 27,892 rifles that year.  The Model 1873 was the first model of the .45-70 trapdoor service rifles and was manufactured at Springfield Armory from 1873-1886.   Th..

This is an original and very fine condition Springfield Armory Model 1842 Musket that was manufactured in 1848.The Model 1842 design was based on the previous Model 1840 Flintlock Musket design with changes from flintlock to percussion ignition. The story of the Model 1842 Percussion Musket begins in 1841 when the Chief of Ordnance instructed Springfield Armory to develop a new percussion system based on the Model 1840 but using the Model 1841 percussion system. The resulting arm, the Model 1842 Percussion Musket, was not only the first regulation armory pattern percussion musket, but it was a..

This is a scarce and original condition Springfield Armory Model 1868 Rifle in .50-70 Caliber that was manufactured in 1870.  The genesis of the Model 1868 was the earlier Allin alterations. At the end of the Civil War, the Ordnance Department realized that a breech loading infantry rifle was needed to replace the obsolete muzzle loading percussion arms used during the late war. With so many Model 1861, 1863 and 1864 percussion rifled muskets on hand at war’s end, Springfield Armory Master Armorer Erskine S. Allin developed the U.S. Model 1865 Rifle, also known as the First Allin ..

This is a very scarce and early, pre-Battle of Little Big Horn, Springfield Armory Model 1873 Trapdoor Rifle in .45-70 caliber.   The serial number on this rifle is 18477, which places its date of manufacture to 1874, which was the first full year of production of the Model 1873 Rifle.  Springfield Armory only produced 22,397 rifles that year.  The Model 1873 was the first model of the .45-70 trapdoor service rifles and was manufactured at Springfield Armory from 1873-1886.   The Barrel on this Rifle is in very good condition.  The barrel is 32.60” l..

This is a very good condition and very scarce Springfield Armory Model 1873 Trapdoor Rifle in .45-70 caliber that was made in early 1877, which is one of the first Model 1873’s to incorporate many of the changes from the first model.   The serial number on this rifle is 65743, which places the date of manufacture of the receiver to late 1876, but was not assembled and inspected based on the stock cartouche until early in 1877.  Springfield Armory only produced 2,913 rifles that year.  The Model 1873 was the first model of the .45-70 trapdoor service rifles and was m..

This is an excellent condition, correct and original configuration "Starred" Springfield Model 1877 Cavalry Carbine from 1882. "Starred" Springfield Trapdoor weapons are a very small and discrete subgrouping of Trapdoors that are fully explained in Joe Poyer's and Craig Riesch's definitive work on .45-70 Springfield rifles and carbines (North Cape Publications, 5th Ed, 2011. According to Poyer and Riesch, the Model 1873 Rifle and Carbine had undergone significant design changes over the first few years of its production such that by 1879, several important modifications to the action a..

This is a fine condition and all original Springfield Armory Model 1884 Trapdoor Rifle.  The serial number on this rifle is 370093, which places its date of manufacture to 1887.  Springfield Armory produced only 34,869 service rifles in 1887. The Model 1884, which was the second model of the .45-70 trapdoor service rifles, was only manufactured at Springfield Armory from late 1886-1890.   The Barrel on this Rifle is in fine antique condition.  The barrel is 32.60” long with a 0.730” barrel diameter at the muzzle.  The barrel retains the majority of its ori..