Presidents and firearms

Abe Lincoln was a noted firearms enthusiast, and in fact was instrumental in getting the military to adopt the Spencer Carbine. Although there were a few Union officers who'd discovered the rifle and were impressed by it, as I recall, Mr. Spencer was unable to get an audience with anyone in administration who had the authority to purchase them for the Union Army. Eventually news of the rifle reached the president himself, who was curious and wanted to see it in action. He invited Spencer to the White House, and they shot it right there on the White House lawn! The rest was history. Abe was so impressed that he kept one for himself and continued plinking with it at the White House for the rest of his time there. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1199105

I thought Lincoln used the Henry Rifle out on the White House lawn ......

Anyhow, I've seen a photo of a Henry Rifle embossed with his name which he was given ... I think it's in the Smithsonian.

Ike used to go to the GA quail plantations on a regular basis; JFK was an NRA member; both Bush were hunters, mostly quail.

I did a quick search and found (for just the 20th and 21st century):
Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, JFK (at least one hunt), LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George HW Bush were hunters.
JFK and Obama shot trap.
Calvin Coolidge, Herber Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, and Jimmy Carter were all fishermen as well.

Obama shot trap? You mean that posed photo shooting a Browning?

Don’t forget the VEEP. Cheney was a an enthusiast

I believe that Winchester use to give every president a personalized rifle as a gift. Not sure they still do.

Jefferson was.

I seriously doubt Obama ever even held a gun aside from that poorly posed picture

Tommygunn said:

I thought Lincoln used the Henry Rifle out on the White House lawn ......

Anyhow, I've seen a photo of a Henry Rifle embossed with his name which he was given ... I think it's in the Smithsonian.

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I believe that Henry actually took the lever action repeating rifle to Lincoln during the Civil War to see if the President was interested in purchasing it for the Union Army. Lincoln loved it but when the army ordinance folks got a hold of it all they could do was find reasons not to adopt it.

I’m pretty sure that Trump said at least a couple times that he had a carry permit.

Wasn’t it Clinton that said he had spent a lot of time in a duck blind with his rifle.

Kleanbore said:

Spencer.

And it was put to service.

LBJ hunted.

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Yes Spencer. Sometimes facts coming out of my brain are a little fuzzy.

DocRock said:

Don’t forget the VEEP. Cheney was a an enthusiast

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He preferred to hunt lawyers.......................

Skeptic13 said:

I believe that Henry actually took the lever action repeating rifle to Lincoln during the Civil War to see if the President was interested in purchasing it for the Union Army. Lincoln loved it but when the army ordinance folks got a hold of it all they could do was find reasons not to adopt it.

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What is it with the Henry propagandists?

They attempt to steal the Confederate quote about the 7 shot Spencer rifle that damn Yankees "load on Sunday and shoot all week". And they attempt to supplant the Spencer as the rifle Lincoln personally shot on the White House lawn. The Spencer was purchased by the Union government and issued to troops and was actually used in combat on several occasions. The Henry was never purchased by the federal government, was issued in limited numbers to state raised troops and in private purchases, and saw very limited combat use in the Civil War.



https://the-american-catholic.com/2...-christopher-spencer-shows-lincoln-his-rifle/

How times have changed! On August 18, 1863 Christopher Spencer, inventor of the revolutionary Spencer repeating rifle, was able to walk into the White House and show one of his rifles to President Lincoln.


The concept of a repeating rifle was not new, and examples of such weapons had been produced since at least 1779. However, teething problems with the new technology made them impracticable as mass weapons until shortly before the Civil War. Benjamin Tyler Henry developed the famed Henry repeating rifle in 1860. Although never officially adopted by the Union army, this rifle was highly thought of enough by Union cavalry troopers that thousands of them purchased them privately, and they were equally prized when captured by Confederate troopers. The rifle could fire off 28 rounds per minute, compared to a rifled musket that could barely manage three rounds per minute under ideal conditions.


The Spencer repeating rifle was developed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. A seven shot weapon, it could manage 20 shots a minute and proved durable under battlefield conditions. By the end of the War, most Union cavalry and mounted infantry units had Spencers and their firepower was often devastatingly effective on the battlefield.
War department conservatism is often blamed for the fact that the Spencers were not more widely used during the War, especially by the infantry, but the truth is that the ability to supply Spencers to replace all of the Union rifles and rifled muskets simply did not exist during the War, and supplying the ones that could be manufactured to units cavalry and mounted infantry was a wise choice since they greatly magnified the combat power of the most mobile forces that the Union had.


Spencer’s meeting with Lincoln was the result of Lincoln’s test firing in July of 1863 of two Spencers that had been marred by technical difficulties. Spencer, a consummate salesman, wanted to remove any concerns that Lincoln had about the reliability of the Spencers. After their meeting, during which Spencer stripped one of his rifles down to its component parts, Lincoln agreed to participate in a firing of a Spencer on August 19, 1863. The test firing was so satisfactory, that Lincoln had another test firing the next day on August 20, 1863, inviting John Hay, one of his two secretaries, to participate. Hay was enthusiastic for the weapon, recalling that the Spencer was “a wonderful gun, loading with absolutely contemptible simplicity and ease with seven balls and firing the whole readily and deliberately in less than half a minute.”


In later years a myth developed that the meeting with Lincoln was the reason why the Union army purchased Spencers. Such was not the case, the Army having already received 7500 Spencers and having placed a large order for more prior to Spencer’s meeting with the President. However, I am sure that Lincoln’s favorable opinion of the Spencer helped smooth over any remaining resistance to the new-fangled repeater.

George P said:

Obama shot trap? You mean that posed photo shooting a Browning?

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Plenty of people enjoy shooting and feel that it's perfectly acceptable for the "elite" but would disarm the masses in a heartbeat.

One of the first autoloading designs was JMB's FN1900. It featured a return spring mechanism over the barrel, 32ACP.
FN made a presentation of one, to Teddy Roosevelt, who carried it in his pocket, and kept it on his nightstand.

He was also an avid hunter.

Hosted a Sportsmans event when Bush 43 was running for President. Trick shooters, celebrities, big names you'd all recognize. Campaign managers did not permit him to handle any guns in front of media and cameras. Strategy was to not give his opponents an opportunity to use photos against him in campaign ads. He did often go quail hunting with family and others at his Texas ranch.

I understand that logic, given how the "fake news" can twist anything wholesome or use it to mock someone.....media has proven to be even worse today.

DocRock said:

actually used in combat on several occasions.

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July 1st, 1863 outside of a town called Gettysburg, Brig. General John Buford and his two regiments of cavalry ran into Heth's division. He held them off for a few hours because his men were armed with Spencer's. After the battle, Lincoln promoted him to Major General. Poor guy died from typhoid later that year.

DocRock said:

What is it with the Henry propagandists?

They attempt to steal the Confederate quote about the 7 shot Spencer rifle that damn Yankees "load on Sunday and shoot all week". And they attempt to supplant the Spencer as the rifle Lincoln personally shot on the White House lawn. The Spencer was purchased by the Union government and issued to troops and was actually used in combat on several occasions. The Henry was never purchased by the federal government, was issued in limited numbers to state raised troops and in private purchases, and saw very limited combat use in the Civil War ......

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The Spencer was called the "horizontal shot tower" and the Henry was "the damn Yankee rifle that could be loaded on Sunday and fired all week," a statement made by the Confederate Guerilla leader Mosby.

The Spencer was certainly issued officially ..... Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer's cavalry regiment were issued Spencer rifles, then carbines as they became available. In fact, after the Civil War, Custer's 7th Cavalry was issued Spencers up until @1873 when the myopic army replaced them with single-shot Springfield Trapdoors.

A book I recently obtained, THE FIRST WINCHESTER, details the use of the Henry Rifle in the Civil War. Included are several photos of some of those rifles, notable because their owner's name was either embossed on the receiver (usually an officer) or even scratched on non-professionally, often an enlistee. These men purchased their own Henry rifles, and apparently had a very high regard for them.

The Henry served well, but the Spencer was a more robust design, even though it held half the rounds the Henry did and required manually cocking in addition to cycling the lever.
I once had the opportunity to examine a Spencer that was owned by former Confederate General "Fighting" Joe Wheeler, who rejoined the U.S. Army after the war.

Well, there are hunters and gun guys, some are both, but not all. I thought this was about enthusiasts...