Taylor's 1865 Spencer Carbine

[duelist1954]

With a seven-round magazine capacity, I know the 1865 Spencer lever-action carbine won't be viable for CAS, but I think it was the best U.S. cavalry arm of the 19th century.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwhLuhRWYyI

 

[BSA1]

Ha! Get me a company of mounted troopers armed with Trapdoor Carbines and I'll drive those red savages into the Pacific Ocean...

...loosely translated quote from General Custer

....very, very loosely translated quote

.....say, where are all of those dang arrows coming from???

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

Wash-sha-taa is the way it was pronounced in Oklahoma. What is the list price on one of those? I think I have found a new "must have" repro unless I can find an original in usable condition!

 

[Jim K]

"...best U.S. cavalry arm of the 19th century."

Well, up to the adoption of the Model 1896 at least.

Jim

 

[StrawHat]

Too bad the Spencer wasn't issued in greater numbers during the Civil War.

I had a couple of originals and shot them. I was not impressed with the cartridge. The new ones are more of the same.

 

[72coupe]

Nice work Mike. That is the best explanation of operating the Spencer that I have seen.

 

[Crawdad1]

As always, Great video Mike.

 

[goon]

I had a couple of originals and shot them. I was not impressed with the cartridge. The new ones are more of the same.

But compared to a front-stuffing .58 Enfield or Springfield, anything that can shoot seven times and that has all the advantages of a metallic cartridge was absolute space-age technology during the Civil War!

....say, where are all of those dang arrows coming from???

And .44 rimfire rounds. There were lots of Henrys and Yellow Boys at the Little Big Horn. The problem for Custer was that almost all of them were being fired at him.


Personally, I'd like to try a Spencer, but it's a complete luxury item. It wouldn't do anything for my uses that a used Marlin 30-30 couldn't do better. Except be awesome and historic... it could do that better than almost anything else!

 

[BSA1]

A 56-50 Spencer Carbine is my Holy Grail gun.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

Very very cool. I can see owning one of these.

 

[AlexanderA]

Here's some interesting information on loading the .56-50 cartridge:

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,12325.0.html

 

[Big Al Mass]

Question. Can the Spencer be rapid-fired by cycling the lever with the hammer down? The thought just popped into my head as I was watching the video.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I don't think so as the hammer had to be manually pulled back to the "cock" position in every video I have seen.

 

[duelist1954]

You can't fire it without cocking the hammer. It appears to have an inertial firing pin, so slam-firing is out.