Question for the Military oriented members

[mooncoon]

Some time ago I bought a Starr carbine and posted on it, in this forum. The gun had been broken through the wrist area and then badly repaired with what looked like glue from a hot glue gun. I finally got around to repairing the damage, the result of which, I decided to sand the whole butt stock and refinish it. In the course of that, I sanded over what looked like a patch of wood filler of some kind. Took the worst of it off and it was not until I was varnishing the stock that I noticed that the smudge of filler had filled in and covered a broad arrow and a WD (for war department). That puts a very strange twist on the gun; they were produced at the very end of the US civil war and saw only the most limited of active service if any. Some may have been shipped to Canada and used briefly here.

Question is then; does anybody have any good information of Starr carbines being used in Canada etc. I find it inconceivable that it was in british service. Hopefully Grant is looking in still from time to time

cheers mooncoon

 

[green]

See "Defending the Dominion" Edgecombe. M1865 Starrs as well as Spencers were purchased by the British govt for issue to British forces in Canada dureing the Fenian crisis of 1866. Some of these arms were later transferred to the Canadian Militia.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

Research the Red Sashes defending Pigeon Hill and Eccles Hill during the first Fenian unpleasentness. There was a local leader who had gone to the US at the end of their Civil War and bought a sufficient quantity of rifles for his fellow townsmen.

 

[smellie]

From about 1852 through to the end of the Civil War, the US was the world's hotbed of breechloader development with more than a dozen decent designs coming into limited use.

The British were not stupid: they knew what was going on. They purchased small quantities of just about everything for test purposes. In some instances, they would have purchased enough for a squadron of cavalry or a couple of batteries of artillery or whatever, but they were learning and experimenting.

In many cases, tiny quantities of these weapons later found their way to other points on the map.

We have learned about the Starrs now, and most likely yours is from this lot.

But there were so many OTHERS.

I have, for instance, examined a British-manufactured Sharps' Slant-breech skin-cartridge Rifle...... which also had Nepalese markings.

The Allin Conversion pretty much put "paid" to a great deal of American development, beginning in 1866. It was altered over the years from .58RF to .50-70 to .45-70 but when the US finally adopted the Krag in 1892 it was as if they had stuck with the Snider for all those years while Britain went from Snider-Enfield to Snider Rifle to Martini-Henry to Lee-Metford and almost to Lee-Enfield.

Certainly, the US did not stop all development but what was maintained, all by private companies, was supported mostly by the US Navy with purchases of Winchester-Hotchkisses, Remington-Keenes, Reminton-Lees and finally the Lee Straight Pull in 1896. The Army, through the long tenure of Erskine Allin, had stuck with the derivative Allin design, even though the Snider was vastly superior.

But you have a real Keeper, Mooncoon.

I do hope you post some more nice pictures of the baby.

 

[mooncoon]

these are the photos that I posted before. The wrist is broken completely through and the far side is much worse that the right side. It appeared as if a large sliver or layer of wood was missing and was a large part of the reason that I ended up refinishing the whole stock. I will post a photo of the finished product in a couple of days. While I am not happy with the outcome so far, in terms of wood colour but on the other hand I would never have known about the military stamp otherwise. The stamp appeared to be just a smudge of wood filler

cheers mooncoon