Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Remington Rolling Block Question

I handled an old Remington Rolling Block rifle last weekend
that has me a little curious, no caliber stamping on barrel,
which I understand is quite common, barrel is about 36"
long, bore is very dark, US stamped on butt plate. I tried
to clean the bore and got alot of gunk out of it, but it still looks
the same. I measured the muzzle with a tape measure and
the bore is roughly .50-54 caliber. I did some reading and
think the caliber maybe .50-70 Government. Any input?

Likely a 50/70, but it could be a 50/90, also.
The only way to tell for sure would be to slug the bore and cast the chamber.
Cat

Cat's right about slugging the bore and casting the chamber. After 100+ years, it could have been rechambered to literally any big bore. I've seen old English rifles redone to shotguns and vice versa. You may be looking at a .50-140 for all you know, or it may actually be a .54 or .58 caliber.

The U.S. stamped on the buttplate may call out a " New York State Militia"...........original chambers.50-70 (neat cartridge).

If it is, and function is correct, it should drop the hammer down into a "safe notch"......requires cocking ,before it can be fired. This was the only model with that feature....worth checking out,they are considered more desirable than most.The roller was never issued to active units,was trumped by the trapdoor...a gazzilion foriegn contracts ensued.

The whole idea of the "safe notch"...decock feature , was to prevent "slamfire"........be real careful of bound up funky firing pins, coupled with overly strong lever lock springs.....a slamfire ,with a roller, can be a gruesome event.

Work Safe, GTC

Damned Trapdoor. Just because the army was cheap.

Can you tell I'm a Roller fan?

B.U.M. Yup, the original roller, as submitted for test was a far superior arm.....but the Springfield armory had the "clout" and connections.
The choice of the trapdoor,over the roller, may have been the first glaring example of hanky panky in defense contracting............Nah, that probably started in the bronze age.

Work Safe, GTC

I have a Swedish contract roller in my hands at this very moment, the action was sold to Sweden and they barreled with their own Husquvarna barrels not unlike the Springfield trapdoor program, the first batch of rollers shipped to Sweden were action only. Remington sold aprx. 10,000 actions before they sold manufacturing rights. i have a pretty good history on my rife. the bore is in exelant condition but it mikes at .502 not .510-11 as in the 50-70. .502 is metric 12.7mm. the size used in Swedish rollers. Most of the Swedes were rimfire but the Germans came up with a conversion to centerfire by changing the block and firing pin. this may be how mine has "safe notch" Rollers are neat guns with a lot of world history associated with them.

Bullwnkl.

Bullwnkl.................Did you get that one from the wizards over in Ponderay, Id. ?

GTC

CFO, i got this rifle from an old Swede who lived down the bay from me, he was also my grandfathers brother. how he came to have the rifle is anyones guess but family legend has it that it came west with him and my grandfather in the first decade of the 19th century. i do question this as they both immegrated from Sweden in 1900. i suspect he knew the rifle from swedish military service and just happened accross one. there were a number of reimported rollers. The swede mauser was a vast improvement over the roller as a military rifle so a lot of rollers were surplused and some made it back home. Mine was given to me sans wood. I found complete stocks and hardware from a fellow in Winnapeg Canada for a trade of 3 boxes of unprimed 458 Win Brass.

Bullwnkl.

Wonderful story, more like a little saga,about your aquisition,...........Lots of these very good originals were mutilated , here, with .50-70 Govt. "rechambering"........"to have easier access to brass". This was a real shame,as it introduces some weird neck geometry problems into the equation.

Fact is , last I checked, Buffalo Arms had the correct brass in stock, and it was signifigantly more afordable( won't say Cheap, it just don't work that way). Some of my compadres that run the original chambering rave about it's performance.

Yer a lucky man, Roll on!

GTC