Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6mm Lee Navy thread continuation.....

im pretty sure ive seen a Remington-Lee's in 6mm Lee offered on Gunbroker.....seem to remember it as its one of the few ive seen for sale not in 45-70....

John-

The Blake rifle was apparently chambered for both a rimless and rimmed version of the Navy cartridge; see Sharpe's Rifle in America. In the dressed-up 1995 NRA reissue of the 1938 edition of the book, the Blake rifle is discussed beginning on p.106. According to Sharpe, Blake submitted his rifle to one of the Navy boards responsible for selecting the new cartridge and calibler. The board liked the rifle, but the inventor was unable to get the rifle chambered in the Navy cartridge in time for the trials.

--Bob

1 in 6.5 twist for the 135. But this was the remington model only. Source is Rifle in America, Phillip B Sharpe, 1938

Swifty

More than a few gunwriters have said that the Navy went to
the 6MM to be different from the Army. They wanted a cartridge
that would penetrate the light armor of the "Mosquito Boat"
which were torpedo boats. The hand aimed deck guns couldn't
cope with them. They not only developed rifles but deck
mounted machine guns in that caliber.

I look forward to seeing this article.

For those who have the Lee Navy bug there is a company in WI that is in the process of makeing a reproduction...

http://www.nortonfirearms.com/archives/1895-navy-lee-update-february-26-2012/

The Lee Navy bug has stung me twice. Besides a factory sporter, I once had an August Pachmayer conversion of a Winchester-Lee musket. Pachmayer made a specialty of this sort of thing around 1915 after the rifles were obsoleted and cheap. The stock on mine was the arsenal wood slimmed down to a plain sporter style. It was rebored and chambered 256 Newton. Neat rifle.

Jim,

That wouild be really nifty!

I saw one for sale a couple of years ago, I THINK it was a factory sporter, but since I know so little about them, I wasn't about to buy it. The price, IIRC, was somewhere around $450, and I thought it was a heckuva bargain at that price, but again, I know nothing about 'em, and wasn't about to buy it at ANY price.

I have no regrets, as I wasn't flush with cash to buy a "new" rifle I knew precious little about. "Interesting and kinda cool" just isn't enough of a reason to open my meager wallet. Wish that were different, but it ain't.

After a number of years of hanging around here and reading your magazine articles, I have developed this idea that CSW must be like Aladdin's Cave or something. I'm going to have to make a pilgrimage one day.

I feel the same way. Next summer I'll be in Missoula for a reunion and will make the pilgrimage (as well as to Glacier NP)! I love seeking out old gun shops, and hate the big box type shops.

I'd call the .236 Rem a new development, not just a variant of the 6 USN. Remington also made a few demonstration rolling blocks for it. The military orders they hoped for never developed, and the cartridge soon died. It, like the .30 Rem, was basically a 7.62 Russian necked down and trimmed, according to George Layman's book on military rolling blocks. That size case with that long a bullet must have been interesting given the powder speeds then available--I bet they had some fun in the lab with that one.

There's a 236 Winchester (straight pull) on Gunbroker for $!599.

see: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=289157909

its pretty neat, i stop in to harass ingwe whenever im in town for newspaper stuff or to see my sis and niece.....they usually have neat stuff on the used rack.....

in Montana, if you are looking for an oddball set of dies like say a 9.5x56 Mannlicher-Schoenauer or any number of wildcats, Guns N Things in down town Glendive.....one of the larger used reloading die selections ive seen.....

What reunion?

National Smokejumper Reunion. National reunions are held every 3 years with about 2,000 old jumpers attending, laughing and, drinking beer! Of the 8 jumper bases in the West, only Boise, Missoula and Redding are large enough to have sufficient hotel rooms.

Neat! And of course Helena's a pretty easy drive from Missoula.

The peak of the used-rifle selection at Capital usually peaks in late summerand early fall, when the necks on hunters start swelling and they simply have to have a new pronghorn or elk rifle. The guy that runs the gun department also really likes older rifles, so there's usually a pretty good selection of old Winchester lever guns and similar stuff.

Western Montana isn't real shotgun country, but there are enough wingshooters in the state so some nice scatterguns show up now and then too. I picked up a used Merkel 47E 12-gauge in very good shape a few years ago.

Very cool, sir.

The very first time I flew into the Missoula airport, I stepped off the plane and saw a Ford Tri-Motor tied down next to a hanger. I remarked on it and was told that was what you guys jumped out of.

Before your time, maybe?

"Before your time, maybe?"

Well, I guess I'm going to date myself (you may not believe it, but I am over 21!), so here goes.

I jumped out of McCall, Idaho in '63 and '64 (it was seasonal work then, for most a summer college job. 1962 was the last year for the Ford in McCall; we got a C-47 and 2 C-45�s in 1963. Following our last training jump in 1963, we flew to Missoula to back-fill that base after the qualified jumpers had gone out on fires. Some older guys were taking their refresher jumps out of a Ford, as their C-47 was out. We first year guys just watched with envy. Our pilot remarked that this would probably be the last use of the Fords as they were being retired.

I learned several years later that the Fords were used at the Grangeville (ID) base though the 1967 fire season. Fords fly slow and have short take-off and landing runs � ideal for back-country Idaho strips

We were on a fire in California in 1964 and flew home in a Ford - this was my only Ford flight. The Ford's windows opened and it was a hot day, so we opened the windows and many rested our arms on the windowsill - just like you do in a car.

Most of us dozed off. Someone up front had to take a leak, so he took his hard hat out of his fire pack and relieved himself in it. Then .... he just dumped it out of the window.

Have you ever been awakened by a fine mist of fresh urine? It wasn�t fun and he was shunned until that night when he bought us several rounds of beer - all was forgiven! God, those were the best years of my life.

It was the summer of '67 that I saw it in Missoula. I thought it was a thing of beauty.