Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Cowboy Action Shooting Burgess Slide Action Rifle

Has anyone ever heard of a Burgess Slide Action Repeating rifle? I never heard of such a thing, but found one on an internet auction...It has 2 barrels, caliber 44-40. I should have it here by sometime tomorrow. I will post pictures when it shows up. It was not cheap, but it looks nice.

Any knowledge of such a critter???

Shrapnel, A member of the 24 started this forum on burgess rifles.give him a ask.
forum

He goes by boltman and is seen around the savage forum. He brought a wonderful burgess folding shotgun to the savage fest in mercer last year.

Thanks for the update, I have pictures of the rifle. It is a 44-40 take down with 2 barrels. One is a round barrel with a full magazine. The second barrel is an octagon barrel with a half magazine. It loads with the action open and is quite simple in function and I tried it out today and it worked wonderfully.

Here are some pictures, tell me what you think...

I've heard of them but never seen one. Perhaps Mike "The Duke" knows about them?

Nope, and as usual, I have to intoduce him to another first...

Please tell him I am from a county near Williamson and should have went west when he did. Thanks!!

Thanks to Gary for forwarding this link to me. Shrapnel, yes, I am familar with these rifles. They also made a folding version (similar to the folding shotgun). I think the prevailing opinion is all of these were prototypes. Known calibers that I can think of off the top of my head include .44/40, .30/30 and .40/82 (and maybe .45/70, I can't remember for sure). I know of another .44/40 that is coming up for auction this fall. It was recently sold at a small auction out in Pennsylvania and was purchases by someone looking to move it to a big auction and make a big profit. I collect Burgess shotguns and would love to collect these. They don't sell cheap these days. Andrew Burgess was a genuis among inventors. Please check out my website. I would love to add the pictures of this rifle to my website.

Shrapnel - you mentioned trying it out and it worked wonderfully. Did it automatically eject the cartridge and slide the grip down on itself - so the only action required of the shooter was to pull the grip back up, thus closing the action?

Kirk,

Thanks for posting the photos. I would sure like to see it in person sometime. Another really nifty rifle!

No it did not open the action, and I don't know how it possibly could as you are holding the grip in your hand and for it to slide backwards would be a functional impossibility. The action is locked shut upon loading the chamber and the only way to open the action is to have a round fired to release the locking mechanism or to manually open it with the release on the front of the trigger guard.

boltman, call me at (406)579-9343 or give me a number I can call you, I would like to talk to you about this...

I believe this to be the case as far as a prototype, as there is no serial number or maker's name on the gun.

I'm guessing it is in James Julia's auction in October. I actually handled that gun at the Cody gun show in June. It had a blued receiver and was overall in better shape than this one, but it only had one barrel. I can't be certain, but this receiver looks as if it may have been color/case hardened....

I have come upon more interesting provenance on this rifle including a signed letter by James Serven a notable writer, who had been contacted in regards to this rifle back in 1957. I have copied some accompanying letters that surfaced in relation to this unique rifle and you will also not that I may have paid too much for this gun as one previous owner paid only $500.00 for it at one time...

AWESOME find Sir.

COLT-BURGESS CARBINE
- similar to Rifle, with 20 in. barrel.
Grading
100% 98% 95% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%
N/A N/A N/A $18,000 $15,000 $12,000 $10,000 $8,000 $6,500 $5,000 $3,500 $2,500
COLT-BURGESS LIGHT CARBINE
- lightened version of Carbine.
Grading
100% 98% 95% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%
N/A N/A N/A $21,000 $18,000 $15,000 $13,000 $11,000 $9,000 $7,000 $4,000 $3,000