mawkie
C&R Whisperer
-Early December found me bidding on a Russian Winchester M1895 musket but came up well short as bidding went viral in a small Missouri auction. Luckily for me I had a Plan B. One of the last firearm lots was another bucket list item: a Remington M1914 Rolling Block built for the French army and chambered in 8mm Lebel. Remington built and delivered roughly 100K of the 5th variation RB. They were used by secondary units, allowing Lebels and Berthiers to be freed up for front line units.
-The auction listing verbiage stated that it was "non-functional" and I noticed a replacement hand guard of unknown heritage. Cleaning rod was also missing. Figured that it wouldn't take much to get it going again, no matter what was wrong with the action. In the end that verbiage scared away nearly everyone and I got it for a crazy cheap price.
-USPS managed to lose the shipment but after 3 weeks it surfaced and finally showed up on my porch this week. Found that the auction description was dead wrong; couldn't find a thing out of kilter with the action and the bore was very clean and sharp. This one wasn't shot much. At some point it got updated to handle balle N ammo, as denoted by the "N" on the receiver.
-While waiting for the shipment to arrive I had started a search for an original RB hand guard. Hard to find as Remington originals were very prone to cracking, being very thin. But after seeing this replacement up close I'm keeping it. Looks very much like a M34 Berthier HG. I'm convinced it's a French replacement.
-All that's left is to scrounge a proper French sling and a cleaning rod. This one fills a big gap in my French collection. There are only two other French long arms left on the bucket list and I doubt I'll ever add either one to the collection both being so expensive and rare: RSC 1917 and MAS 36 CR39. But stranger stuff has happened, like getting a M1914 RB for pennies on the dollar!
-The auction listing verbiage stated that it was "non-functional" and I noticed a replacement hand guard of unknown heritage. Cleaning rod was also missing. Figured that it wouldn't take much to get it going again, no matter what was wrong with the action. In the end that verbiage scared away nearly everyone and I got it for a crazy cheap price.
-USPS managed to lose the shipment but after 3 weeks it surfaced and finally showed up on my porch this week. Found that the auction description was dead wrong; couldn't find a thing out of kilter with the action and the bore was very clean and sharp. This one wasn't shot much. At some point it got updated to handle balle N ammo, as denoted by the "N" on the receiver.
-While waiting for the shipment to arrive I had started a search for an original RB hand guard. Hard to find as Remington originals were very prone to cracking, being very thin. But after seeing this replacement up close I'm keeping it. Looks very much like a M34 Berthier HG. I'm convinced it's a French replacement.
-All that's left is to scrounge a proper French sling and a cleaning rod. This one fills a big gap in my French collection. There are only two other French long arms left on the bucket list and I doubt I'll ever add either one to the collection both being so expensive and rare: RSC 1917 and MAS 36 CR39. But stranger stuff has happened, like getting a M1914 RB for pennies on the dollar!
Attachments
-
IMGP8947.JPG26.3 KB · Views: 332
-
IMGP8948.JPG26 KB · Views: 315
-
IMGP8945.JPG72.2 KB · Views: 332
-
IMGP8950.JPG59.6 KB · Views: 303
-
IMGP8953.JPG42.2 KB · Views: 324
-
IMGP8954.JPG50.4 KB · Views: 314
-
IMGP8956.JPG29.3 KB · Views: 300
-
IMGP8951.JPG53.3 KB · Views: 319
-
IMGP8949.JPG33.7 KB · Views: 329
-
IMGP8955.JPG28.3 KB · Views: 330