Another request for help to ID rifle

[tjack]

George is still trying to determine what the "KM" means. He has some theories but documentation is lacking.

[JV Puleo]

error... a double post

[JV Puleo]

Another KM rifle... so far they are all in .43 Egyptian except the rifle on the front of George's book... which appears to be in .43 Spanish but could be .42 Berdan with a loose chamber. In any case, it clearly isn't in the Egyptian caliber. As Tom says, we're working on it but so far there have been no outstanding breakthroughs.

You say its in better than usually seen condition... does your rifle have a concave breechblock and side extractor and is it marked on the top of the action... even marked, cancelled out and marked again, all in old Arabic writing (they are usually numbers)? Also, is the lug for the saber bayonet full size or has it been cut down so that it is the "short" lug as seen on the Swedish rifles? This is all important stuff in figuring out what they could be.

Joe Puleo

[JV Puleo]

Its doubtful you need a chamber cast. A .43 Egyptian chamber will not accept anything else... at least that was available at the time in a RB military rifle. The change to the breech block took place in August of 1870 so the rifle has to pre-date that. So far, this is characteristic of all the KM rifles seen. They also seem to be in much better condition than Egyptian rifles usually are... in fact they correspond to the Egyptian rifles that went to France except that virtually all of them were made after August of 1870 and have flat breechblocks, as to the later rifles sent to Egypt.

I asked about the arabic markings because I think we haven't seen a KM rifle that has them...(I will have to check with George L on that but he is unavailable at the moment... called back to active duty). In the meantime I'm collecting data for him. I strongly suspect that the KM rifles were made at the same time as the 1st Egyptian contract rifles but for a completely different customer - its just a matter of figuring out who and where - we pretty much know when.

[JV Puleo]

Actually, the mystery surrounding the use of so many RBs is the most appealing part to me. I can't say I've ever been a fan of the gun itself, aside from acknowledging it as the best single shot military rifle ever made. Its almost as if its brilliant simplicity makes it less interesting as a mechanical device... which I know makes little sense! But, if the design is ever so simple, the technological capacity that went into making it is exactly the opposite. The Remington factory had to have been an absolute marvel in the 1870s... clearly superior to any government manufactory in Europe.

Joe Puleo