Welcome to right this moment’s Photo of the Day! Gunsmith Horace Smith of Smith & Wesson fame deserves recognition for his 1851 enhancements to Walter Hunt’s “Volition Repeater” lever motion rifle design. Smith streamlined the twin lever mechanism right into a single, clean lever that elegantly dealt with loading, locking, and firing with a squeeze. He additionally ingeniously added a rotating pellet primer system to maintain the rifle primed and able to hearth. A number of hundred of Smith’s enhanced rifles have been manufactured from 1851-1852 by Robbins & Lawrence, together with this uncommon “pregnant body” mannequin with its distinctive bulge to accommodate the upgrades. The rifle nonetheless utilized Hunt’s Rocket Ball ammunition, an modern self-contained cartridge design with the powder cost within the bullet base. Although the Smith-Jennings was not a business success, it represented significant evolution, combining ideas that grew to become the blueprint for the well-known Henry and Winchester rifles to observe.
“This was Horace Smith’s (later Smith & Wesson) enchancment on the Jennings “Rocket Ball” rifle manufactured circa 1851-52. He was issued a patent in 1851 for an improved motion and the repeating rifle was manufactured by Robbins & Lawrence. This explicit rifle is a Second Mannequin with the pronounced bulge on the underside of the body ensuing within the nickname “pregnant body Jennings”. It’s estimated that lower than 400 of this mannequin have been manufactured. Additionally the capsule primer and cartridge provider place spring have been improved over the First Mannequin.”
Lot 1001: Smith-Jennings Rifle 54 percussion. (n.d.-c). Rock Island Public sale Firm. {photograph}. Retrieved February 19, 2024, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/element/63/1001/smithjennings-rifle-54-percussion.
The put up POTD: A Pregnant Lever Action – The Smith-Jennings Rifle appeared first on AllOutdoor.com.
