Upon reaching Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and hearing warnings that the Lakota leader Red Cloud was on the warpath, Story decided to buy a fresh shipment of Remington rifles and large quantities of ammunition. The cowboys nearly all had muzzleloading rifles and cap-and-ball revolvers that all took a long time to load- a drawback that could prove deadly when traveling on the Bozeman Trail through hostile Indian country. The courageous cattle drive by Nelson Story from Texas to Montana Territory in 1866 had been a great вЂњdomesticвЂќ boost for the Remington rolling block-an adventure that the Remington factory quickly capitalized on in its advertising literature.ДЄfter making money in the gold mines around Virginia City, Montana Territory, Story hired some 30 men, mostly Confederate veterans, to help him herd 3,000 Longhorns from Texas to the grasslands of Montana Territory. Louis, and they were also in demand at gun shops in more out-of-the-way places. The rifles were regularly stocked items for such Western dealers as DenverвЂ™s Carlos Gove and E.C. By the fall of 1866, cases of Remington rolling-block rifles in various calibers had found their way to Kansas, Texas, Colorado Territory and elsewhere in the West. Meanwhile, back in the States, civilians were taking to the new Remington long arms. During the 1867 Paris Exposition, the High Commission on Firearms called the Remington rolling block вЂњthe finest rifle in the worldвЂќ and awarded it the silver medal (highest award) for mechanical excellence. Its superior design was quickly recognized, and many nations, including Denmark, Egypt and Mexico, began to place orders.

In late spring 1866, Samuel Remington crossed the Atlantic to demonstrate the rifle in Europe. Navy showed enough interest to place a few small sporadic orders. (See more on the Remington company in the February 2006 вЂњGuns of the WestвЂќ department.)ДЄn expert rifleman, Remington claimed, could fire 17 shots a minute with the rolling-block rifle. Remington had something radically new to offer, and the new gun temporarily saved the company from bankruptcy. Once RiderвЂ™s mid- 1866 patent was issued, the simple but virtually indestructible rolling-block action became RemingtonвЂ™s new ace in the hole in countering the postвЂ“Civil War glut of surplus arms that was putting many gun companies out of business. The early вЂњsplit-breechвЂќ action allowed the hammer to sit between the weaker, split-wall breechblock configuration that took only low-pressure, rimfire ammunition such as the. government placed an order for what became known as Remington вЂњsplit-breechвЂќ carbines, just before RiderвЂ™s final improvement-strengthening the breechblock by machining it out of a solid billet of steel. In the last year of the Civil War, the U.S. Rider brought the new action along, and with his 18 patents, put it in its nearly perfect final form. Remington & Sons, AmericaвЂ™s oldest firearms manufacturer, took over GeigerвЂ™s patent and assigned one of its chief engineers, Joseph Rider, to make the necessary refinements. Geiger designed the basic action, in which the shooter вЂњrolledвЂќ the breechblock backward with the thumb and inserted a cartridge in the breech, before the block вЂњrolledвЂќ forward and the interlocking hammer cocked in one fluid motion. During the American Civil War, gunsmith Leonard M. Manufactured from 1866 to 1917, the Remington rolling-block cartridge rifle was so popular that more than half the worldвЂ™s armies adopted it or purchased quantities for police or martial purposes. Remington & Sons of Ilion, New York, about the virtues of-and his satisfaction with- his special-order Remington single-shot rolling-block sporting rifle in.

Custer in an October 5, 1873, letter to E. вЂњWith your rifle I killed far more game than any other single party вЂ¦while the shots made from your rifle were at longer range and more difficult shots than were those made by any other rifle in the commandвЂ¦.I am more than ever impressed with the many superior qualities possessed by the system of arms manufactured by your firm, and I believe I am safe in asserting that to a great extent, this opinion is largely shared.вЂќ Those were some of the comments made by Lieutenant Colonel George A.

.32 remington rolling block rifle