Antique breech loading Cartridge guns (from 1865-1898) An antique firearm is, loosely speaking, a firearm designed and manufactured prior to the beginning of the 20th century. The Boer War is War is often used as a cut-off event, although the exact definition of what constitutes an "antique firearm" varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Antique guns are usually collected because of their historical interest.
Antique firearms can be divided into two types: muzzleloading and cartridge firing. Muzzleloading antique firearms are not generally owned with the intent of firing them (although original muzzleloaders can be safely fired, after having them thoroughly inspected), but instead are being owned as display pieces or for their historic value. Cartridge firing antique firearms are more commonly encountered as shooting pieces, but most antique cartridge guns made from the 1860s through the 1880s were made with relatively mild steel and were designed to use black powder. They were limited to low bullet velocities and had heavily arcing "rainbow" bullet trajectories. However, advances in steel metallurgy and the advent of mass-produced smokeless powder in powder in the early 1890s gave cartridge rifles of this new era much higher velocities and much flatter trajectories than their predecessors. These advances, typified by cartridges such as 8mm Lebel ( 1886 ), 7x57 Mauser, .303 British, and 7.62x54R made many smokeless powder rifles manufactured in the 1890s quite capable of accurate shooting at long distances. In fact, many antique smokeless powder cartridge guns from the 1890s can still compete satisfactorily in target shooting events alongside modern guns. This article concentrates on antique breech loading cartridge guns from 1865 –1898 rather than earlier muzzleloaders. earlier muzzleloaders. Prior to the late 18th century, there was little standardization with regards to muzzleloading firearms, which sometimes make establishing the provenance of early muzzleloading pieces more difficult than with a later cartridge firing arm.
Pre-Napoleonic
Blunderbuss Brown Bess Musket Charleville Musket Kentucky Rifle Nock Gun
American Civil War
Colt 1851 Navy Revolver Colt Army Model 1860 Colt Dragoon Revolver Colt Walker Colt M1861 Navy
Remington Model 1858 LeMat Revolver Smith & Wesson Model 1 Sharps rifle Spencer rifle Henry rifle Springfield musket Enfield Musket Gorgas machine gun
Old West
Coach Gun Colt Lightning Carbine Colt Peacemaker Smith & Wesson No. 3 Revolver [1] Winchester Rifle
Prohibition era
Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless Colt M1911 Colt New Service M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle Remington Model 8 Thompson submachine gun
Historic military
Enfield 1853 Rifled Musket Snider-Enfield Martini-Henry Martini-Enfield o Lee-Metford Lee-Enfield Magazine Lee-Enfield o Charger Loading Lee-Enfield o Short Magazine Lee-Enfield o Mauser Rifle Lebel M1886 Mosin-Nagant Model 1891 Beaumont-Adams Revolver Enfield Mk I/Mk II Revolver Nagant M1895 Webley Revolver Mauser C96
Sporting arms
Elephant Guns
Cape Guns Buffalo rifles
These guns are all seen as reminders of epic expeditions, pioneering railroad expansions into wilderness areas, and of the golden age of big game hunting throughout Africa, India, and the United States. To sum up their fascination, collectors have been known to use the phrase "if this gun could only talk" when they hold a historic piece - guns such as a Boer War era Mauser rifle stamped "OVS" (for Oranje Vrij Staat - Orange Free State), a "Trapdoor" Springfield Model 1873 cavalry carbine from the Custer era, a Martini-Henry .577/450 single shot rifle with dozens of successive ordnance marks from England, India, Nepal and Tibet, or a well-worn Winchester lever action rifle with its stock studded with American Indian tribal brass tacks.
Collectibility Antique cartridge guns are highly sought by collectors and shooters. Ardent collectors scour gun shows, newspaper classified advertising, and the Internet searching for choice specimens. Some brands/makers that are popular with antique gun collectors in Europe include:
Colt, Chamelot Delvigne, Fabrica de Durango, Fauré Le Page, Charles Francois Galand (C.F.G.), J.D. Levaux, Lefaucheux, Le Page, Martin & Cie, Émile et Léon Nagant, Perrin & Cie, Raphael, Simson & Co., Smith & Wesson, Tranter, Waffenfabrik Bern, J. Warnant, and Webley. There is also interest in military issue antiques such as Albini-Braendlin, Chassepot, Krag-Jørgensen, Kropatschek, Martini-Henry, Mauser, Mosin-Nagant, Peabody, Gebruder Sulzer (Milbank-Amsler), Schmidt-Rubin, St. Etienne Lebel rifle, Steyr Waffenfabrique (Mannlicher), and Vetterli rifles/carbines. Some brands/makers that are popular with United Kingdom and Commonwealth of Nations antique gun collectors include:
Adams, Colt, Holland & Holland, Purdey, Rigby, W&C Scott, Smith & Wesson, Tranter, Webley, and Westley-Richards. There is also interest in military issue antiques such as Lee-Metford, Martini-Enfield. Martini-Henry, Mauser, Peabody, and Snider-Enfield rifles/carbines. Some brands/makers that are popular with U.S. collectors include: Colt, Merwin Hulbert, Mosin-Nagant, Parker, Remington, Savage, Smith & Wesson[1], Whitney, and Winchester. There is also growing interest in military issue "martial" antiques, such as Mauser, Peabody, Schmidt-Rubin, and U.S. Springfield Armory rifles including the Springfield Model 1873 (commonly called the "Trapdoor" Springfield) and Krag-Jørgensen rifles/carbines.[2]
See also
Robert Adams of London Chassepot Colt's Manufacturing Company
Holland & Holland Krag-Jørgensen Kropatschek Lebel Lee-Metford Martini-Enfield Martini-Henry Mauser Maxim gun Mosin-Nagant Peabody action James Purdey and Sons Remington Arms John Rigby (company) William Tranter Savage Arms Schmidt-Rubin Smith & Wesson Snider-Enfield Springfield Armory Springfield Model 1873 Steyr Webley Winchester Repeating Arms Company Firearms
External links
The Pre-1899 Antique Guns FAQ by James Wesley Rawles UK Home Office Guidance to the Police on Antique Guns NRA (UK) White Paper on Controls on Firearms UK Home Office Obsolete Calibers List Regulations Prescribing Antique Firearms, Canada Gazette Part II, Vol. 132, No. 20 Canadian National Firearms Association Web Page on Antique Firearms Laws Savage99.com Martini-Henry Rifles and Carbines The Colt Collector's Association Mosin-Nagant.net The Smith & Wesson Collector's Association The Winchester Arms Collector's Association The Mauser Bolt Action Rifles FAQ by James Wesley Rawles Gewehr 1888 Collecting, shooting and restoring antique pinfire guns [1]
