Smooth Bore Spencer

[kevikens]

I found a most curious firearm at a nearby gun shop. It is an original Spencer but it has a smooth bore barrel and no sights. I cannot tell if it is the original .56 caliber or figure out what kind of a cartridge (bird shot, buck shot) it would take or whether it is a rim fire or has been converted to center fire. I am wondering if this is a post Civil War conversion for civilian use or if it is a forage gun issued to troops for small game hunting. Does anyone know anything about what this firearm is or at least where I might find more about it. I don't want to make the purchase (it's not cheap) unless I know what I'm getting. Thanks

[Dave Fox]

At no time did the government issue troops smoothbore Spencer "foragers".

"These guns are merely the product of a variety of post-Civil War gunsmiths, each making a small-bore shotgun for prairie or field use. No military application was ever intended...." (Marcot, "Spencer Repeating Firearms", Rowe Publications, 1983, page 159).

Marcot includes a picture of an advertisement for such a conversion placed after the war by the famous Bristol Manufacturing Company and illustrates a representative Spencer smoothbore.

[kevikens]

Dave: I don't have access to that book. Does the advertisement say whether the smooth bore Spencer uses a rim fire or center fire cartridge? Thanks

[Dave Fox]

From undated Bristol Firearms ad in Marcot:

Throwing down on competitors' Spencer smoothbores, the ad asserts "...they also take rim fire cartridges, which cost $3.55 per 100, and can be used but once" while the (obviously) superior Bristol model "takes a center fire shell that can be reloaded...."


These Bristol Spencers must be common(?) today because the ad states they have caused "a stampede among gunners."

[kowdok]

I have a similar Sharpes carbine that was made into a 28ga. shotgun. Sharpes and "old reliable" are both stamped into the barrel. Also 28ga. It is a centerfire approx. 1880's model according to several gun dealers I've shown it to. It is in mint cond. with complete blueing . I've never shot it, but I'm wondering if it would be a perfect turkey gun? Got it from a family member. Have no idea what it might be worth.

[kevikens]

The owner of the one I have been looking at is asking $1100 but I have no idea where he got his figure from. I can't find anything on it and most of all I don't know if the gun can be fired or what kind of shell it would fire if it did. If it were a 28 gauge and it would chamber and load 28 gauge I would buy it but the repros , .56-50, sometimes take a 32 gauge blank charge for re-enactments, not a 28 gauge. I don't know if the one I am looking at is rim fire or center fire.

[Ken Hansgen, 11094]

Kevikens, The firearm you and Dave were talking about was a Spencer. Kowdoc introduced his Sharps into the discussion. The gun the owner who asks $1100 for his gun owns a Spencer, is it not? (My advice would be to let it alone.)