The Ugly Duckling

feature By: Michael Meacham | September, 24

The Ugly Duckling

This carbine is the Cavalry version of the “Spanish Model Rifle,” a No. 4 Remington Rolling Block in 43 Spanish, Model 1874. Based on its tang inscription, saddle ring and rear sight, it was one of the earliest rolling blocks acquired in a joint purchase by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, for their war against Paraguay. It has the E.E. Remington tang markings, and the last patent date is 1874. Argentina’s Remington rifles after that time had the octagonal reinforced breech.

The included photos show the right side of the carbine, revealing its age and the other shows why I call this gun “The Ugly Duckling.” All guns have a story. This one does too, but it is only an educated guess. The trooper who carried this carbine was shot and fell out of the saddle to land on top of his weapon. We can assume that he died there, bleeding out on top of the gun. We can also speculate that his side lost the battle, as neither he nor his weapon were recovered from the field until at least a day, possibly more, later. Corrosion from blood is aggressive and this carbine was severely corroded. Some previous owner, or perhaps an importer, ground off much of the corroded metal and sanded the stock, leaving no markings of any kind other than the tang and the rear sight. I have investigated both the inside and the outside under magnification and have not found any other marks.

Right and left side of the No. 4 Rolling Block Carbine.

I came across this gun at a “Crossroads of the West” gun show. The seller was asking $350 and the left side was facing down on the table. I picked it up, looked it over and negotiated a price of $275. Why would I pay even that much for such a cosmetically poor example? The bore, while hardly pristine, is not terrible for its age. Besides, it’s a Saddle Ring Carbine. I took it home, cleaned it, did some research, cast the breech and throat with Cerrosafe from Brownells, ordered dies from Lee and a mould from Lyman. I found that the bore was .442, somewhat large for the 43 Spanish, and ordered brass from Buffalo Arms. I specified 44-77 Remington brass as the neck is .446.

My cast bullets using 30-1 alloy came out at .443 to .444. I special ordered a bullet sizing die for my Lyman No. 45 bullet sizer in .443 and lubed them with SPG Bullet Lubricant. I weigh my bullets to 1⁄10 of a grain and separate them into groups based on the most prevalent diameter, along with a weight of plus or minus 1⁄10 grain. Since I am usually loading for Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Silhouette, I pick 15 of the heaviest group for Rams, next heaviest for Turkeys, third heaviest for Pigs and fourth heaviest for Chickens, (10 for record and 5 sighters). I set my Lyman powder measure with the brass tumbler for just under 77 grains of 3Fg Swiss black powder, and trickle each load to dead-on in my Lyman scale. I dropped the load down a 36-inch brass drop tube into the case, followed by a .060 Walters card wad. I adjust the depth based on seating a round in the gun until the bullet just touches the rifling, and set my bullet seater to that depth. There is some mild compression. Then I remove the de-capping pin and shaft from the sizing die and carefully used that to taper-crimp the rounds. Because I was using 44-77 brass, the oversize bullets seated easily, and once fired, the brass opens to about .444 - .445.

Bore of the Remington carbine.

The trigger was very heavy, (standard for military firearms), so, as I do for all my Sharps and Rolling Blocks, I removed the trigger guard, took out the screw holding the trigger return spring, cut a piece of average thickness leather into a small square about 3⁄8 x 3⁄8-inch and punched a screw sized hole in the middle of it. I reinstalled the trigger return spring with the leather washer between the spring and the trigger guard, reducing the trigger pull by about one half. No parts are altered and it can be easily undone by removing the washer.

I took these loads to the range and tried them out. From this light little carbine, these factory equivalent loads are real “snot-knockers”. However, the gun held up well, though accuracy was not what I hoped. Checking the muzzle, I determined that it needed to be re-crowned. After doing that I returned to the range several months later. I wasn’t expecting minute of angle from the gun, but I was hoping for “minute of elk” at 200 yards. Alas, it was not to be. The gun, at 100 yards, sprayed bullets like a Hollywood machine gun.

Thinking that often large bore rifles with heavy bullets don’t stabilize until about 200 yards out, I carefully sighted in on a marker at the 200-yard range, using a front rest and rear sand sock and touched off a round. Everything was good, except the bullet hit with perfect elevation, three feet to the left of the marker. So, I thought, at 100 yards that should be 18 inches left. I held off to the right to allow for that, hoping for a reasonable group. Nope, still spraying. I looked at the barrel from above to see if it was bent. (It wasn’t as there was no shadow in the bore, and it should have still grouped if that was the problem.) However, from that perspective, I realized that so much metal had been removed from the left side that there was no real prospect of the barrel harmonics still existing. I could have it re-barreled into a really neat little woods elk gun, but I have others I can use; this gun is a piece of history that should not be further abused.

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