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Burnside Civil War Carbine


thorin6
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I used to buy milsurp firearms at roughly one every three months for over 10 years, but the last few years it's been about one a year, and this year's allocation has been taken by this Burnside Carbine I bought at the Raleigh Militaria Show a couple of weeks ago. It's the fifth model of the carbine; which, for some reason has the designation Model of 1864 on the Carbine although as best I can tell, it was probably made in mid-1863. The fifth model is the most numerous and final version, and is readily identified by the lone screw on the right side of the receiver. The bore on this carbine is very clean, and the breech block shows very little wear. I have tried to steer away from Civil War items, but I've handled this particular carbine for the past couple of years, as it belonged to Dan the Krag Guy, whom I have helped setting and selling his old guns and other stuff the past several years. I just got tired of putting it up on the racks and liked it's condition too much.

 

Here's a few pictures:

 

 

 

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Here's the breech block rotated and prepared to accept the conical shaped round. The Burnside is the first metallic cartridge firearm accept for use by the US Army, and was the third most common carbine behind the Sharps and Spencer in the Union Army during the Civil War. Captured Burnsides were also used by the Confederate forces.

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Finally, here's a shot of the lever release and the breech block rotated down, The screw which has a guide pin on the end of it, and the groove that guides the breech block are visible.

 

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In carrying around, it seems slightly heavier than the M1 Carbine with full magazine. Seven pounds seems about right. My understanding is the effective range on these was around 200 yards, while the Spencer and Sharps were further. Problem you get to in the Civil War is after the first couple of volleys you can't see very far thanks to the smoke of the black powder.

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Good points...

 

The M1 carbine weighs about 9 lbs?

 

2 more pounds shouldn't make all THAT much difference, one would think.

 

I suppose total length of each would certainly come into play too...

 

Anyhow, that is one nice looking rifle!

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Good points...

 

The M1 carbine weighs about 9 lbs?

 

2 more pounds shouldn't make all THAT much difference, one would think.

 

I suppose total length of each would certainly come into play too...

 

Anyhow, that is one nice looking rifle!

 

The M1 Carbine is supposed to be 5.2 lbs unloaded, so it is quite a bit lighter than the average carbine from the Civil War.

 

 

I love the Burnside you've posted Thorin, that's a real looker!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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