Greene Rifle

[Fort Susquehanna]

Invented by James Durrell Greene, the first bolt action rifle bought by the US Army.  Some unique features include an oval bore, underhammer, and bolt action with two projectiles used to fire it!  The oval bore turns all the way from breech to muzzle, acting as the rifling itself.  The underhammer was a rare feature used in target rifles of the day for accuracy; it also presented a problem keeping percussion caps mounted and not falling off.  The bolt action has a rammer which seats the first projectile in the bore, then a second paper cartridge with the second projectile behind  the charge is seated, and the rear projectile acts to seal the bore for discharge.  After firing, you turn the bolt handle vertical, push the rear projectile into the bore, then put a new paper cartridge into place to fire it again.  Only about 4000 were built.  3000 were supposedly purchased by Russia, 350 by Egypt, and 900 some were purchased by the US Ordnance Department, which placed all of them into armories.  Due to suspected projectiles found at Antietam, some feel that Massachusetts troops used them at that battle, but I have not found any documentation for this.  This one has U stamps on the barrel bands, so I believe it is an US purchased example.  

[ScottG]

We just had one donated to our museum, I will have to look at the markings to see what is there. It came in with a large gun collection spanning about 200 years so I haven't had time to look at each gun yet. Certainly a fairly rare gun.    Scott