Remington rolling block rifle disassembly

#Remington rolling block rifle disassembly serial

These were the only smokeless-powder 8mm Rolling Blocks made, and thus are fairly easy to identify upon inspection. The one identifying mark from Remington (aside from the patents marked on the tang) was вЂњCAL 8MMвЂќ stamped on the barrels.

#Remington rolling block rifle disassembly serial

They were serial numbered on the stock and the barrel only (and this was done upon receipt in France, not by Remington), and some inspections like confirming parts interchangeability with other manufacturers was skipped (since Remington was the only manufacturer). These Remington rifles were marked a bit differently than typical French-production military arms. The entire contract was delivered on schedule by early 1916. The first deliveries began in March 1915, and by June of that year Remington was producing 500 per day. These would prove to be the only single-shot rifles manufactured new for use in the Great War. In November 1914 the French government placed an order for 100,000 of the rifles (including some carbines) in 8mm Lebel, with wooden upper handguards and bayonets. The Rolling Block was obsolete by this time (Remington had ceased production of all but the rimfire models), but the tooling was still there and the design remained inexpensive, robust, and reliable. Well, in 1914 the arms production capacity of the Remington company was available to anyone with money. As a single-shot black powder rifle, they had few major competitors on the commercial market. Two of the most common solutions were the Remington Rolling Block and the Mle 1874 Gras.ДЇrance (along with dozens of other nations) had issued Remington Rolling Block rifles in the late 1800s, when the RRB was one of the most prolific military rifles on the planet. One major solution was to take away the Lebel rifles from troops who didnвЂ™t really need the best weaponry (POW camp guards, drivers, some artillery crews, etc), give them a substitute rifle, and send their nice new Lebels to the front.В Of course, you would ideally want those substitute rifles to use the same standard 8x50R ammunition as the Lebel. So while that production capacity was increased, other solutions had to be found. Not really a big deal during peacetime, but the sudden demand for rifles far outpaced production capacity. The primary rifle of the French army at this time was the M1886 R93 Lebel, which was a reasonably expensive and time-consuming weapon to produce. This led to a huge pressure to equip soldiers on the front lines, with a combination of a growing army as more troops were recruited and conscripted and the loss of rifles to combat. The euphemistic term for men and equipment being blown into unrecognizable pieces was вЂњwastageвЂќ вЂ“ and even as early as the autumn of 1914 wastage was consuming as many as 40,000 rifles per month. The meat grinder of trench warfare stalemate was not anticipated, nor the horrific toll such warfare would take on the men and armies participating. When war broke out, the prevailing assumption on all sides was that the conflict would be short вЂ“ troops would all be home by Christmas of 1914.

One of the universal misconceptions about World War One on the parts of its combatants was how long it was expected to last.