The Remington-Keene Repeating Rifle: A highly collectible, bolt action nightmare
In the 1870s, Remington was hurting and they needed something new to help get them out of the hole. Their main rifle, the single-shot Rolling Block, was suffering in sales against new-fangled repeaters by Winchester and Sharps. It was then that they stumbled upon a guy in New Jersey by the name of Keene who had some interesting ideas about bolt-actions.
Today we are well versed in bolt-action rifles but in the 1870s, the world was split between lever actions like the Winchester 1873 and single-shot falling block designs. There were a few turn-bolt actions out there, like the Berdan and the 1871 Mauser, but these were single-shot guns as well.
What was revolutionary for a repeater was using a turn-bolt that not only loaded and unloaded the rifle, but fed from a magazine. New Jersey based firearms designer John W. Keene had perfected a bolt-action system for a rifle and magazine but lacked the means to produce his gun. This led to a mutually beneficial arrangement and the Remington-Keene repeating rifle was born.
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