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LOT 3084
Incredibly Scarce Presentation Grade Civil War Era Burnside Breech Loading Percussion Sporting Rifle with Heavy Barrel - Serial no. 4, 54 cal., 25 1/2 inch octagon bbl., blue/casehardened finish, fancy walnut stock. This rifle is one of only a select few known Burnside sporting rifles. It was manufactured by the Burnside Rifle Company based on General Ambrose E. Burnside’s design. Most of the small number of surviving examples utilized the First and Second Model type actions making this rifle even scarcer. Some of the sporting rifle variants of Burnside’s design are known to have been used as presentation pieces, and others were possibly built by the company’s employees for their own use as theorized in Edward Hull’s book “Burnside Breechloading Carbines and Rifles. A Collector’s Guide...” A higher end example like this would have been made for a nice presentation to one of the company’s leaders. This rifle would have also made for an excellent presentation piece for an important high ranking individual such as a Civil War general near the end of the war given the large number of Union veterans that would have been intimately familiar with the Burnside design. Over 50,000 carbines were purchased under contract
by the government for the Union War effort. They were the third most widely used cavalry carbines after only the Sharps and Spencers and were used in combat in nearly all of the major battles of the Civil War. As military men are often fond of the weapons they used in combat, it is easy to see how a Union cavalryman returning to civilian life would cherish a fine sporting rifle using the same action he used to defend his country. It has fit and finish of a higher standard than what is typically found in a military issued Burnside carbines.
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