An American first: the birth of the sporterized military rifle

Guns Magazine, July, 2009 by Jeff John

Spencer Redux

Cowboy Action Shooting and Civil War re-enactment created a market for the more complicated arms and the Spencer is now replicated by Armi Sport of Italy and imported by a variety of companies. The platform for this conversion was purchased from Cimarron Arms. For the most part, the Italians have done a bang-up job. The parts are nicely finished, the case hardening is real and thorough and all the screws are hardened properly.

This Italian gun is a centerfire, of course, and the firing pin is in three parts. The plate, which is hit by the hammer, is softer than the transfer plate--which has been case hardened--and the pin itself has a straight shot into the primer. A spring retracts the firing pin, but it is not a rebounding pin and the Spencer should never be carried with a round in the chamber and the hammer down.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Had the wood been inletted better around the action parts, I might not have gone the extra mile for a new stock. Gemmer also reworked just the front half of the gun if the customer didn't have deep pockets.

Another plus, the Italians use a modified version of the post-war Lane extractor rather than the long knife-blade extractor of the original Spencer. The Lane extractor, somewhat complicated, was simplified by the Italians and works very nicely. This type extractor leaves plenty of chamber wall, unlike the original M1860, and my goal of performance like a hot .45 Colt with smokeless powder was achieved.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Cartridge Reborn

Cartridge nomenclature was an entirely new field, so cartridges were often named after their nominal bore size. The first Spencer cartridge was simply called the No. 56. As the round was necked down and the bore size reduced, another number was added after the 56, thus we have 56-52, 56-50 and 56-46, as the Spencer underwent experimentation at Springfield Armory. The Armory found a 300- or 320-grain 45-caliber bullet offered superior trajectory and penetration over the original 425-grain 56-caliber or the newly designed 350-grain 50-caliber.

Original 56-46 ammo delivered the outside lubricated lead 300-grain .45" bullet at around 1,100 fps delivering 800 ft-lbs of energy. Alas, the generals in charge couldn't conceive of a military bullet smaller than 50 caliber and 56-46 concept was scrapped--except by Spencer. It became the standard cartridge for the firm's sporting rifles.

Though limitations in the Spencer ammo's payload and power-to-weight proved insurmountable with black powder, modern smokeless powders improve the Spencer's performance enough to warrant another look. With performance equal to many hot handgun cartridges along with modern expanding bullets, a 56-46 Spencer gives the hunter a unique hard-hitting game getter.

Should you be intimidated by the high initial cost of the full-blown Gemmer, remember, period gunsmiths did a wide variety of front-end only conversions and your only limit is your imagination. The Buffalo Spencer was a storied part of the early post Civil War frontier and such conversions set into motion a uniquely American product--the sporterized military rifle. Not a bad legacy for any firearm.