A good friend has a Remington Rolling Block in 50-70 he brings to the range occasionally. It's great fun to shoot but rest assured...his brass rarely hits the ground and if it does, it isn't left for later.

 

I wondered why he doesn’t just drop the empties into his frock coat pocket, but figured he didn’t want them jingling around making noise. Besides a rolling block I like the Cimarron “McNelly Sharps” carbine, but I think they are only .45-70 now. And very expensive.

 

He’s certainly dialed in with that rifle.
Vic

 

I bought a RB sporting rifle .50-70 a year ago and finally got around to shooting it last fall. It’s quite a rifle on both ends.

 

I have several .50 1 3/4 in Sharps and Rolling blocks. They are in the sporting, military and carbine forms. To me they are the easiest black powder cartridge to load and a joy to shoot. It's a great hunting cartridge, just be sure of your backstop and no other animals behind the one you shoot or you may get a two-fer. Take care, Duane

 

Looks to be a N.Y. State contract made by Remington rather than a Springfield Army or Navy Model, the high hammer is a give-away on the N.Y. N.G. guns.

 

Yes it is a N.Y. State militia rifle. Both the high hammer and as you will notice he has to re-cock the hammer after loading and closing the breech block as it goes to half cock when the breech block is opened.
Take care, Duane

 

Yes it is a N.Y. State militia rifle. Both the high hammer and as you will notice he has to re-cock the hammer after loading and closing the breech block as it goes to half cock when the breech block is opened.
Take care, Duane

I haven’t looked recently, but when I saw military type Remington RBs online in .50-70 for sale they were usually those NY guns, and I think in the $800 range.

 

Yes they can be found for around $7 to $800.00 a nice one can run 12 or 15.
Another rolling block that can be found in nice condition is the Argentine in .43 Spanish. They were arsenal refinished and then sold off. The .43 Spanish is the same as a .44-77 except for bore diameter, one being .439 and the later .446.
As a side note I own the patent model for the N.Y.S. Rolling Block, you can see it on page four of the Remington Rolling Block book by Marcot.
Take care, Duane

 

Over in the "vintage jim martin" thread there's some footage of me shooting my 45/70 springfield @ some tin cans @ about 50 yds about 50 years ago & my brass ain't hitting the ground.

 

That looks like a lot of fun. Beautiful territory.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

I’ve seen people with scoped modern rifles on a bench have difficulty hitting targets at those distances. Off hand, no sling, long heavy rifle he’s pretty dang good.

 

Actually those long barreled rifle muskets and cartridge rifles of the later half of the 19th century hold very well off-hand and are pretty easy to hit with given good ammunition, (even with their crude military sights).

 

There were more than a few Remington Rolling Blocks (an others) among the buffalo hunters but, like Duane said, Sharps had better PR. Think Winchester v Marlin, Colt v Smith & Wesson.

 

Well, one thing for sure - Remington's chasing military contracts brought them down by 1888. Then M. Hartley took them over as Remington Arms Co.