Remington Rolling Block

Origins

The rolling-block action was developed at the Remington works in Ilion, New York, during and just after the American Civil War. Leonard Geiger had patented a split-breech design, and Remington's superintendent Joseph Rider refined it into the rolling block of the mid-1860s. The US Army tested it but kept converting its own muzzle-loaders instead. Remington turned to export. The rifle drew attention at the Paris Exposition of 1867, and orders followed quickly. Denmark, Sweden and Norway adopted it in 1867. Spain took it as its Model 1871 and made it under license. Egypt bought many thousands from about 1869, and Argentina, Mexico and a long list of other states followed. The US Navy adopted a rolling-block rifle in 1870, and the US Army issued a small number of Springfield-made rolling blocks in the early 1870s.

Design & Construction

The action had only two main moving parts, the breechblock and the hammer, each turning on a heavy pin through the receiver. To load, the firer cocked the hammer and rolled the breechblock back with his thumb, which also pushed out the empty case. He put in a cartridge and rolled the block forward. When the trigger was pulled, the falling hammer struck the firing pin, and at the same moment a shoulder on the hammer moved in behind the breechblock and locked it. The harder the cartridge pushed back, the tighter the parts held. The design was easy to make, easy to repair and very strong. Because the hammer and breechblock interlocked, the rifle could not fire unless the block was fully closed. It was built in many calibers to suit each buyer, from the 12.17 mm rimfire of the Scandinavian rifles to the 11 mm Spanish and Egyptian cartridges, and in the 1890s it was strong enough to take smokeless 7 mm Mauser ammunition. Rifles, carbines and cadet models were made, most with sword or socket bayonets.

Combat Use

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and 1871, France bought large numbers of American arms, including rolling blocks, for its newly raised armies. Spanish troops carried the rolling block in the Carlist war of the 1870s and in Cuba, and Egyptian troops used it in the 1870s and 1880s. In Africa it had an unexpected career. Egyptian armies that invaded Ethiopia in 1875 and 1876 were destroyed at Gundet and Gura by the forces of Emperor Yohannes IV, who captured thousands of Remington rifles. Later, Menelik II bought more rolling blocks through traders along with French Gras rifles. At the Battle of Adwa in 1896, many Ethiopian riflemen carried Remingtons against Italians armed with the Vetterli Rifle. The rolling block also served in the War of the Pacific and in many Latin American civil wars.

Legacy

Remington produced well over a million military rolling blocks, and licensed copies were made in Spain, Sweden, Norway, Belgium and elsewhere, though exact totals are uncertain. The bolt-action magazine rifle made it obsolete in the major armies by the 1890s, but it lingered with reserves, police and smaller forces into the twentieth century, and in Ethiopia it was probably still in use during the Italian invasion of 1935. It is one of the best-known rifles of the First Italo-Ethiopian War and a favorite of collectors today. Sporting versions were also popular in the United States as target and hunting rifles, including for long-range match shooting in the 1870s.