My Spencer roars for the first time in a century.

[G.W. Strong]

OK folks here is where we stand.
I took my spencer apart and cleaned it thoroughly. I replaced the broken screws and added back original parts where they were missing. While it was fully apart I noticed that while I had thought mine was a parts gun it seems to be all matching. Underneath the handguard I found the same serial number stamped in the same font as on the breech block. It would seem that when the carbine was reworked after the civil war and converted to 56/50 the barrel was removed and lined. Then the parts were given a new 2 digit number on all the major elements and the gun was sent back out to the field.

I ordered 10 rimfire cases from Eggman and found a guy on cast bullets selling the mold I needed. I used my 50/70 dies and made up the rounds with full cases (35 grains) of black powder. I took it to the range and let her rip. It shot great! Because of the bore condition it required wiping between shots but at 50 yards they all went where they were supposed to go. Each case extracted perfectly and the cases were perfectly in tact after the shooting.

I was lucky since a guy I know who is a NSSA shooter was there and he was able to spot for me and offer a few helpful suggestions.

After probably 120 years this carbine is functional again. I let a few other folks shoot the carbine and they were all very happy to have had the opportunity. It got lots of notice and loads of people had questions.