Sesquicentennial - Lincoln - Spencer Demonstration

[Perseo]

Just thought I would mention that this August (18th and 19th I believe - someone correct me if that is not right) is the 150th anniversary of the famous meeting of Christopher Spencer and President Lincoln, with a shoot around on the Washington Mall.

Could be a good summer to show off your Spencer, with a demonstration shoot. 

[matt45]

I've got a kid doing a report on the same.  It will be fun to see if he can do as well as Lincoln did.

[Eggman]

So how about the whole SSS getting together on the White House south lawn?

[Perseo]

Yes.  We have six months to figure out how many laws we would be violating by shooting a Spencer on the Mall in DC.  Time is short.

I like the idea of the school report. 

Be sure to see the movie Lincoln to get a feel for how folksy and informal the man was.  Not hard to imagine that he would agree to a shooting demonstration, and send his son to fetch the Secretary of War (who declined to come out) on the spur of the moment.   

[5judge]

As I recall, there were two Spencer-Lincoln outings. the first one ended with weapon malfunction. The second resulted in Spencer keeping the board at which Lincoln fired. Long lost, ithis target board now is on display at the newish Lincoln museum in Springfield, Illinois.

[Arizona Trooper]

The Spencer rifle he fired was in the Smithsonian hall of Presidents last time I was there, 4 or 5 years ago. It would be neat to reenact that event at the N-SSA fall national, not far from DC in Winchester Va.

[Perseo]

Just a little bump to the thread, now that it is August.  Last week was the 150h anniversary of the pivotal moment in the history of the Spencer.

In some ways the Spencer may have been a bit like the Ferguson (a favorite of mine).  A good design, ahead of its time, which men in the field likely recognized as a game changer, but subsequent military arms in the US (single shot Allyn conversions and Trapdoors) tended to give back the advantages of the innovative design in favor of military arms with a slower rate of fire. 

[Two Flints]

 

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,45440.0.html

and

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,21099.0.html

and

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,20780.msg264981.html#msg264981

and

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,20780.msg264467.html#msg264467