Anyone familiar with a Japanese Spencer?

[JimBob]

A Japanese Samurai Spencer:










                                       (Photos Posted by Two Flints)

http://www.jouster.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23905&d=1382136665
http://www.jouster.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23907&d=1382136726
http://www.jouster.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23908&d=1382136801
http://www.jouster.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23909&d=1382136848

From the posting over on Culver's Shooting page-

This rifle came into a local gun shop a while back. I expressed interest in it at that time but the shop's owner said he'd be keeping it for his collection. Last week he called me to say it was mine if I wanted it. It's a New Model Spencer made in 1868 I think. It's in ok shape with a tad bit of the exterior case hardening still on the receiver and it has an excellent bore. It has Japanese kanji engraved on the receiver which I'm told read "#140 Meiji 27 (1894) Saga Prefecture". The rifle might have originally entered Japan to arm the Forces of the Emperor Meiji during the Boshin War of 1868-69 fought against the Shogun. Here are some pics.

[Two Flints]

Hi JimBob,

SSS had this Samurai discussion awhile back:

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,39700.msg503641/topicseen.html#msg503641

I think you have to be a forum member to log in and see those links you posted?

Two Flints

[JimBob]

Saw that one,not much of a "discussion".

[Two Flints]

Jim Bob,

Maybe I shoulda' said POST and not discussion     BUT, I did post the photos for you . . .

You could just do a Google search on your own . . .

Boshin war

Capture of a Choshu battery at Shimonoseki during the Boshin war, 1864.The mounting civil war in Japan and the opposition of various feudal lords against the Bakufu during the Late Tokugawa Shogunate led to serious rearming until the 1867 Boshin war. At the same time technological progress was extremely fast in the West, with the introduction of the rifle, breech-loading and even repeating firearms, so that Japanese armies were equipped with composite technologies, with weapons imported from countries as varied as France, Germany, The Netherlands, Britain or the United States, and coexisting with traditional Tanegashima guns.[21]

During the Boshin war, most Shogunate vassal troops used Gewehr smoothbore guns. These guns were rather ancient and had limited capabilities, with an effective lethal range of about 50 meters, and a firing rate of about 2 rounds per minute. Much more effective Minié rifles were also used by the armies directly under the command of the Shogun, the Bakufu troops. The Daimyo of Nagaoka, an ally of the Shogun, possessed two Gatling guns and several thousand modern rifles. The Shogunate is known to have placed an order for 30,000 modern Dreyse needle guns in 1866. In 1867, orders were placed for 40,000 state-of-the-art French Chassepot rifles, a part of which reached Edo by year end.[21] Antiquated Tanegashima matchlock guns are also known to have been used by the Bakufu however.[22]

Imperial troops mainly used Minié rifles, which were much more accurate, lethal, and had a much longer range than the smoothbore Gewehr guns, although, being also muzzle-loading, they were similarly limited to two shots per minute. Improved breech-loading mechanisms, such as the Snider, developing a rate of about ten shots a minute, are known to have been used by troops of the Tosa Domain against the Shogunate's Shōgitai, at the Battle of Ueno in July 1868. In the second half of the conflict, in the northeast theater, Tosa Province troops are known to have used American-made Spencer repeating rifles.[22] American-made handguns were also popular, such as the 1863 Smith & Wesson Army No 2, which was imported to Japan by the Scottish trader Thomas Blake Glover and used by the Satsuma forces.[22]

[JimBob]

It's not my rifle and I thought maybe some here would be interested.Next time I see something I won't bother.

[Two Flints]

Hi JimBob,

Thanks for posting your question about the Japanese Spencer just the same   It's always great to revisit a Spencer topic already posted earlier . . . there just might be new information about that topic on the Internet.

Two Flints