Spencer Stocks Without Sling Swivels

[djossi@yahoo.com]

My recently acquired Model 1860 Spencer carbine has no sling swivel on the stock. As it turns out, I'm not the Lone Ranger as I located several other Spencers that you don't have one either (see pictures below). The last four are all sporting rifles. In fact, most of the sporting rifles that I came across didn't have a sling swivel, so obviously a number of stocks were manufactured without that modification.  IMHO, that leaves us with two possible explanations for why my carbine and the others pictured below don't have sling swivels: 1. Spencer delivered a certain number without sling swivels to the Army and/or states, or 2. The original stocks were replaced with ones manufactured for hunting rifles which, to me, seems to be a bit of a long shot.

All of this leads me to the following two questions:

• Does anyone else have a carbine or rifle with an original stock that does not have a sling swivel?
• if Spencer did produce carbines and rifles without sling swivels on the stock, other than hunting models, any explanations or ideas on why they did?

[Two Flints]

Dave,

If you visit this web site, Collectible Guns - http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/, and do a simple search on their web site for "Spencer" you will see I think five Spencers without sling swivels. ( Try this - http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/search.php?search_query=spencer )

Apparently the Spencer Manufacturing Company made stripped down version of their stocks without the swivels and maybe this was just a special order and replacement item available to customers who wanted them.  Perhaps the swivels and side bar with ring were too noisy in the field whether hunting or sniping.

Two Flints

[djossi@yahoo.com]

Two Flints,

You're absolutely right – those are custom rifles. In late 1864, Spencer began selling custom sporting rifles. Per Marcot, they were special order only -- Spencer never tried to produce them in any quantity. The wood used for the stocks was of a much higher quality than was used for the military models. You can see that in the sporting rifle pictures that I posted (the last four) as well as the ones you pointed out on the Collectible Guns website. Very few of the sporting rifle stocks had sling swivels. If one of these stocks was transplanted to a carbine, it would stick out like a sore thumb because of the quality of the wood. In addition, none of the sporting rifles has a saddle ring as they were made from military receivers which had not yet been milled for the saddle ring bar.

As it turns out, the rifles issued to Wilder's Brigade didn't have sling swivels (stock or barrel band) as you can see in the picture below:



Based on all the great feedback I've gotten, I'm finally convinced that my stock is an original and not a "one-off". Thanks!

Dave J.

PS: Of course, there is still the mystery of why the carbines had a sling swivel in the first place as there isn't anywhere to attach the other end of the sling, but that's one of those questions that'll probably be debated as long as there are people collecting Spencers.

[Two Flints]

David,

Right out of Marcot's book, page 164 . . . your question has been asked before . . . and maybe answered 



Two Flints