- Joined
- Feb 19, 2011
- Location
- Germany
A few months ago I came upon a somewhat exotic-looking period revolving rifle that was completely new to me - which admittedly isn´t difficult as I´m not really into weapons and even much less into firearms. And I didn´t find it directly but via the screen; as it was somewhat prominently featured in the Australian 2016 bushranger film The Legend of Ben Hall.
English inventor William Tranter (1816-1890) is better known for his revolvers which were imported e.g. into the CSA by Griswold & Co. and Hyde & Goodrich and had famous users like Jeb Stuart, Heros von Borcke and Allan Pinkerton. However he also produced and/or patented several long weapons including carbines, revolving rifles (both percussion and cartridge), shotguns, Enfield patterns and even a machine gun.
I found little info on the revolving rifles however there were several models and some were exported as well and found use e.g. with the police of New South Wales (as well as with bushranger John Gilbert on the other side).
Now does by chance anybody know if any of those revolving rifles were imported and used in the civil war?
Pictures (and more information about that specific rifle) are courtesy of the College Hill Arsenal in Nashville, TN
https://www.collegehillarsenal.com
https://www.collegehillarsenal.com/shop/product.php?productid=225
Information about Tranter weapons at the dedicated The Firearms Technology Museum in Orange, NSW, Australia
(also functions as online museum)
http://www.firearmsmuseum.org.au/
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