Been on a bit of a buying spree recently, and for whatever reason the last 4 have all been Remington handguns and rifles. It started last fall when a friend called me to say he'd been in a local gun shop and they had two Remington .50 Navy handguns, and he thought he could get them both at a bargain by buying both. But he only wanted one, so we bought the pair and split the purchase equally.



Both were equal condition, with beautiful bores, and mechanics. So I let him take first pick and I took the other.

Then a couple weeks later I saw a Model 1891 Remington .22LR Target Pistol show up at an auction and I ended up getting it for the opening bid! It's a very unique custom built by Arthur Hubalek of NY City in the early 1900's, and Hubalek was a master barrel maker trained by HM Pope, and built mostly .22RF rifles. I was thrilled to own one of his Hubalek marked pistols.



Then just a few weeks ago I spotted another Remington rifle. It's a .32-20 built on a full sized Rolling Block rifle made in the 1870's, and in very nice shape also. Great bore, lots of bluing, really nice wood, but faded out case colors. Just a very pleasant old BP era rifle in a great cartridge. Has a modern reproduction vernier tang sight by MVA, and should make it easier to shoot accurately.







Then a week ago a local auction house had yet another Remington Rolling Block rifle on their site. I looked at it 3 times and finally blew up the images because something looked weird. I don't collect military rifles at all, but this one had a Model 1 1/2 Sporting Rifle octagon top action and buttstock with military barrel and full length forearm wood on it! The description said ".43 Spanish" which I knew was impossible as this size action wont accept a cartridge that large. I spent days searching all my reference books and couldn't find anything. I finally dug up an old advertisement for M. Hartley Co. in NY that showed 3 Cadet model rifles that said they were made exclusively for M. Hartley. One of them was the exact same gun, and the ad stated it was a .45-70 cartridge designed for military school students age 14-21 years.
I tossed a small bid on it and won it cheap!

The middle rifle in this ad is the same gun. M. Hartley Co. was Marcellus Hartley, who actually owned Remington Arms Co. since 1886 when he bought Remington after bankruptcy.







The rifle has dark wood, but in good condition, and a very good bore. Complete with wiping rod, but was missing the rear sling loop. I made one from one I found in my spares box and bent it open to remove the mount and fitted it to the trigger guard. Have to find a Remington bayonet, and sling some day. Only about 1000 of these ever made.