Evans Repeating Rifle

I had the opportunity to stop by the display day at Rock Island Auctions prior to their recent Premier Auction, and had the chance to get my hands on a bunch of very cool guns. I took the video camera, of course, and today I have the first of a bunch of videos taken that day. The circumstances didn't allow me to disassemble or shoot things - RIA has a responsibility to prevent anything from being damaged prior to the auction - but we can still see some very neat things that don't turn up at the local gun shop every day.

Anyway, today we're looking at an Evans repeating rifle. These were manufactured in Maine between 1873 and 1879, in three distinct models (I did goof in the video and called this particular one a transitional model, when it's actually a new model). The way to distinguish the variants is:

Old Model: No wooden lower buttstock
Transitional Model: Two-piece wooden buttstock, but no dust cover on the ejection port
New Model: Two-piece wooden buttstock and ejection port cover that moves with the operating lever.

http://www.forgottenweapons.com