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Old September 15, 2019, 03:15 PM   #1
Rachen
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Does any vendor still carry the Euroarms Rogers & Spencer?

I have been looking for one for some time and all of the vendors who used to carry them, ie., Dixie Gun Works, S&S Firearms, which is located in my own AO by the way, and Taylor's all do not seem to carry it. They have, however, plenty of parts and conversion cylinders for them.

Does anyone know of a vendor who still carries them? I am sure they have not been discontinued and neither is the Pedersoli or the pricy German version. Twenty years ago you can get a mint condition original R&S for the price of a reproduction today.

Thanks for the help,
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Old September 16, 2019, 07:01 PM   #2
44caliberkid
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There's a Euroarms one on gunbroker right now.
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Old September 18, 2019, 01:42 AM   #3
Hawg
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Euoroarms was bought out by Pedersoli about 10 years ago.
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Old September 18, 2019, 02:04 AM   #4
DockRock
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Pedersoli has not continued production of the former Euroarms reproduction of the R&S. I own a pair with conversion cylinders and despite a hammer spring like an English long bow, I love them.

There is a rumor that the Euoarms tooling was sold and is sitting in a warehouse in Poland.

I am intrigued by the information you post regarding a good stock of. Parts at Taylors. There are several parts, such as the arbor pin retaining component that are utterly unavailable.

Fantastic revolvers. Play the long game on GB and used Euroarms models are available.
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Old September 20, 2019, 07:15 AM   #5
J.G. Terry
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At one time it looked like there were parts kits for the R&S. This was a long time back but I did get one in a small gun shop close to here. I know that's then this is now.
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Old September 23, 2019, 01:46 PM   #6
Catman42
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i wish uberti would make that one, as i would buy it and install a 45 long colt conversion cylinder in it. that is one fine gun design.
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Old September 24, 2019, 03:33 PM   #7
Rachen
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Thanks for the replies folks,

The only place that even had a NIB Euroarms R&S on their site was a vendor called The Gun Man of Arkansas. A call to them revealed that this specific model was no longer available. I actually had a laugh on the line with the employees of that vendor regarding how ironic it would be to have to order a gun from the UK since that particular model is only made for that region...

Not sure why they would discontinue export to the US...
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Old September 24, 2019, 06:17 PM   #8
Rachen
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Quote:
i wish uberti would make that one, as i would buy it and install a 45 long colt conversion cylinder in it. that is one fine gun design.
The Rogers & Spencer is indeed the best design I had ever seen in the entire history of caplock percussion revolvers. It combines the solid frame of the Remington with the noble and iconic loading lever of the Colt 1851 Navy. The Remington loading lever is a bit too streamlined. One person on another board had said that he owned and routinely shoots an original R&S and he wonders about the stories that gun can tell...

In actuality, if his R&S can talk, the story it would tell would be quite uneventful. To my knowledge, a total of roughly 5300 R&S .45's were built just as the Civil War ended, thus, they were never issued to the troops in the field. They sat in a military warehouse until 1901, when the entire lot was purchased by Bannerman and Sons and were sold at scrap prices. Now I am sure after that epoch, many R&S's found their way into the hands of gun researchers like Elmer Keith, as well as guys who still lived off the land and used them to blast everything from hogs and deer to varmints and random tin cans along a riverbank. Perhaps even used for self defense against both 4 legged and 2 legged predators. Just like many Colt 1851 Navies, which never really phased out of service...
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Old September 24, 2019, 06:45 PM   #9
DockRock
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Quote:
In actuality, if his R&S can talk, the story it would tell would be quite uneventful. To my knowledge, a total of roughly 5300 R&S .45's were built just as the Civil War ended, thus, they were never issued to the troops in the field. They sat in a military warehouse until 1901, when the entire lot was purchased by Bannerman and Sons and were sold at scrap prices.
I believe this is quite true. However the story that I would like to believe is the one that goes...during the Moro and Huk rebellions in the Philippines post Spanish American War (that gave rise to the Army's request for a more powerful pistol and gave us the 1911), Army troops were reissued with the Colt SAA, which had recently done service in the Spanish - American War, with the First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, aka the "Rough Riders", among others, for example. As we all know, the Marine Corps has traditionally been issued with weapons and equipment that the Army either didn't want or was finished using. So, the story goes, and it is almost certainly apocryphal, that the Army having been issued with the old Colt SAA, some poor, long suffering Marine unit had the pleasure of getting a small batch of R&S that were not sold to Bannerman.

Again, it is almost certainly untrue. But, however apocryphal, it is in the greatest tradition of the Marine Corps that somewhere, some poor Gunnery Sargent was instructing a company of Marines on the manual of arms for a cap and ball revolver just before heading off to the Philippines...
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Old October 2, 2019, 02:07 PM   #10
Rachen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DockRock View Post
I believe this is quite true. However the story that I would like to believe is the one that goes...during the Moro and Huk rebellions in the Philippines post Spanish American War (that gave rise to the Army's request for a more powerful pistol and gave us the 1911), Army troops were reissued with the Colt SAA, which had recently done service in the Spanish - American War, with the First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, aka the "Rough Riders", among others, for example. As we all know, the Marine Corps has traditionally been issued with weapons and equipment that the Army either didn't want or was finished using. So, the story goes, and it is almost certainly apocryphal, that the Army having been issued with the old Colt SAA, some poor, long suffering Marine unit had the pleasure of getting a small batch of R&S that were not sold to Bannerman.

Again, it is almost certainly untrue. But, however apocryphal, it is in the greatest tradition of the Marine Corps that somewhere, some poor Gunnery Sargent was instructing a company of Marines on the manual of arms for a cap and ball revolver just before heading off to the Philippines...

You know what is odd?

Ever since the Rogers & Spencer reproduction became available mainstream here, a lot of vendors had it at one time. Taylor's, Navy Arms, etc... On A LOT of their descriptions, they have mentioned that the R&S were issued in some quantity to US forces fighting the Moro insurgency in the Philippines. What struck me as very odd was that cartridge handguns had been the dominant issue and supply in the US military for almost 30 years by the time the Moro wars broke out. And that means A LOT of .45 1873 SAA's would be sitting in armories, waiting for contingencies. To bypass the readily available supply of .45 cartridge handguns and issue a fairly outdated cap and ball handgun which require all of the necessary components such as powder, bullets/balls, percussion caps, and spare parts to keep them running is just... unusual.

Your explanation makes sense now. Perhaps bureaucracy or issues of ownership/paperwork hampered the Marines in getting their hands on 1873 Peacemakers so the Marine armorer went for the next best thing on their list, anything that would send them into the field with a powerful .45 round instead of their usual issue .38 Specials. The .45 cap and ball load will be more than efficient to stop a determined attacker in his tracks. The British had long since replaced their 1851 Navies with .455 Webleys because the .45's were far more effective in stopping the Islamic jihadists, some whom were wearing chainmail armor, in their tracks during their Middle Eastern and African campaigns.

My father told me that during the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979, hostilities escalated very fast, with Vietnamese troops occupying substantial Chinese territory around the Guangxi area. PLA recruiting booths sprang up all over Shanghai and every other area, and new recruits were not given Type 56 AK-47's, but Arisaka 7mm bolt action rifles from the Home Guard armories, which had been kept since the war of anti-Japanese occupation. San ba si. "Type 38's", as they are known in Chinese. There were simply not enough Type 56's to trickle down to the front line troops or they just cannot wait for the newer guns to arrive on the staging areas. Many a PLA soldier was thrown onto the front line with an antiquated bolt action rifle against Vietnamese fighters battle hardened in the earlier conflict.

Last edited by Rachen; October 2, 2019 at 02:25 PM.
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