doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com another "odd ball"

Thanks for the compliment Mike.

The lever on the side dates back about 20 years before the Peabody was patented, and the function is somewhat different. The lever is connected to a cam that moves in an oblong hole in the floating (no screw in the back to hold in place) breech block. The breech block actually moves forward into the chamber and seals the breech when closed, necessary when the guns were still case-less percussion breech loaders.

John

I would say most of the original cartridges were paper-patched. However from what I have observed many of the Scandinavian rifles seem to have tight chambers compared to the groove diameter. Evidently they expected the bullets to "bump up" to a fair extent.
Here is a picture of an original military Jarmann paper-patched cartridge and the one to the right is the somewhat smaller sporting cartridge that would fit in my rifle.

John


This picture is from the Svartkrutt forum by Jon.

Frank de Hass describes an earlier form of this action on pg 287 of Single Shot Rifles and Actions. The action he examined also had no makers name or marks or manufacturing date. Very clever design.

Jerry Liles

James J. Grant citations from "Single Shot Rifles Finale"

Page 78 & plates 95 & 96 on page 79. Grant calls this an "H. Larsen" rifle.

Pages 81 & 82: 3 brief paragraphs on a rifle he calls "The Hagen". 4 photos of the Hagen on pages 89 & 90. The final photo shows the action with the side lever & block removed.

It could very well be a Larsen rifle, However it is my understanding that Christiania Norway (now Oslo) had what was like a smaller version of the London gun district. Incorporating over 350 gunmakers from the 1600's to the 1900's. Not to mention importing many guns from Germany and Belgium.
So since it is unmarked I probably will never know for sure.

John

I'm not sure what information you have gathered so this may be old stuff to you.

http://norskevaapen.no/?p=508

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?204822-WTB-Rifles-by-Hans-Larsen

http://www.oocities.org/h_larsen_patent/3.html

http://ww2.rediscov.com/spring/VFPCGI.exe?IDCFile=/spring/DETAILS.IDC,SPECIFIC=12970,DATABASE=objects3.html

What an interesting design. Not so easy to mass produce as a Martini, I'd guess. I like the "gas sealing" feature.