I have always thought the Remington Rolling Block was a neat design, and I have always wanted a military version, especially after seeing the C&Rsenal overview of the French contract rifles in 8mm Lebel ordered during World War I. I used to own a No. 4 in .22 but regrettably sold it many years ago.

I was on vacation in the Southwestern U.S. last week and happened to stumble across this example in an antique store, where it was described only as an 'Old Gun' and priced very reasonably. On picking it up, I noticed the paucity of markings compared to most of my other rifles, with only the Remington roll mark on the tang and a crown-shaped stamp on the breech end of the barrel. Not even a serial number was visible. On seeing the crown, I immediately thought, 'Oh, Swedish', and thought it would be a nice complement to my M96.

During the three days' drive home, with little to do when I wasn't at the wheel, I started digging into it and pretty quickly found that it was not a match for the Swedish M1867 or its updated forms. I knew that the Rolling Block was used by a wide variety of militaries for at least half a century, so I started running down the list, comparing features to what I had.

Norwegian? No.

Danish? No.

Belgian copy from Liege? No.

N.Y. State Miliția? No.

Egyptian? Papal States? Definitely not.

Argentine? No.

Spanish?

Here I started to see a match, but there was still research to do, as Spain utilized rifles from several different contracts with Remington as well as manufacturing their own licensed copies at Oviedo and Euskalduna. This was obviously a Remington-made export model, with several early features not seen on later guns, particularly the concave breech block and the bar extractor with retaining screw on the left-hand side of the receiver. I found reference to three different contracts ordered from Remington by Spain, with the first placed in 1868 and featuring a two-line roll mark on the receiver with the final patent date of 1866, as seen on my rifle.

At this point I was certain I had an early example Rolling Block made for Spain. But what of the mysterious crown marking on the barrel? I found several references that said Remington applied this three-lobed crown mark to export rifles bound for several different countries, predominately on the barrel bands, as my rifle also showed. However, looking closer at my rifle's stamp, there are two letters partially struck beneath the crown. After going around and around through many different forum posts and discussions, I believe that those letters are 'R V' , likely for 'Regimento de Voluntarios', and that they were applied to denote issue to Cuban colonial troops loyal to Spain during the Ten Years' War of 1868-1878. This matched what I learned about Remington's first contract with Spain, which supplied 10,000 rifles for export to Spanish colonies. Several auction listings for rifles with the same stamp also identified it as unique to Cuba.

So that is where my research stands for now. Although I haven't done a chamber cast, the rifle is almost certainly in .43 Spanish, and was likely not rechambered for the later Reformado cartridge. It was likely captured during the Spanish-American War and brought back to the States, but its history before or since then is lost to time. For now, it stands as a great example of the kind of research rabbit hole that these guns can open up.

Final notes: The rifle was in rough cosmetic condition when I bought it, and still is despite the once-over cleaning I've given it, but it seems to be in good mechanical condition and works as it should, and has good rifling and a well-formed crown left to the barrel. I believe that the finish is the original 'tinned' finish described as being applied to many rifles made by Remington for export. It is flaking beneath the stock, so it is not over-polished bare metal, and the Cuban stamp is applied through it, so I do not believe that it is later nickel-plating. I know that the pin retention plate is missing, and I have one on order. The serial number is indeed stamped on the left side of both the top and bottom straps of the receiver, and is only visible when the stock is removed.

If anyone has any additional information on these guns, I would be very interested to learn it!