September 20th 2015 Premier Firearms Sale
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/19/2015
Serial number is 203, barrel length is 24", caliber is 45-70 govt. Manufactured from 1880 to 1883. Remington produced this bolt action rifle in caliber .45-70 and issued them to the Indian Police under orders of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Features include a 24" barrel, carbine butt, full magazine, sling swivels, with blued finish and walnut stock. The left side of the frame is stamped "U.S.I.D. 203", top of frame has the model and patent stamps. Has the folding leaf rear sight, carbine front barrel band, Henry Nettleton inspector stamps on both the barrel and frame and strong cartouche on left side of stock. The barrel and tube are a pleasing mix of smooth blue-brown patina, as is the frame. Walnut stocks are excellent, having never been refinished, with a perfect cartouche. There is a pencil etch on back of left side of frame (some identification mark). Action is perfect. Bore has strong rifling with some minor corrosion. This rifle remains in completely original untouched condition and is a fine example and documented Indian issued weapon. All of these saw hard use on the Western frontier, and rarely surface in such fine original condition. Approximately 5,000 of these Remington Keene Bolt Action rifles were produced and only over a four year period of time. Of these, only a small percentage were issued to the Indian police. In addition, this was the only model that was manufactured with the 24" barrel. There are no documented survival rates for the U.S. I.D. rifles but the existing numbers must be extremely small and with this amount of original finish, would be measurable in single or small double digit numbers.