Although the Spencer carbine, a seven-shot .52 rimfire caliber repeater, with 22 inch barrel was the cavalryman’s favorite carbine by the end of the Civil War, the longer barrel Spencer Rifle was the first model of the Spencer seven-shot .52 caliber repeater produced for the Yankee Soldiers, and this one is better than most.

Spencer competed its first contact for these Army Spencer Rifles in June 1863, and only then started on manufacture of the shorter Spencer carbines. The Spencer rifle I am offering is serial 10940, and so one of this original first Army Rifle contract. The Spencer Rifle was used by cavalrymen, and issued to special sharpshooter units, and was famously used by Custer’s troopers at Gettysburg and by the men of the western army’s Wilder’s Lightning Brigade.

This Spencer was not refurbished after the War, and the bore is original with strong sharp rifling and light black powder frostiness, a very nice bore for these well liked and well used rifles

The wood does NOT have the usual crack or missing piece of wood on the butt-stock wrist at that very thin spot on the left side of the wrist, and is solid and attractive. There are some small, thin flakes of wood missing just below the lower band – these are not distracting, and certainly not structural. The wood shows no signs of sanding (the wood still stands proud of the metal); and the outlines of both of the military inspector’s cartouches are still visible on the stock.

The frame markings of SPENCER REPEATING / RIFLE CO. BOSTON MASS. / PAT’D MARCH 6, 1850 are clear, as is the serial number. The frame has a nice mottled color, and all the metal on the gun is smooth and attractive. This still has the original front and real sling swivels.

This is a nice solid Spencer Army rifle, made before Gettysburg, and is would have been issued to Union Cavalry or Sharpshooters.