In the early 1850's there came a slightly different model. It ha a lot in common with the M1849, but the hammer is the same as the army's M1849 and it had a new, original rear sight (not a conversion from the old) - skibakke sikte (the skiing hill sight). |
Navy - original model(s) The Norwegian navy did their own things - most often differently from the army. All the naval archives were burnt as alied planes bombed the German-occupied naval base in Horten during WW2, so there is really next to no litterature and information on naval fire-arms. There were 5-6 original kammerlader models used by the navy (the M1855 and the M1857 are often regarded as the same model). Most of these were rebuilt for cartridge, most according to Landmarks design, a few according to Lund and even some completely rebuilt as Remington Rolling Blocks. To complicate things, some were fitted for cleaning rods, many not. Most got new rear sights, some not etc. As a result, there are about 25 different variations of the naval kammerladers. The following will concentrate on the main models an rebuilds. |
The first naval model, the M1845, is a three band version almost identical to the army's M1842, except that it has about the same length as the short army M1859. As with the army's M1842, the brass bands proved to be too thin etc. and a new, visually almost identical, model was released in 1849. There were only made 100 of the M845. The quantity of "the true" M1849 is inknown, but it seems it was made in batches numbered up to 100. There was also produced a number of naval kammerladers in 1850-51, almost identical with the M1849, but with the wider hammer from the army's M1846. These are not regarded as a new model and I have seen numbers up to #136. |
M1852 Navy |
The Navy M1860 is almost identical to the short two band version of army's M1860, with three minor exceptions. The navy seemingly just had to be different, so they adopted the three edged bayonet from the long army M1860 instead of the sword bayonet from the short one. The two other differences are that the rear sight is rather primitive compared to the army's version and that the modification on the breech handle from the M1845 is partly still there. Why to something simple, when you can do it navy! |
As far as I can remember, I've never seen this rifle dated earlier than 1854, but it is regarded as a M1852 model. Some of these have had the rear sight changed in 1867 and can then be difficult to hold apart from the M1848. The latter has two screw on the plate on the rear of the receiver. These are missing on the M1852 and later models. The highest serialnumber I have seen is 552, but I believe the were made some 600 of this rifle. |
Army cartridge conversion The army settled for a Lunds design in converting the kammerladere from percussion to metal cartridge in 1867. There were made a very limited series, probably from leftovers, as 16,8 mm Lunds rifles in 1867/68. These are, as far as I know, the only 16,8 mm Lunds ever made and none of the excisting army percussion versions seem ever to have been converted. Both the long and the short M1860 were converted according to Lunds patent and there are extremely few military M1860's left in percussion. With the exception of the M1857 kammerlader carbine, just about all the carbines were also converted to Lund. Although much cheaper than producing a new rifle from scratch, the Lund conversion was rather comprehensive. The brass bottom plate was exchanged for a steen plate with a milled track for the extractor. The whole chamber piece was exchanged and the right side of the outer chamber was milled down - see picture. At first glance, the Lund conversion seems to be a really good solution for firing the Remington cartridge in the M1860, but I'm not sure it was all that great. It was a slow loader and leaky cases would give the extractor problems. |
Navy cartridge conversion It seems as if the navy yet again had to do things their own way and they settled for the Landmark design for converting the kammerladere to cartridge guns. While the army only converted their M1860's, the navy seemed to have converted all their kammerladere - the M1852 and M1860 kammerladere - even most of their M1845. The Landmark conversion was fairly inexpencive, but seems at first glance rather fragile and very backward in use. In reality I believe this to be the better conversion of the two. It enables faster loading, there would never be problems with the extractor and is just as rugged as the Lund. This time it seemed to be the navy pulling the longest straw. |
The Lund conversion to cartridge was mainly used on the 4''' kammerlader - the 1860 models. Although the caliber was 11,77 mm, it used the 12,17 mm Remington rimfire cartridge. |
The pictures shows the 16,8 mm kammerlader converted for cartridge. This is one short and fat little cartridge! |
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Civilian Kongsberg versions of the kammerlader The M1860 kammerlader was also made in two civilian version - the long and the short (here the long three band version is fairly scarce and the short two band rather common). The M1860 is equipped with steel bands and not the brass bands from the military versions and are thereby very easy to identify. |
Whilst almost all the M1860 military versions were rebuilt for either the Lund or Landmark cartridge, most of the civilian rifles still exist with the open chamber. Be aware that it is almost impossible to detect if a Landmark has been converted back to a open M1860 and that there exist a number of "fakes" of this version. The civilian M1860 was mainly produced for the "Frivillige skyttervesen" - that also was intented to act as a para-military organisation in case of trouble with the enemy (read: The Swedes). |
The different versions of the M1860 mechanism |
The original version of the M1860's was a percussion breech loader for paper cartridge. The breech chamber was withdrawn and rised by cranking the handle. The rifle bottom rifle on the two pictures show the original breech chamber. The rifle in the middle is the army's Lund conversion, where the whole chamber piece was exchanged and the brass plate under the chamber exchanged for a steel plate with a track for the extractor. The rifle on the top in the navy's Landmark, where only the front of the chamber was exchanged. This conversion was less costly than the Lund conversion. In addition to these, a few M1860's were fitted with a Remington mechanism for the navy and I've even had a very scarce army version with a falling block |
Cartridge versions of the M1860 |
Other civilian kammerlader's There was also produced a limited number of kammerlader's by gunsmiths in Norway, Larsen's various models are probably the best known. They are rather scarce, in fact I've only seen a total of three or four of them. |
Compared to the military kammerlader's, my Larsen has a fairly small and short arm for kranking up the chamber. The other picture shows a Larsen "relic" that was for sale in the US (no, I did not buy it - frightfully expencive and in terrible condition). This has a round barrel and a much longer arm. Evidently the civilian kammerlader's came in "all shapes and forms and started coming already in the early 1840's. |
I'm really fascinated with the Norwegian kammerlader's, probably the most "Norwegian" weapon of all. Both Sweden and Denmark had their versions, but their kammerlader's had nothing close to the success the Norwegian ones had. |
Last update 2006.11.23 |
The M1855 and M1857 were the last of the navy's big bore kammerladers. They are virtually identical with two bands, same rear sights etc., but the M1857 has a heel on the butplate that is missing on the M1855. The serial numbers are sequencial to the M1852, starting at 600 (I believe, I have # 602) to about #1600 (my highest number is 1575). |
All the above mentioned kammerladers were converted to Landmark and it is extremely difficult to find them in original condition. A few navy big bore kammerladers were converted to Lund. These are very scarce. |