This is one of those guns you wish had stayed in its original percussion form.   Its a Mark II Snider Breech loading Conversion of an 1861 Dated London Armoury Mfd Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle.  In case you don't collect Civil War guns, LA Co. is kind of the Gold Standard for Enfields made by Private contractors who supplied both sides during the War Between the States.  Basically, LA Co was the only private maker for the Pattern 53 who could manufacture this rifle with interchangeable parts...and that was a huge plus to any military during a war.  During the Civil War, due to their high quality, these guns were obviously in strong demand by the British War Dept, the Confederacy, and the Union.  I can just picture Caleb Huse walking past this very gun during the late summer months of 1861 pleading with the London Armoury owners to sell these to the Confederacy.  Of course, the answer was "NO"....as the Company was already committed to a contract to supply P53's to the British Gov't as well a small contract to the state of Massachussetts. Thus, the London Armoury's Superintendent, Sinclair Hamilton was not entirely able to meet the demands of his product to the Confederacy but should be credited with large acquisitions of London and Birmingham-made P53's for Confederate purchasing agent, Major Caleb Huse.  All right..all right....enough of the Civil War talk...this is now a Snider and that's what I should be writing about....but you can't help but wonder sometimes!

For starters, this LA Co is a Canadian Issue....probably started off as a P53 in the British Army and was converted by Enfield in the late 1860's or early 1870's to a breech-loader.  It has its original 39" barrel, caliber .577, with 3 bands, ramrod, sling swivels, and brass furniture. The left side of the stock has "DC" for Dominion of Canada inside a diamond symbol.  The right side of the stock has a strong London Armoury Cartouche inside the roundel with an "1861" date.  Lockplate is marked "1861" over "L.A. Co." with the Crown over "VR" behind the hammer.  Top of the breech has War Dept and Enfield "E" proofs.  Correct original snider sling swivels and squared head ramrod.  Correct early style P53 barrel bands...not the late Baddely bands and original front and rear sights. 

Overall condition is NRA Antique Fine.  The barrel still retains about 75% original faded blue with some closet freckles.  Lockplate colors have mostly turned to silver and grey...with slight mottling.  Breech block however still shows good discernable case colors...about 60%.  Nice solid wood with original finish has sharp edges and perfect wood to metal fit.  Aside from some light handling marks, its in remarkably nice condition with no chips, cracks, or repairs.  Decent screws.  Bore is Fine with strong 3 groove rifling....the top of the breech has two arsenal asterik symbols which denote "light pitting" but it is really quite nice and presentable for a 146 year old bore...and is probably the reason this gun was held in reserve and used only spariningly.  Over the years, I've lost count of how many 2nd grade Martini rifles I've seen over the years with asterik symbols on their breeches that have survived in super-nice condition for probably this very reason.  This is a nice example of a Mark II Snider and it still exhibits the amazing quality of the London Armoury workmanship.

Item# 0610

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